Mother’s Day, update on Mama, rain, snakes

A belated Happy Mother’s Day to all of our mothers. As we went through our service yesterday, I was struck by the theme of the service, which was of course mothers, and that our celebration of our mother’s is a bit tool little too late for many. We do our best to make much of our mothers and fathers in those once-per-year services, but the honor we give to them day by day is far more meaningful than a bouquet of flowers, a special meal, a small gift from our church. It is more important that we do all the little things week by week, the phone contacts (whether we agree with our mothers or not on some issue), a special video of the grandkids, a request for counsel on a decision – whether that advice is needed or not. What we do with our life to include our mothers is how we honor them.

I can see that happen daily in my own house right now. As Mama provides the daily care required by Grandma, I get to see a daughter honoring her mother. Do they always agree? Certainly not! Do they get into heated discussions? Absolutely! Is Grandma always I her right mind? Rarely. But she is always treated with gentle, insightful respect by Mama. Mama is often hurt by unkind remarks and at her wits end to know how to deal with some of the issues that crop up out of nowhere, but her ministrations toward Grandma and Grandpa continue unabated. My advice to those children out there that are nursing a grudge against their mother for whatever reason: reach out once more. You don’t have to agree, you don’t have to argue, you don’t have to seek or ask forgiveness, but you do need to make the most of the influence a Godly mother can have on your life and the lives of your children. My mom is gone and for too long I froze her out of our lives. That was a mistake that I was able to rectify before the Lord took her home. I will be forever grateful to my Lord for that opportunity. Don’t waste the opportunity you have right now. You have no promise of tomorrow so today is probably the right time to reach out and just say “Hey Mom, I was thinking about and wanted to see how you are doing.”

As for Mama, she had an unusual Mother’s Day yesterday. She was at Ripley Baptist Temple among our many friends there. Brittany and the girls were with her as well as Kris. The church is about thirty minutes from where Brittany is living, but they made the trip for Mama. As is customary in such services, gifts were handed out to certain mothers based on some contrived criterion for awarding that gift. Mama won one of those gifts for being the mother that had traveled the furthest that morning. She tried to refuse the gift and have it awarded to someone who was a current member, but Pastor Perine told her she as still an honorary member of the congregation, so she was stuck with the win.

A fellowship followed the evening service and Mama had time to spend with those friends there over the food and fellowship. Some of the friends we have in the congregation are in their latter stages of life but are still faithful and dependable. Mama and several of those old-timers reasoned out last night that it has been twenty-seven years since we left West Virginia. It is safe to say we have all aged since then, but it is reassuring and encouraging to see the persistent faithfulness of those who will soon enough meet in Eternity. Time is short. That is a fact more meaningful to those of us who have walked through decades of service to the Lord, but time is short for all of us. Don’t assume you or your loved one has tomorrow promised to them so you will be encouraged to make the most of today. Because of that, Mama and Victoria are going to visit Grandma’s family, Mama’ aunts and uncles in the Charleston area tomorrow. She is looking froward to seeing all of them that can make themselves available for a visit. Mama is enjoying traveling old familiar roads as she makes her rounds in our once upon a time home.

Over the weekend we got two- and one-half inches of rain collectively. Some around us got more. Some less. It was more than I had expected and most of the rain happened during the overnight hours. The only way to determine that some of that rainfall had been hard at times was to look at the washed-out places that had been cut into the yard, chicken coop yard and the garden by the periods of heavier runoff. It was a blessing to have any rain. More than two inches was a real blessing. With the softer ground resulting from those rains, Grandpa and I will try to begin setting fence posts tonight or tomorrow evening. In preparation, Grandpa is planning to take the tractor and mow a couple widths of the brush hog around the entire fence line where we will be setting those posts. That will be a great help in giving us a clean working and staging area and in being able to avoid any snakes that may have taken up residence in that tall grass.

As I was filling the duck’s water containers last night, I saw a small snake slither through the mud the ducks make as they spread water on the ground in their pen. Unsure if the snake was poisonous – I did not think it was – I indexed the flashlight on my phone to put some light on the intruder. It was a young rat snake. Not a problem yet, but it made me think of the time of year we are entering and just how many snakes we have around the farm at this time of year. I am not scared of snakes. Most of you know that. However, I am not sure at this age if I could tolerate a bite from a poisonous snake as well as I did several decades ago.

Better safe than sorry.