Are You Taking Time to Teach?

My Mother has been in her Heavenly home almost fifteen years. While she was on earth, she taught me many valuable lessons.

Mother was a young wife when the Depression came and she never forgot the lean times. As I grew up, things were still tight in our household. Mother was very careful not to waste anything, especially food. I remember setting down at the table and Mother would serve our plates. She never put as much on her plate as she did my daddy's and mine. When our meal was over, as mother cleared the table, she would eat the leftovers from our plates. I didn't think much of it then but later I realized that she never wanted anything to go to waste. Anything that was left from a meal was promptly refrigerated and used in a later meal. My mother was almost 95 when she passed and she had never used a mix of any kind. Everything she cooked was made from scratch.

Occasionally, mother would buy boxed cereal. Nothing in the empty box went to waste. The wax paper liner was saved. Mother used it when she sifted flour rather than buying a roll of wax paper. If she had no waxed liner, she sifted flour onto a plate. Mother even saved the cereal box; carefully loosening it at the edges and putting it away until she needed it. She was very skillful at putting together a small box with the stored cardboard and Elmer's Glue. And, although I do have a roll of wax paper in my kitchen, I still use the wax paper liner when sifting flour or sift it onto a plate I can wash.

Aluminum foil was used very sparingly when I was growing up. Mother would carefully measure the amount she needed for whatever she was covering. And, the aluminum foil had to be very worn before it was tossed. Mother would carefully wipe the used foil with a clean, soapy rag; wipe it dry, then fold it and put it away until it was needed again. I do that to this day.

A garden was a must when I was growing up. Mother and daddy both tended to it with loving care. I particularly remember a time when mother had fallen and broken her ankle. However, that didn't keep her from looking after the garden. I remember seeing my mother; her leg bent at the knee with her knee placed on a chair; hoe in her hand whacking away at the weeds.

While ironing a couple of days ago, I was thinking about how my mother taught me to iron. We started with pillowcases because they were easy to do. Then we moved to shirts. She showed me the best way was to start with the collar; move on to the sleeves; next to the yoke and then each side leaving the back until last. I wasn't keen on ironing; especially if the weather was hot because we had no air conditioning. But, my mother told me not to think of ironing as drudgery but as I ironed each piece, I should pray for the person that garment belonged to. I have always remembered her words and I still do that today. Of course, there are only two of us now to iron for but praying for myself and my husband does seem to make the ironing go faster.

"Take a lesson from the ants, you lazy fellow. Learn from their ways and be wise! For though they have no king to make them work, yet they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter." Proverbs 6:6-8 (TLB)

I learned when we started going to church regularly when I was small the first thing we did with our money was give a tithe to God. She told me tithe meant tenth.I remember getting ten cents allowance and mother would give it to me in pennies. Then she would have me count out what was to be put in the offering plate the next Sunday. As my allowance increased, so did my giving. When my mother was ill or unable to attend church she would always send her tithe up until God called her home.

"Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." II Corinthians 9:7

So many valuable things can be learned from those who have gone before us. And, there are things we can pass on to our children and grandchildren as we grow older.

Are you taking time to teach those that follow after you?