Quarantined Mother’s Day

It was a couple of weeks before Mother’s Day. I asked my mom for help with a sermon.

We started by reading Proverbs 31, a fairly traditional Scripture for sermons on this holiday.

After we’d plowed through all 31 verses, she stunned me by bursting out laughing.

“Oh, Joseph! You can’t preach on that!”

And she laughed some more.

Before I could say anything, she added, “I’m exhausted just reading all that!”

She was right.

Again.

Looking back now, in that one moment she taught me the power of two things —

FOCUS. Like an ad for a magazine says, “take a closer look at the big picture.”

and

SIMPLICITY. As an art teacher, she was unimpressed with too many things going on at once in a painting.

On this Quarantined Mother’s Day, let me simply direct your focus to only one Bible verse —

 When she speaks

she has something worthwhile to say,

and she always says it kindly.

— Proverbs 31:26, The Message version

— One of my mom’s favorite pieces of advice, which she kept giving even at age 105, was this: “Enjoy every moment.”

I’m grateful for Ruth Morgan Baldwin Neber Scheets, who always had something worthwhile to say and said it kindly. 

What’s a lesson you learned from your mother? Please let me know in the Comment section, or contact me in any of our other usual ways.

And if possible today, let her know what that is, and thank her for it.