TheDiscipleMD

My Mother would have been ninety-seven this year. It has now been over 20 years since she passed.  Recently, a scene from a sitcom brought back a fond memory for her.   One of the characters, speaking of a new girlfriend that had come into his life, told his friend:

“She sees things in me that no one else has ever seen!” He paused for a moment, and then with great emphasis continued,  “Things that aren’t there!”

That exchange reminded me of an experience I had with my own mother years ago when I was a young man. In a public forum, she made a flattering statement about me, her son, that caught me off guard.  And as I sat there listening to her, I couldn’t help but think the same thing that this sitcom character had told his friend regarding his new girlfriend. My mother saw things in me that I didn’t think were there.

Yet, the power of her faith in me propelled me closer to becoming what she thought I already was. What a testament to the power of love!  We all respond much better to this type of encouragement than to being belittled or criticized.

My mother’s comments about me that day have stayed with me my entire life.  Her words of praise have served as a source of comfort and inspiration throughout my life.  I have always wanted to live up to them. Perhaps as parents, we should remember how valuable a compliment is to our children. Perhaps in so doing, our words can serve as a powerful force in the lives of our children long after we have left mortality.

On occasion, I recall my now deceased mother’s words. Often I weep while so doing. I weep because I feel the love she so offered me, and I weep to become who she thinks I am. Mostly, I weep because this is a boy who misses her embrace and the sound of her voice encouraging me to become all that she thinks I am.  I have found that the power of a mother’s encouraging words is eternal!

For some time, I have been encouraged by friends to create a podcast of the messages I have been writing and sharing since 2007, which now total 1076 messages published on my website, with an additional 60 drafts I have not yet finished. Giving a verbal presentation of a message is a little different, and I personally prefer speaking rather than writing. But I have found that writing can often capture the message I wish to convey more clearly, but it also lacks a certain personal touch, such as emotion.

Nevertheless, beginning this year, I will be sharing messages on Spotify. They will be based on messages from my website, and they will generally follow the written message, but not exactly. They won’t be long, three to five minutes.

I am a big believer that if you don’t share your life history, someone else might someday, and that may or may not be something you will approve of. I recall talking to my Dad not many years before he passed, and he read a story in an educational book that he was intimately acquainted with. The written story was very different than the way he remembered it. It put him and some associates, although they weren’t named, in a bad light. After reading it to me out loud, he closed the book and said, “That’s history for you!” It was his way of teaching me that everything you read in books isn’t always true.

I think all of us, particularly if we are getting up in age, should write down life stories that have impacted our lives. In so doing, we set the record straight, but more importantly, we pass on to our posterity important lessons we have learned. After all, the scriptures are merely the writing of inspired people who want the world to know of their strong belief in Jesus Christ and His redemptive mission.