I don’t know about you guys but growing up I always felt I was raised with a perfect mother. I never thought of her as ever sinning or making mistakes. When I asked her about her childhood she told me she got straight A’s, was a cheerleader, went to church and sang in the choir. She was always so polite and well behaved, so I’m told. I find it funny that she gave birth to two of the most imperfect loud-mouthed crazy kids you’d ever want to meet. (I prefer to call us verbally gifted!) She tried her best to raise me, her only daughter, to be the perfect little angel and basically told me things like “Don’t drink, smoke or swear!”
Because she never did.
Because you’ll go to hell.
Ok, she was kidding about the “going to hell part” but it worked for me. I was scared to mess up not because I’d get suspended from school but because I didn’t want to face the wrath of my mother at home. That was much scarier. Do you ever feel like you can’t measure up to your mom’s standards no matter how hard you try? I know it ‘s hard sometimes because we forget our mom’s were ever our age.
Here’s the deal girls. I figured out a little known secret. Our mothers were once teenagers. I promise they were. They dated boys and did all the normal teenage girl things. And they had mothers too! They actually messed up just like us and felt bad when they did, but for some reason when they grow up and have kids they think the best approach to raising us is to pretend none of their screw ups ever happened.
As I’ve gotten older and started to realize my mom is wiser than she looks, we’ve had some great conversations. She told me stories about her teenage years. It was refreshing for me to hear her recently admit she actually DID face temptations just like I did. She was a Christian and relied on her faith a lot. It made me take stock and realize all the things she had always taught me about “trusting in God in tough situations” wasn’t something she made up. She actually did it. I admire her for her honesty.
I only wish I would have had this talk with her earlier in my life because it would have changed the way I looked at my “Oh so perfect Mom.” It didn’t make me lose respect for her authority, as she might have feared. It only made me see her as well…human and feel a bit closer to her in the long run. I don’t know why Moms are so scared to let their daughters see their faults? I think they think we’ll use it against them the next time we get in trouble taunting, “Well remember what you did when you were my age!” By the way that would not be a good idea. Trust me!
But maybe if we can start to look at our Mom’s as women that have gone through a lot to get where they are and realizing they do have some things to tell us worth listening too. It’s worth a try right? We have to give them some credit. They went through that whole nine months of pregnancy and giving birth to us that I hear is no walk in the park either. If that isn’t enough to honor your mother! Check out a little thing called the Ten Commandments. The one that says “Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother.” That might convince you since it was coming straight from our Father God and all. He’s pretty much right on everything so I’ll just submit to His authority because He told me to.
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