Drink Cherry Coke and Other Advice from Mom

I’m plowing through the bitter part of the annual bittersweet Mother’s Day weekend. There’s nothing sweeter than celebrating my own motherhood and nanahood.  I’d love to be Ms. Positive all the time, but I won’t pretend. The sting of missing my mom goes deep and I must let it soak in a bit before I can move on to the sweet part of the celebration.

One thing I’ve learned is that grief itself is simultaneously sad and joyful. It breaks my heart that she didn’t get to hold any of her great-grandchildren. Yet what joy to look at pictures of her holding each of her grandchildren for the first time. I wish she could have been at my kid’s graduations and weddings. And I’m happy she was at mine.

Right after Mom died, someone gave me the book Momilies®: As My Mother Used to Say . . .®   by Michele B. Slung.  With joyful sadness I’ve been thinking about some of the things my mom used to say. Whether your mom is still with you or not, I hope you remember some of your favorites too.

Here, drink some cherry coke. When we were growing up and got sick, this was her go-to remedy. She knew that most childhood illnesses could be waited out with a little patience, TLC and a prayer with anointment from the tiny bottle of rancid olive oil she kept in the cabinet.  If it was super duper serious, we got anointed on the way to the doctor and got a cherry coke on the way back home.

Just breathe the name of Jesus. I was probably about 9 years old the first time she gave me this advice. It was in response to some anxiety I was feeling at school. She repeated it over the years to make sure I knew He was the one who would always be there to help me. When I was sixteen and starting to take the car by myself, she advised, “If you see you’re about to have a wreck, just breathe the name of Jesus. That’s all you’ll have time for.”

What one generation does in moderation, the next will do in excess. This was usually in response to my complaints about my parents’ strict rules. The corollary was ‘if I give you an inch, you’ll take a mile.” I’m pretty thankful for all the inches she didn’t give me.

If you’re noticing a theme here, she was a godly woman who taught me that it’s ALL about Him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:17 [NIV] 

Outside of God and her family, the other topic she took seriously was making her home lovely, which reminds me of two pieces of advice she had for my home.

That light needs a brighter lightbulb. Ok, this only happened once, but it sums up her view that just about everything can be improved.  The problem was I didn’t agree with her about the wattage over my kitchen sink. She delivered this advice and implemented it the week she stayed with me after the birth of our first child.  Her cooking that week was awesome and much appreciated. Her lightbulb services were not. I bit my tongue and changed it back to my favorite wattage after she left.

Your bed will look better if it’s a little taller.  She said that as she lay bedridden the last few weeks of her life.  Really, Mom? Was that the most important last piece of advice you had for me?  Yeah, it was. She had already given me all of the important life instructions. Besides, home décor is next to godliness.