What I Learned from Mother

What I Learned from My Mother When I was growing up, we weren't a Christian family and I was not a sweet or respectful daughter. In fact, I was a quite simply a horrid and hateful human being. But through it all, my momma was always there for me. She always forgave me; she never barred her heart from me, though I broke it over and over; and she never gave up on me. She never stopped asking questions and being interested in my life, even though I must have told her to "mind her own business" at least a hundred times. She continued loving me, with her words and with her actions. So, when I finally did accepted Christ as my personal Savior, after the birth of my first child, and started learning about God's love for me, it was pretty easy for me to accept and understand. God loved me like my momma loved me. A few years later, when I was knee-deep in diapers and toddlers...I remember asking God, "What kind of ministry could I possibly have amidst this chaos that is my life?" The answer that he gave me that day has become my Mission Statement in life. "You are to love your children in such a way that makes it easy for them to understand My great love for them." Or in other words, I should teach my children what my mother taught me: A mother's love.
~ Sweetly Submitted by Roanna ~

I can honestly say without reservation that the best thing I learned from my mother is caring for others and putting them first other than myself. Countless times I watched her as a teen always putting others ahead of herself on countless occasions. Even today, she brings things to my home to share that others have given to her for personal consumption. She shares and tells me how good it is so we can share in the experience together. What an angel of a mother I have. Everyone just adores her and tells me what a class act my mother is to them. How lucky do I feel? Oh, pretty ducky lucky! I love and adore my Christian mother Gayle H. ~Sweetly Submitted by Lisa G. in Texas ~

I can't actually say that she taught me this...it was of corse, something I had to learn on my own. But her words often echo in my head when she would tell me: "You can't out-nag the Holy Spirit!" Meaning of corse, that I couldn't take his place or do a better job at reaching someone's heart than He! It also helps remind me to make my requests known to God through prayer...and let Him handle it! This lesson sunk in best after I got married and I OFTEN think and pray on it! I also pray that someday my children will hear it echoing in their minds. We ladies sometimes tend to try and be a bit bossy...but that's not what God has called us to be! "You can't out-nag the Holy Spirit!"
~ Sweetly Submitted by Nola ~

I think the greatest gift, my mother's lesson that she gave to me was teaching me to cook and iron. I must also add, she MADE me take two years of Home Ec. Only one year was required. I am so glad that she did. In a way, I feel that I am a better wife/homemaker because of what she encouraged me to do.
~ Sweetly Submitted by Dorothy in Quebec ~

When my dear mother adopted me at the age of 6 weeks, I'm sure she did not know exactly what she was in for. The Lord gave her a daughter almost a polar opposite to herself. My mother is a very organized homekeeper. If you were to open ANY closet or drawer in her home, you would find nothing out of place. I have those "hidden chaos" drawers in my home. Mom has terrific self-control, eats yogurt and flax seed for breakfast and walks 3 miles every day, rain or shine. I'm still half-heartedly trying to lose the extra pounds from 7 pregnancies-- which seem to keep compounding! There is NO "medicinal chocolate" jar in Mom's home. Mom wanted 2 children- one boy and one girl. I've started praying about 2 months after the birth of our 7 children for the Lord to bless us with more. Mom taught in the public schools for several years before my brother was born. I am a homeschooling Mom and the State can teach my children over my cold, dead body. Mom likes living in a up-to-date condo in the suburbs. I love our old "fixer-upper" farmhouse on 25 acres. Mom is prose and I am poetry. Mom's emotions hardly EVER determine her actions. I tend to become an emotional puddle when things are not as I had hoped they would be. Mom tries to study a thing out- looking at all sides- before deciding. I charge ahead based on an often single-minded perspective. The most valuable lesson I've learned from my mother in all of the clashes and adjustments she and I had to make as I grew up is that "above all, we should love one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins". There are strengths and weaknesses in both my mom's and my own personality. Mom has taught me that love prevents those weaknesses from destroying our fellowship one with another and enables us to see how we can learn from one another's strengths. I often wonder about the person I may have been had not Mom's balancing influence been used by the Lord to discipline me. And Mom tells me that I have taught her things she would not have learned from a child exactly like her as well. The Lord has been good to us both and we are thankful for each other.
~ Sweetly Submitted by Kelle ~

When I was a youngster in elementary school, a classmate did something that wasn't right and got away with it. I lamented that life isn't fair. My mother commented that even though my classmate "got away" with whatever the offense was, God saw the offense. She always reminds me there is a life coming after this one and may of the things I get upset about seem so little in light of eternity.
~ Sweetly Submitted by Dena ~