What Are You Teaching?
Through the years, I’ve been blessed with some wonderful teachers, but the person who taught me the most was definitely my mother.
Mom had an innate sense of how to raise kids. Besides providing a loving home for her own five children, Mom’s house was “home” to nieces and nephews as well. As I read parenting books I often think, Mom already knew these techniques – even without James Dobson’s advice!
She was open-minded. Raised in a non-charismatic church, Mom was skeptical when my newly-saved uncle told her about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Yet she studied her Bible, and, realizing the experience was scriptural, she prayed to be filled with the Spirit. She was an avid reader and life-long learner. After four years of Bible college, I had nothing over on Mom. If you asked for advice, her answer often came from the Bible.
If something was broken she could usually fix it. If something needed to be done, she figured out a way. She had little respect for women who acted helpless.
My mother played several instruments and sang whatever harmonizing part a group happened to need. She and her siblings even had their own gospel band. Yet she was not allowed to play the piano for services in her own church because of a divorce in her past. Instead of getting angry or hurt, Mom willingly played for the Sunday school kids downstairs. Years later the church apologized and she became organist and choir director.
Mom taught us so much about life, including how to die. Approximately three years ago several of us family members crowded into a tiny office to hear the oncologist’s report. He verbalized the words we hoped never to hear. The cancer Mom had been battling was now in the “terminal” category.
Her concern was more with how the diagnosis affected the rest of us than with her own discomfort. She continued to live life as normally as possible. She had no broken relationships to mend, nothing she needed to do to prepare herself to meet her Maker. She already knew Him well.
When about a year later our independent mother started accepting assistance with her daily care, we knew the end of her earthly life was near. If the worth of a teacher is measured by the impact he or she has had on others, Mom was one of the best. Streams of people from her church, along with nieces and nephews, friends, and other family members made their way into her little bedroom to say goodbye.
Unable to breathe without oxygen and mostly unaware of her surroundings, she roused herself every time someone new walked in the door and hugged each one of them. Their love for her was apparent in their tear-filled eyes as they stooped to kiss her sweet forehead. Then the end came.
Daily I am reminded of something Mom taught me – a life-changing truth or maybe just some little habit. I often ask myself, “What am I teaching my kids?”
Andrea Johnson,
Managing Editor
Message@openbible.org
