Whenever I hear my daughters commenting that they have begun to sound "just like my mama," I have to smile and pause to recall some of the things that my own mama used to say.
For instance, my five siblings and I were warned fairly regularly to "stop acting like wild Indians!" Since westerns were a typical genre in that day for both television and movies, we were quite accustomed to seeing firsthand what 'wild Indians' could do. And that was the puzzling part, I suppose. No matter how aggressive or loud we were, one thing is certain: we never chased each other around with tomahawks or shot arrows at one another. So it was no wonder that I never understood what that was all about. To this day, I am only sure of one thing; whenever we heard the phrase, it meant to cease and desist! THAT part we understood clearly. Now today, it would be politically incorrect to say such a thing, and rightly so. It turns out that most of the time, those poor Indians were provoked to act wildly! Go figure. Poor Mama, how could she have known?!
Then, of course, there were those occasions when we were strongly advised to remember that we were "not Philistines, after all." Now this was a little more easily understood. We knew about those crazy Philistines from Sunday School! Why, Goliath himself was a Philistine. David had no choice but to slay him. He was going around threatening the entire nation, just looking for a fight, and anyway he was enormous, probably well over seven feet tall! Again, what in the world did that have to do with us, I wondered. Mind you that, no one, not even Mama, ever explained these things---she just 'said' them. We can chalk that one up to politically incorrect, as well, I'm sure. Poor Mama, how could she have known?!
We were not allowed to act like "aborigines' either. And all we knew about them was that they all ran around naked. You can quickly see why we were confused most of the time! None of us, to my knowledge, made it a habit to run around naked. Absolutely, politically incorrect, as well. Poor Mama, how could she have known?!
When we were in rare form, the admonition was swift, "Stop shrieking like banshees!" Now, please understand that we were not the run-of-the-mill rug rats; we were exposed to culture! Not a Sunday evening (after church, of course) went by that we didn't watch the Walt Disney show. We had seen 'Darby O'Gill and the Little People' more than once. We knew all about that screaming, wailing banshee that came with the death coach! But, darned if I can recollect one single instance when any of us ever sounded like that! One thing was certain, though; when you got to the roots of it, they all meant 'cease and desist,' and THAT we understood very well, indeed.
There were many other things I can remember too, but perhaps the one that comes to mind most frequently was a simple request, "How about coming in here and making yourself useful?" I think about that one a lot, the older I get. Why wouldn't we do that exact thing...make ourselves useful, that is. I don't know which word should be emphasized more, but for me it comes down to 'make' and 'useful.' I can only speak from experience right now, but I have discovered that sometimes I need to MAKE myself useful. I need a little nudge to get into action. The Holy Spirit is a great prompter---He has the next line (or action) and He's always nearby, ready to coach. The next part is equally imperative. What we choose to do should be useful to ourselves or someone...anyone, and especially to our Lord. I don't need time to think about what Jesus would do; there's a whole book about it. I need to think about what I am going to do---right here, right now, to make a difference, to make myself useful.
I'm trying harder to make good choices, choices that would make Mama proud! Choices that will allow me to hear those coveted words from my Savior, "Well done, good and faithful servant."
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