6 “Momisms”

 

With Mother’s Day upon us I have been thinking about my Mom. (I guess that was the point of setting aside a day.) As I thought about what she taught me I realized there were several things she repeated regularly that have stuck with me.

My Mom was a Christian but we went to a very weak church and during our childhood neither I, nor any of my siblings, knew the Lord as Savior. Interestingly, our Mother taught us a lot of Biblical principle without the scriptures (I am not recommending this approach!).

Here are six of my favorite Libbyisms – or for the rest of you: Momisms, though some are clearly borrowed from others.

1. “Everyone is good at something.” I was the average twin; my sister was the straight A twin.  Mom was regularly reminding me and my five siblings that everyone has areas where they shine. God has given each one of us gifts to use and we will be good at the things He has called us to, not the things we want to do with our friends. (1 Corinthians 12:4)

2. “There will always be people who are smarter than you and always those you are smarter than.” She was constantly teaching us not to think too much of ourselves. She often pointed back to #1. Just because you are good at something does not make you better than someone else, they are good at something different.  (Proverbs 11:2; Philippians 2:3)

3. “Fools names and fools faces are always seen in public places.” Maybe you aren’t old enough to remember writing in the streets and sidewalks with chalk. In our neighborhood they were doing a lot of construction. Pieces of broken off drywall made great chalk. If we wrote our names on the street she would make us clean it off.  She didn’t call it pride but she was quick to teach us not to brag or put our names all over the place for the sake of being seen. (Luke 14:10)

4. “Do it right the first time, it saves time.” She was tough on cleaning chores. She never got out the white glove but if you didn’t do it right or she could see dirt where there should be no dirt, you were back working until it was right! This lesson came back to me when my own children were young. (Colossians 3:23)

 

5. “Unless there’s blood, work it out yourselves.” This one may seem kind of harsh. We were as quickly punished for tattling as we were for whatever we might do wrong. What she did was build the relationships of her children with each other. People tell us we are not a “normal” family because as adults we have stayed in good relationship with one another. I believe this policy of our Mother’s has something to do with that. She taught us to deal with each other and didn’t provide a constant buffer that kept us separated. (Matthew 18:15)

6. Well, every mother has something they didn’t do right! “Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me.” Her point was, with five siblings in the house who were not being kind to one another all the time, not to let someone’s words hurt us. I realize now that words DO hurt us and I am pretty sure she meant this only as applied to our siblings. (Proverbs 12:18)

It’s eye-opening to realize how long the things she taught me have stuck with me. As parents, we have a powerful influence on our children’s’ futures.

What are you and I saying to our children that will be with them forever? Do we need to change what we’re saying or carry on?