Tribute to my mother

​As we celebrate Mother’s Day, I have been contemplating the impact my mother made on my life.  She was the center of our family, the one who stayed home to raise us, the one who disciplined us (mostly), the one who taught us how to sew, how to treat others, how to live a Christian life with power and discipline.  Mom reads her Bible through every year, from beginning to end.  How many of us think, “Well, I’ve read that before?  Don’t need to read it again.”  She is a Bible scholar, who wants reminded of those good stories and those words of power and faith, and she shares her knowledge with all those around her through teaching Sunday School or just by praying for others and encouraging them with a word of scripture or blessing.  She remembers the details of the Old Testament stories and can relate them to everyday life.
 
My husband constantly tells me, “If you look as good as your mom at 74, you’re gonna be doing good!” I’m like, “I don’t look as good as her now – what in the world makes you think I will at age 74?”  That reminds me of the old adage that if you want to know what a woman will be like as a wife, spend time with her mother.  How true those words are….but maybe not always.  See, my mom cooks like a gourmet chef, she builds and remodels houses, puts on roofs, loads and offloads boards in their sawmill, worked for the Supreme Court as a secretary, became a court reporter at age 40, doctors and herds cattle, cans enough food in the summer for six families…the list is endless. 
 
When Terry and I got married, he had spent lots of time with my parents, and they had taken him in as a son, with all the benefits of being family, of course.  Mom catered to him and fed him and blessed him in a variety of ways.  One morning after being married for a few years, we were lying in bed and he rolls over, takes one look at me and jumps out of the bed screaming at the top of his lungs.  I’m like, “What?  What is it?  What’s wrong?”  He says, “I thought I was getting Patty, but I just realized, I got Roy instead!”  There is some truth to that.  I don’t cook much, am a storyteller like my dad, like to pray pranks, hate dealing with cattle and farm animals…and yes, I did warn Tom before he married me that he better take a hard look at Roy instead of Patty to see which version he might be saddled with!
 
The greatest gift and lesson that my mom (and dad) have taught me is this:  Your life is not your own.  You were bought with a price through a Savior who died to give you a life of purpose, of hope, of joy, and you MUST share that.  Oh, no, they’re not preachers or evangelists – but they are servants for their Lord.  And what that means is that you do not live your life unto yourself, but you live to help others through this walk we’re all in.  Yes, we work and we build assets and we try to be good stewards, but you use your energy in ways that benefit people so that they may see Christ in you.  For example, the last three days of my 74-year-old mother’s life look like this:  Thursday, she put in their entire garden (humongous), stayed up until 1:00 a.m. Thursday night doing accounting work for the church; Friday, she spent the day at the church sorting and cleaning junk that had accumulated and may need thrown away or sold at our upcoming yard sale, Friday night she spent at Walmart buying food for the upcoming Mother’s Day Tea for 40-60 people, all of which she will cook HERSELF to feed and honor these women, as well as being in charge of the program for the Mother’s Day event.  This is a typical week, always doing something, never wasting a minute being “slothful,” as the Bible would call it.
 
Kim and I laugh sometimes and call our workaholic tendencies “the Vannest curse,” but the truth is, I’m so thankful I’ve had this role model to illustrate for me what a life of service looks like – oh, the blessings are immense.  Mom takes NO medicine, is hardly ever sick, even with something minor.  She has friends everywhere, people she loves and enjoys and has shared her life with.  She has no enemies, no secrets waiting to jump out and destroy her.  She is truly a saint of God, that Proverbs 31 woman that seems so hard to measure up to.  I treasure every day I have left with this amazing woman, and know there is much, much more I have to learn …….
 
Happy Mother’s Day!  And to those who have lost your mother, reach out to someone today, invest in them, give them a little love, and it will make you feel less lonely and give you a purpose – our future is what WE make it, what WE do with it, what WE invest it in….