Happy Birthday To You!

Today is the best- Mom- in- the- world’s birthday! As of today, she is every bit of 29 years old…every bit! I called her a little while ago and sang to her in my best yucky, sinus infection voice…but that’s the crazy thing about Moms…she still liked it! Mom’s a little under the weather herself and if she doesn’t get better she might not get to come see me for Thanksgiving. Dad said he was coming anyway. I told him I’ve got her dressing recipe and her coconut pie recipe…he can take her a leftover plate. She didn’t like that idea at all! Then we offered to ALLOW her to make all our favorite dishes and just send them with him…she didn’t like that either! Then she proceeded to remind us that it was HER birthday and we should be sweet to her! LOL

Seriously, I appreciate my Mom for so many reasons. The main reason is that she has set such a great pattern for me to follow. Children learn by watching the people in their lives and I certainly did. There are so many times that I’ve been faced with a decision that became a non-decision because I could reach back and say, “Well, this is the way we did it at home, so this is the way I will do it now.”

Faithful church attendance was a non-decision for me because we were always at the house of God when the doors were open. (That included the revival services that lasted until mid-night!)

Serving in the church was a non-decision because Mom has played the piano (or organ) at Eastview for 28 years. We never got to church on time…we had to be at every service at least two hours early for practice. By the way: she’s never had a piano lesson in her life…The church she attended as a teenager didn’t have a pianist so one night she prayed and asked God to give her the ability to play. She got up from praying, sat down at the piano, and started picking out chords. The rest is history. Now, she’s the most anointed pianists I’ve ever heard. I love to hear her play! She also is the one who taught me to sing alto. She could hear it naturally but I had to be taught. Some of the best advice I’ve ever had about music ministry came from my Mom when I was a teenager. I was complaining about how some people on the praise team wouldn’t be faithful to practices but wanted to be on the stage for special services. I wasn’t a very strong alto so I was always sidelined. She told me to just be faithful and to keep doing what was right and that God would take care of me. She was right. One year later, I was on the platform every night for special revival services for 14 days straight! And it wasn’t because she maneuvered things for me behind the scenes. She knew God was faithful and she trusted me to His care.

Another thing I appreciate about her is that she has always had great love and respect for the ministry. We didn’t “have the Pastor for lunch”. What the Pastor preached, we lived…all the time. I remember being about 12 when I realized for the first time that not everyone in the church lived the way we did. I was shocked! Didn’t they hear the Pastor preach about that??? But it didn’t matter to Mom what anyone else was doing; we were going to do right. And we did. Different questions of standards have never been a problem with me because I have never seen my Mom do it, nor did she ever allow us to do it!

I know what Mom sounds like when she prays. I know what it is to walk in and see her reading her Bible. For most of my high school years, I woke every morning to the sound of her playing her piano and singing to the Lord. That was part of her devotion time. When Mom took me to school, she would take my hand and pray over me every time. Most nights we had prayer together as a family and on Friday nights (before we were old enough for youth service) we had family night. That was a big devotion night and we had sword (Bible) drills and played Bible trivia games. Once we were old enough for youth service, Mom probably spent so much money on gas taxiing me to youth services, youth rallies, campground services and anything else I asked to go to. She and Dad always made sure I had nice clothes to wear, even though we didn’t have much money. She probably curled and fixed my hair so many times she was sick of it! Every Saturday night was spent curling my hair in pink sponge rollers. Oh, the torture of pulling those sponge rollers out! Precious memories…how they linger!

Well, I could go on, but suffice it to say that I have learned so much from my Mom…she is my pattern, my benchmark for how I should live for God. She has lived for Him passionately for so many years and has helped me to know what a follower of Christ looks like. I love you, Mom…and today I rise up and call you blessed. I hope I can pass the pattern on to the young people and children in my life.