A Tribute to Mom
The featured image is of an article titled “Tips to look after your husband.” It is an excerpt from a 1950s Home Economics book. I can understand why a man might say, “I wish I’d been born 40 years earlier.” Maybe in the hearing of the following story some self-justified men will listen and stop joking about their unjustified entitlement, and some belligerent women will be comforted, lay their clubs down, and find a more Godly response to their righteous anger.
I was two when the article in the picture was published and was raised in the South under those strict rules. Strange for the 1950s, my brilliant mother taught business math and law, but also “Southern-based” home economics. In that day, home economics was for future housewives, not women who also wanted an advanced education. No doubt, she changed a few women’s attitudes in those classes.
Mom struggled to reconcile this minimizing world she was trained in with the reality of the exceptional greatness she was born with, but the brainwashing and confusion literally drove her crazy. Sadly, this lack of completeness killed her early because she believed she had to kill the fullness of who she was to be a good wife. Her dogged determination and her breakthroughs, however, affected me deeply.
I gratefully and humbly carry her genes. Absolutely, my mother wanted to lavish love on her husband and help him feel valued. But the issue here is “how.” Does a woman have to minimize her own value to love her husband well? Should a woman obey a society that expects that?
Thank you, baby Jesus, for coming to show my sisters in life their true worth!
Mom was one of the forerunners with a grace I’d like to have. She knew the attitude toward her was wrong and she laughed at it, yet she fought to break the lie that spawned these rules. She wasn’t belligerent or hateful. She simply rose to career positions not accepted by southern society at the time, despite the rejection she endured.
Thank GOD that is changing, however slowly.
My mother’s birthday was two days ago and may God give her rest. I’m so grateful for her example of truth in a world of distortion. From time to time, I still struggle between worlds, trying to combine the good of both and leave the rest behind, but she left me a lantern to light my path—the Word of God and what it truly means.
These are the issues I will tackle in my coming book series, DESTINY ATTACKS. In even the smallest way, I hope it can open eyes, foster compassion, and righteous change.
To all the mothers who broke through society’s horrible constraints, we are glad you were born, and we men and women willingly carry the torch the next leg of the journey. May the Lord enable us to continue to break the chains and yet love and value each other as we would like to be valued.