How Your Mother Affects Your Legacy of Faith
Sigh.Mother's Day can leave a person with a variety of emotions to sort through.Perhaps you have lots of wonderful memories of your mother. And perhaps you don't.Either way, you don't want to waste your mom memories.When you learn how to position both your positive and negative mom memories, you grow your legacy of faith. And, if needed, bring healing to your mother wounds.Sound good?Follow these 5 simple steps to ensure your Mothers Day is a day filled with warmth, peace, and gratitude.
Step 1
Grab a sheet of paper we'll call your "Mom Memories" paper.Make 3 columns on the paper.Title the first column Happy Thoughts, the second This Sucked, and the third Turn It Around.
Step 2
In your Happy Thoughts column, write down every positive thing you remember about your mother.
Step 3
In your This Sucked column, write down the negative memories you have of your mother. For some, this will be a very long column. For others, it will be brief.(And yes. It's OK to have negative memories and feelings about your mother. Write them down. Nobody is going to look at this paper but you.)
Step 4
In your Turn It Around column, first look at each negative memory you wrote in the This Sucked column. Then, under Turn It Around, write down how that negative memory became a positive force in your life.For example: Perhaps you remember long nights alone when your mom was wasted on drugs. What did you learn from that experience?Ask yourself questions like these:
- Am I more compassionate towards others now that I understand the bondage drug addiction causes in a person's life?
- Did I avoid that kind of life style because I saw the destruction it brought to my mom and our family?
- Did I learn how to take care of a family because I had to cook and babysit my younger siblings?
Now ... write down all the ways that negative experience influenced you in a positive direction.
Step 5
You now have two columns that represent the ways your mom impacted your life for good—the Happy Thoughts column and the Turn It Around column.Cool, right?Doesn't it amaze you how God uses what seems to crush you to make you into His image?
Now over to you ...
You're leaving a legacy. You want it to be a legacy of faith. How you handle your mom memories will speak volumes to your kids and those you hang with.So you're either walking away from this exercise thankful for the mom God gave you ... or you're realizing you need more inner healing from the Giver of Life.If it's the inner healing part, good for you—do something about it. See a counselor or pastor. And just spend a lot of time with the Father getting His perspective on your past.I'd like to know. How did this exercise help you grow?Blessings to you, Susan"Jesus likes it when we share." -Adelaide, age 3: Pass this along to everybody and their brother. OK, maybe not everybody's brother, but you know ... all of your friends would be nice.