Because She Said So
I enjoyed a four generation outing on Saturday. My mother, our daughter, her daughter and her baby son, and I went to a baby shower for a young mother at our church. I haven’t known the young mother for very long, but I’ve known her grandmother Miss Katherine since the first year we lived in Gainesboro.
Just about everybody knows Miss Katherine. She is an amazing, energetic lady who goes about doing good — a lot of good; and she’s been doing it for a long time.
We celebrated her 92nd birthday at a surprise party back in July. Spry Miss Katherine walked into that party completely surprised. Without missing a beat, she started shooting one-liners:
“I told the doctor I’m still climbing, but they’ve greased the pole.”
“I don’t have to pay for this, do I?”
To prove her vigor to all of us, she bent over and touched her toes.
And when the program of praise for Miss Katherine began, she said: “If y’all don’t quit, I’m going to have a big head!”
When I walked through the refreshment line at the shower on Saturday, I was carrying our littlest grandson; so Miss Katherine started helping me. I already had a few goodies on my plate when I got to the plates with slices of cake. She urged me to take a plate of cake, too.
When I sat down, our five-year-0ld granddaughter asked me why I had two plates. “Because Miss Katherine told me to. She’s 92 years old and I obey her.”
One of the most important lessons you will ever teach your children is respect — respect for the aged, respect for authority, respect for God, and respect for you.
You shall rise up before the grayheaded
and honor the aged,
and you shall revere your God;
I am the Lord.
Leviticus 19:32
Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake
to every human institution,
whether to a king as the one in authority,
or to governors as sent by him
for the punishment of evildoers
and the praise of those who do right.
For such is the will of God
that by doing right you may silence
the ignorance of foolish men.
1 Peter 2:13-15
Honor your father and your mother,
that your days may be prolonged in the land
which the Lord your God gives you.
Exodus 20:12
Just yesterday in church our pastor was preaching about how Moses showed respect to his father-in-law when Jethro came to visit him. I had never thought about it before yesterday, but Moses was 80 years old at this point, and yet he respected his “elder.” You are right–we are never too old to show respect.
Your story about listening to your elders brings to mind one of my own. Recently my husband and I went to a wedding reception for a couple who my husband did the ceremony for earlier in the day. The grooms 97 year old grandma told us that she liked to dance, that she always had, she didn’t know why! So the next dance my husband asked her to dance with him. He came back laughing and said that she told him she had never danced with a minister before, and she couldn’t wait to get down to the Senior Center to tell them! 🙂