Saturday Sermonette - Mine was Best

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12, NKJV.

I know you think your mom was the best, but I can't agree. They just didn't come any better than Evelyn Baxter, my mother.

Experts may tell you that young children don't respond to reasoning before they are past five years old, but Mom was different. I guess she'd never heard that. Or maybe she just didn't believe it, because when my brother or I did something not so nice, she would take us to our rooms and sit us down to explain why what we did was wrong. Never sat us in a corner or on a "time out" chair.

She didn't yell or hit, just talk. I can't really speak for my brother, but I know she really reached my right-or-wrong center. She resorted to a willow switch only twice that I can remember. I wasn't much more than a toddler when I took a nickle from my piggy bank and went to the drug store for an ice cream cone. The second time was when I was some older and went off to play with a friend without permission. I suspect both times she was scared to death because she didn't know where I was. But she found me anyway. Hm. How did she do that?

She listened, too. When my boyfriend (at least in my mind) asked another girl to the prom, she was right there with both ears. When I didn't understand the hormones that threatened me, she listened and counseled, drawing on her own experience as a teenager.

Lord, I will forever be grateful for the wise, funny, and loving mom You gave me. Grant that we (men and women alike) may emulate the good moms you've given us as examples. For Jesus's sake, Amen.