Still Honoring Her Mama and Daddy

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I’d like to share one more message inspired by my Aunt Dot. I am confident that some people waste time on Facebook and that some people use it to whip up on people and hurt their feelings, but Dot doesn’t use it that way. She uses it to inspire and bless.

Through her many pictures, I learn how she is making the best of her new phase of life even though she and Preston would love to be living independently again in their beloved home. She shares photos of new friends she has made at the assisted living facility, of staff members who help them, and of activities she and Preston do there — especially when it involves singing and other forms of music. She shares pictures of the many family members who visit them there in small groups and large ones. She shares selfies and pictures of Preston.

Dot has always loved flowers. She and Preston grew them abundantly. She has many of her gorgeous orchids in their small apartment. I like seeing her orchid blooms and the funny animal pictures and videos she shares, too.

Dot uses her messages to point us to God, sharing many Bible verses, sometimes with only the words and other times accompanied by beautiful pictures of God’s creation.

Though living well in the present, Dot remembers the past with joy through pictures of beloved family members who are with us no more and also of television and singing stars she enjoyed long ago.

Dot uses her Facebook account to bless others and to honor them. Her mama and daddy were my Mama Sue and Daddy Leland. She recently honored them with these beautiful words. She wrote:

Mine was the most handsome, most self-sacrificing, most intense, loving Dad! I adored him and respected him. He only spanked me once, and I deserved it! Loving, generous, strict, too!

Daddy Leland

My Mother was industrious, tender hearted, and the most talented “Suzy Homemaker!” We talked every day of my life until she moved away after Daddy died!

Mama Sue

Dot described Mama Sue and Daddy Leland well. Ten years ago I shared this picture of my Suzy Homemaker Mama Sue in a post I called My Pink Grandma and My Not-Pink Grandma.

Mother’s Day is coming soon. When I was a child, our church practiced a tradition that honored both mothers who were still living and those who had passed away. We women honored our mothers by wearing a corsage on Mother’s Day. Mother and I wore red corsages because our mothers were both still living. Women and girls whose mothers had passed away wore a white corsage in their honor.

I have often thought of Proverbs 31:28 only as a reward for a woman who has served God and her family well.

Her children rise up and bless her.
Proverbs 31:28

I recently realized that we can also see it as an admonition. We children (and all of us are children) have the opportunity to rise up and bless our mothers. We bless them with precious words of blessing. We bless our mothers and our fathers by following their teaching—their teaching in the past and, if we are blessed to have them still with us, their teaching now.

Hear, my son, your father’s instruction
And do not forsake your mother’s teaching;
Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head
And ornaments about your neck.
Proverbs 1:8-10

We bless our mothers by letting them know how much we love them.

Listen to your father who begot you,
And do not despise your mother when she is old.
Proverbs 23:22

We bless our parents by how we speak to them. God used strong words to teach this to the Israelites in the Law of Moses.

If there is anyone who curses his father or his mother,
he shall surely be put to death . . .
Leviticus 20:9

God uses strong words even about honoring our parents with our facial expressions.

The eye that mocks a father
And scorns a mother,
The ravens of the valley will pick it out,
And the young eagles will eat it.
Proverbs 30:17

The respect we have for our parents is to be so honoring that the Law of Moses stated:

Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father . . .
Leviticus 19:3

Honoring our mothers and our fathers is one of the ways we honor God. Thank you for the reminder, Dot. I miss mine very much, but am thankful that I can honor them still.

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