Yesterday we passed a church that had posted on their outdoor sign, "Mothers are the buttons that pull everything together." When I think about the multitudes of children who live in mixed up, unstable, and unchristian homes, I thank God that I was born in a stable Christian home with two parents who fulfilled their God given roles. Daddy went to work and earned the money to support the family. Mom was the homemaker and did an outstanding job of pulling everything together.
Mom wore many hats---cook, gardener, housecleaner, nurse, teacher, etc etc etc. She did not have a driver's license until she was forty and didn't want one. She said if she could drive she would get sent here and there for things and her job was at home. I took it for granted she would be there when I got home from school because she always was there. She was not out shopping, having coffee with friends, or some other extracurricular activity, nor did she leave us with a babysitter.
Mom was organized and followed a self-imposed schedule. She had daily, weekly, and annual routines. We knew which days of the week were for washing clothes, ironing (lots of ironing because almost everything was cotton), baking and cleaning. And we were taught to have our own routines---take a bath every day, brush your teeth, make your bed. "You don't have to be rich to be clean."
Jobs were assigned at certain ages. I inherited the shoe polishing job from my older sister when she graduated to something bigger. Every Saturday I collected the entire family's Sunday shoes and brought them downstairs. I spread some newspaper on the floor and set the shoes on them. Then I opened a round tin of shoe polish, wiped a little brush through the paste and smeared it on a shoe. Then the shoe was rubbed with a soft cloth until it shone. No liquid shoe polish in those days! And on down the line until every shoe was shining. Fortunately, my brother was just two and a half years younger than me and I was glad to turn the job over to him when he reached the shoe shine boy age.
We spent a lot of time outdoors and on our porch. That was where we rode trikes, gave the kittens rides in our doll buggies, shelled peas, washed the dog, and who knows what. This outdoor living space collected a lot of dirt and at one point it was my job to hose off the porch and the outside of all the windows under the porch every Saturday. It must be clean in case we had company on Sunday, invited or drop in. Mom always baked a cake and made some sort of salad (potato salad, red beet eggs, etc) every Saturday so she would have something on hand if company dropped in. There often was no drop-in company so we helped her out by eating it ourselves.
Another thing on the weekly schedule was visiting our grandparents. We drove a distance to a small church which lasted until 11:30. It would usually be one o'clock or later when we had lunch, which was often salmon soup that could be made quickly. Then we would head over to Grandpas for the afternoon. If something else was going on in the afternoon, we went to Grandpas in the evening. My father's parents both died before I was old enough to remember them so we had only one set of grandparents. There was no need to decide if we're going to Grandpas or not, we just knew if it was Sunday we would go to Grandpas.
Because Mom didn't drive, the grocery shopping always happened after supper on a Friday evening. Mom got groceries at the Food Fair supermarket and then we went to Green Dragon for produce, meat, and cheese. It was a family activity so we all went along. In the summer Daddy would buy a big long watermelon which was our Saturday supper. (They cost 50 cents.) We didn't need anything else if we had watermelon. We sat on the porch having seed spitting contests and eating watermelon until we couldn't hold any more.
Every day ended with family worship. We would gather around the table and sing a couple songs either from a song book or children's songs (as long as there were little ones in the family). Then we went around the table taking turns to read the verses in the daily Bible reading schedule. Next, Mom read a story and then we all took our turn to pray, from the youngest to the oldest. Family worship was omitted only if we went to a Sunday evening church service or Summer Bible School.
All the routines and schedules Mom followed to make the household run smoothly and pull everything together gave our life stability. We knew what to expect and what was expected of us. But family worship was the foundation on which everything was built. What the Bible said determined what was right or wrong. When the church doors were open, we were there and participating.
Mom taught me a lot about the value of regular routines and schedules. They do help pull everything together and make life run more smoothly. But the most valuable thing she gave me was a solid foundation of faith on which everything is built. That is what gives stability to life and keeps it together.
Mom has been enjoying life with Jesus for thirty years but I still want to say "Thank you Mom!" Happy Mother's Day in heaven!
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