Tony Campolo’s homemaker wife attended a faculty gathering at the University of Pennsylvania with her professor husband. A sociologist asked her, “What do you do, my dear?”
Her reply? “I am socializing two homo sapiens in the dominant values of the Judeo-Christian tradition in order that they might be instruments for the transformation of the social order into the teleologically prescribed utopia inherent in the eschaton.”
In other words, “I’m a mother, and a pretty good one at that!”
I’m thankful that God gave me the world’s greatest mother (he also allowed me to marry the other world’s greatest mother).
I’m blessed to still have my mom. I was reflecting on what I love about my mother. I love a million things, but here are ten:
• She loves all four of her boys equally, and shows no favoritism. She bent over backwards to be fair, and she still does. What she does for one, she will do for the other three. We’ve never doubted her love. She told us and showed us in a myriad ways. And still does.
• She and my dad modeled a loving marriage. They met at Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center near Ashville, N.C., during “Training Union Week.” His introductory line was, “I see you’re from Georgia, too.” They started dating, and married in April, 1952. I was blessed to grow up in a loving home with an intact family with a mom and dad who loved each other and were committed for life.
• She is a great cook. Growing up, supper time was a big occasion. We gathered around the table as a family. And we enjoyed home cooking, Southern-style. If we went hungry, it was our own fault.
• She loves to bake. Old fashioned banana pudding, cookies, candies. No store bought cakes or canned frosting from her. We’d get to lick the beaters and scrape the bowl for the last dab of chocolate frosting.
Occasionally, she’d bake a cake to take somewhere, and it would split. She’d be frustrated, but we’d be excited because we’d get to keep it and enjoy it.
• She is a hard worker. Whether it was dedication to her job as an administrative assistant to the president at Georgia College, or shelling, washing and freezing vegetables and putting up corn to enjoy over the winter, she taught us the meaning of a job well done.
• She is honest to a “t.” In my immaturity, I caved in to peer pressure one time and ventured into a watermelon field and each of the boys I was with helped himself to a watermelon. I walked in the door with that watermelon, and Mom asked, “Where did you get that watermelon?”
I told her I took it from a man’s watermelon field.
She said, “You know better than that. You take that watermelon right back out there and put it back where you found it.” I did. Nothing like that ever happened again.
• She loves her siblings. Mom and her five brothers and sisters grew up on a farm in Upson County working and playing together. Through the years, they have remained close and those who are still living get together as often as possible, and call each more often than that.
• She raised us in church and pointed us to a relationship with Jesus. Church attendance and participation were not optional. Sunday morning and evening and Wednesday nights, the Chancey family was there. She taught us to love the Lord and to love His church.
• She stands by her convictions. When I was in seventh grade, my friends were getting mini-bikes for Christmas. I asked for one. I wasn’t 16, didn’t have a driver’s license, and didn’t have a good place to ride since we lived in a subdivision. I didn’t get one, not only because we didn’t need to spend the money on one at that time, but because my riding a mini-bike would break the law. Right was right and wrong was wrong.
• She’s still active. Mom visits friends in the nursing home. One lady lost her sight, and Mom would call her up every week and read the lady’s church newsletter to her word-for-word until the lady died. Mom recently started participating in a senior adult exercise class three mornings a week. She reads several books a week.
The list could continue, but space won’t allow. I agree with the great evangelist D. L. Moody: “All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my mother.”
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[Dr. David L. Chancey is pastor, McDonough Road Baptist Church, Fayetteville, GA. The church family meets at 352 McDonough Road and invites you to join them this Sunday for Bible study at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m. Visit them on the web at www.mcdonoughroad.org.]
