Flashback Friday: Things I learned from my Mom

After my completely selfish post about Mother's Day, I thought perhaps I should follow up with something more substantial. I have such wonderful memories of my mom from when I was little all the way up until just this week. Of course, after 30 some-odd years of living, I can't get everything in one post, so we'll go with "greatest hits."
1. Speaking of hits. (yikes) Yes, I had a lying problem as a child. I've always been so very bad at it, and my Mom could always see right through my attempts. I would usually get a spanking for that offense, as my Mom needed to know that she could trust me. I was generally not a fan of these moments, but my Mom would always give me a number of spanks ahead of time. Almost every time, she would stop short of the last one, and tell me that she was showing me mercy and that I was free to go. I learned that we often deserve a harsher punishment or consequence, but that God, in His mercy, gives us reprieve. I also learned not to lie.
2. I learned to guard my heart. Not every silly boy who showed up at my door deserved my heart and my affections. While I might have crushed hard on a few boys, I did not have to suffer heartbreak after heartbreak because I entered into relationships with some common sense. When I did get heartbroken, Mom was always there to hug me and to talk, and most importantly pray with me.
3. I learned to be girlie and tough. One of the things I love most about my mom is that she has more jewelry than anyone I've ever met, and could open her own shop with her inventory...BUT, she also has her own toolbox and has been known to turn some wood from an old piano into a rockin' headboard with her saw and nails. She can dress to the nines and install a sink. She taught me both the value of celebrating the feminine, and the strength of doing what needs to get done.
4. I learned to believe in myself and God's gifts in my life. From the time I can remember, my Mom has instilled in me that I could be anything and do anything God called me to do or be. Her favorite saying was, "Where there's a will there's a way." I never felt that anything I wanted to do was out of reach. I wasn't always successful, but that's part of learning and growing. I'm thankful my Mom...Dad were always there to cheer me on, cheer me up, and to believe in me.
5. She taught me about the words to this hymn: "What a friend we have in Jesus...all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer."

(click here to hear my fave version of that song)

 I love you, Mom. Happy Mother's Day. And I'm sorry that I just mailed your card this morning. ;)

And...I really need some copies of pictures when you were rockin' your seventies and eighties clothes. 

Goodbye, Dottie Rambo

Just last night, I was reminiscing about my childhood plays and musicals to Jerod. I grew up on small stages, singing and trying to act...one of my favorite of these church musicals was "Down by the Creek Bank."
Sadly, I read online this morning that the composer of this musical and 2500 other gospel songs that comprise the soundtrack of my childhood passed away yesterday. Dottie Rambo was 74. Her myspace page had not been updated as of this morning, but here is a link.

http://www.myspace.com/dottierambo

She wrote the Sandi Patty favorite "We Shall Behold Him." And the song from "The Preacher's Wife," "I Go to the Rock." I was privileged to see her live on several occasions as a child.
Certainly, she was not well-known outside of our own Pentecostal/music circles, but she was a prolific writer who had in recent years overcome much personal tragedy with her marriage and her health. I have sung many of her songs...

Below is the news story and some details about her life.

Granny

Dear Granny,

What a life you led. The first in your family to get saved and then you up and brought your parents to church, all before you were even a teenager. And then, to strike out for another city...traveling from East Chicago to Minneapolis for Bible College in the 1930's! How adventurous, and maybe a little scary it must have been. What I know of the intervening years is a patchwork of mom's memories and bits of stories I remember. Married to the handsome boy with the wavy jet black hair you met at bible college. Five children, whom I'm sure kept you busy. Especially if they were anything then like they are now! A lot of bumps in the road...long hours of taking the bus to work, taking care of your family, and loving a husband who didn't understand your worth.

I loved to eat your food, to sit around your freshly-decorated kitchen (it was always changing with the latest fashions), to hear your stories about school and what-not. To see your eyes light up at the prospect of chocolate, to see you talk about your grandkids... Your traveling adventures always meant a little doll from an exotic land or a bracelet and stories of places that I would hope to see someday too. Thank you for giving my mom a sense of faith and faithfulness, despite the curve balls life threw you. Your paranoia of others made me chuckle sometimes, but also was a light on your soul of the pain you had endured that made you fearful.

But you knew God, what am I saying...YOU KNOW GOD! And there you are, in His presence today...dancing before him with fresh lungs, sturdy legs, and a light-heartedness that you were not afforded down here. So we said goodbye as you crossed over Jordan...I tried my darndest to "sing you out..." but it was hard with the eyes of my family staring at me, the stillness of the room, and my meager voice breaking through the quiet. I hope you heard me trying to muster some feeling of it being well with my soul. It is well with my soul, because I know you can catch your breath, and use it to praise Jesus. I'm a little late in my remembering you with words, but I have thought of you each day since the 4th. Here's to a life well-lived, Dorothy Mae Whitsell Stevens. Rest in eternal peace. 9/25/20 - 4/4/08