Just Like Mom

I always wanted to be just like my mom. As a youth, I loved it when we dressed alike, even in my teen years, believe it or not. When my mom helped at senior centers, I helped at senior centers. If my mom crocheted, I crocheted. When my mom filled our home with gorgeous, vibrant green plants, I … uh, well, I filled mine with plastic ones! I did NOT inherit her green thumb.

My mom loves horses.

In our childhood home, horse figurines sat on every flat surface. Ceramic horses, wooden horses, iron, plastic, bone China horses. Paper ones made by little hands. Ones that played music. Ones that rocked or turned on a carousel. All displayed beautifully to show her love.

My favorite displays happened at Christmastime when she turned her China cabinet into a winter wonderland of cotton snow, where horses grazed for tiny pinecone haybales and kicked shiny glass balls while they frolicked in glades of poinsettia and holly. I’d stand in front of the glass and dream of riding that Lipizzaner stallion across a snowy meadow. Or maybe learn to barrel race on the pinto pony.

Just like Mom, I grew to love horses.

On bookshelves with horse-drawn carriages on top, horse books sat waiting to draw me into the island world of Marguerite Henry’s Misty of Chincoteague. After making sure Misty safely arrived home, I switched to high-adventure exploits with The Black Stallion series by Walter Farley.

And while falling in love with these authors’ tales, I fell in love with writing. I longed to write stories as enchanting as Stormy, Misty’s Foal, my favorite of Henry’s novels. Many of my earliest writings included horses and dogs, surely two of God’s most loved animals.

My mom loves the Bible.

Beside Mom’s collection of horse books, she holds an even deeper love for another collection—a selection of Bibles, God’s Word bound and oft-read. Underlined verses or notations show her devotion to various passages. Others show the wear of handling from earlier centuries, saints of old following Christ and his disciples’ words.

My great-grandmother’s Bible, the one she read aloud daily as my mom sat in her child-sized rocking chair listening now sits on my bookshelf. Mom read that Bible through as she prayed for me and wrote notes here and there for my notice. In fact, Mom did the same in other copies for both of my brothers and each of her grandchildren and has even started ones for her great-grands.

Just like Mom, I grew to love the Bible.

Several Bibles in my home rank as favorites for varied reasons. The red KJV volume I received in Sunday School holds the verses I underlined moments before a classmate in junior high led me to give my heart and life to Jesus. I accepted His salvation and gift of eternal life. Though I don’t use that Bible very often, it remains special in my heart.

On my mom’s wedding day, she carried a white-zippered KJV along with her bouquet down the church aisle. I clutched that same Bible with my bouquet on my way down the aisle in the same church to meet my groom in front of the same pastor who performed my parents’ ceremony. Talk about wanting to be just like my mom!

And the Bible I wrote about in “Loving God’s Word Daily” in September 2024, the NKJV with the dark brown vinyl/leather worn cover? That Bible lays with my devotionals and journal for my daily quiet times with Jesus.

My mom’s love provided me a solid foundation.

In First and Second Timothy, Paul talks about how Lois and Eunice, Timothy’s grandmother and mother, showed their love for him through sharing their love of God’s Word. Their enduring faith filled Timothy’s childhood. They unknowingly prepared him for his missionary work with Paul. Although only one Scripture mentions these two godly women, their input in Timothy’s life showed years of laying foundations in Scripture and walking in righteousness and God’s grace. (I Timothy 1:5; II Timothy 3:14-15)

In the same way, my mom showed her love to me. My parents took me to church weekly, building in my life the same foundations Lois and Eunice did for Timothy. Family discussions of the pastor’s sermons afterwards brought the teachings down to my level. Today, my faith in Jesus and love for my Bibles show the years of foundational teaching I had.

Just like Timothy, that foundation has enabled me to impact the world for Jesus. The devotions I write give tiny glimpses of God’s love to readers across the globe. My parenting, my homeschooling, my volunteer work … all show the love of Jesus to others. All because my mom loves me.

My mom’s love instilled in me the power of prayer.

Recently, my mom told me of the hours she spent listening to her great-grandmother read Scripture and pray. Mom learned to pray memorized prayer first. Then one day, she simply knelt and started praying about her boo-boos and for a friend who had fallen while roller skating.

Later, she remembered her great-grandmother telling her she prayed as though God was right there beside her. The elder lady felt my mom was “called” to prayer, and she must’ve known. Mom became a woman of prayer. She spends hours praying for family, friends, and even the person in the bed beside hers in the ER several years ago. She prays on her church’s prayer chain, and when her phone sends notifications of news reports on accidents. And she prays for me.

During my childhood years and into adult life, I prayed and still pray “The Lord’s Prayer” as He taught His disciples to do. I start and end my day with prayer. A few years ago, I began praying single words the Holy Spirit gives me over family and friends. Without always sharing those words with the prayer recipients, I’ve learned of occasions when it became a mantra for their year’s experiences and/or desires.

In I Thessalonians 5, Paul exhorts us to “pray unceasingly.” That’s me. I pray while doing dishes, while brushing the dog, and while cleaning the bathroom. Who knew my mother’s training at our childhood bedsides would fill my bathroom with prayer!

My mom’s love trained me in God’s ways … and still does.

Even today, at 64, I go to my mom for further training. Recently, I learned a new fact about dogs “throwing their coat” when stressed. Who knew a dog could shed “on call”!

Every day, I build on those foundations Mom gave me through our shared love for His Word and for prayer. My current Bible study and memorization work on Psalm 119 fills my heart with more awareness of what the holy Scriptures are and what they mean to me and the world we live in. Each of the 176 verses extends a welcome to me to increase in wisdom.

Every day, I lean more on prayer as I converse with my Jesus. Without those conversations with Him and the knowledge that He hears every single word and cares about each one, I wouldn’t get through my struggles.

And every day, I grow to love God more.

Just like Mom.

My mom loves me, and I love her, and we both love Jesus.