Mother knows best. So, listen carefully!

Growing up with two older sisters, I marveled at how well my mom handled our discontent, setbacks, and disappointments. My mother would gather us together and say, “It’s no use blaming God for this misfortune that has hurt or upset you. God didn’t do it.” She continued, “God loves you so much he would never want to harm you.” Didn’t Jesus say he came to save us and not to condemn us? Wasn’t his death on the cross proof enough of his love?

When a potential tragedy struck my mom, she always used the same stop gap advice saying, “Now that this happened simply ask God this question:   How do I get through it? Somehow my mom knew God is always better at building up than tearing down. Why? Because God loves us and means it.

 In Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice and Benedict are in love. Beatrice confesses that she loves him with all her heart saying, “I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.” God can use these same words to tell us of his love for us. The above words stand at the very heart of Jesus’ mission. Jesus tells “Ask and you shall receive, knock and it shall be opened to you, and seek and you will find.”

 This so-called Mother’s Rule is not just   an ethic of reciprocity or natural law. It is an ethic of love. Without exception, everything is required with love, and the teachings of Jesus is to be lavished on others. Of course, Jesus is the first to introduce this rule and use it.

 Look what Jesus did when he entered Peter’s house for the first time finding that Peter’s mother was ill. He immediately read the situation and knew how embarrassed Peter’s mom felt. Important guests were in her home, and she was unable to tend to them. Jesus sensed all this and stepped in bringing a remedy that produced the needed cure. Peter’s mother-in-law regained her health, jumped up, and became the lively host.

 Jesus always knows what needs to be done and acts. Jesus “builds up rather than tears down” and turned an embarrassing situation into an enjoyable visit.

We never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory!