I remember a Mother’s Day card I saw that was really cute. It was a great big card written in a little child’s printing—little first-grade printing. On the front was a little boy with untied sneakers. He had a wagon, and toys were everywhere. He had a little cut on his face and there were smudges all over this card. It read, “Mom, I remember that little prayer you used to say for me every day,” Inside was the prayer: “God help you if you ever do that again.”
Like all of us, I remember my mother’s favorite sayings. I’m sure all mother’s used the same sayings. “There’s always something with you,” she would say to me. She wouldn’t just say it, though, she would “sigh” it. I suppose because it was true. There was always something I had done to make life a little more difficult for her. Like the time I knocked down the wasp nest and my cousin Steve was stung a dozen times. The second thing she’d say was “if it’s not one thing, it’s another.” Right? Like the time I shot Dickey Jones with a pea shooter and the pea went up his nose and they had to take him to the hospital to get it out. Or the time Billy Foxhoven broke his arm when we were wrestling in the basement. Or the time Butch and I shot holes in the front of the kitchen cabinets with a bow and arrow. Or the time I got caught stealing candy from the cliff’s corner store on 30th & laurel. Or the time I got caught sneaking into the Orpheum and she had to come down and get me. Or the time… Well, I could go on!
But Mom never threatened to stop loving me, or stop feeding me, or stop clothing me, or stop putting band aides on my cuts and bruises. Somehow, I knew she’d always be there for me no matter what I did! Looking back now, I see that she was. She taught me a lot about God who said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)
Chuck
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” Exodus 20:12