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May is a wonderfully sentimental month for me. Not only is it Mother’s Day, but it is also the month my mother was born. Funny story about that is that we have always celebrated her special day on the 18th and when we finally obtained a copy of her birth certificate, the date on it was May 11th. Now we celebrate her birth twice because she is just that special to us. She has taught her two daughters much about being a woman who has faith, helps others, takes responsibility, and cares about how she presents herself.

There are so many lessons we can learn from our mothers. Some lessons we learn by watching and others we learn by doing. For the same of time, I want to share three lessons momma taught me and

Self-Care Routine

As a little girl, I always wanted to me like my mother. I used to watch her as she got up in the morning and instantly went into a routine. She started every day with prayer and still does. It was the same every day and as life adjusted the routine followed, but she is a creature of habit, and most of those habits are good. Over time, I found myself doing the same, because if I worked for momma, it was going to work for me too. Routine is a lesson I learned that has helped me in more ways than I can count.

Momma taught me how to take care of myself, love the skin I am in, and develop habits that match.

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Dealing with Adversity

Adversity is a given in life. Pain and sorrow will happen. My mother’s only sister was an alcoholic with a propensity towards the wrong kind of men. They used to beat my aunt and cause her great harm. Momma, being the big sister, was her protector. Most times the beatings she endured were while she was living with us. As a result, her protector always stepped in. They seldom messed with momma because she would not back down and always had a weapon of some sort in hand. Abusers are cowards and that I learned that lesson early on, but the biggest lesson here was how my mother faced what could have hurt her, or even kill her because it was necessary to protect her girls and her sister too.

For some it may seem like this was a dysfunctional environment, and they are right. However, adversity often stems from dysfunction of some sort. This was ours because momma taught us that family matters. Of course, she would often kick my aunt out because of the mess, but she never stopped loving her sister – even when she could not stand her.

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Pray Without Ceasing

As I stated, my mother starts each day with prayer. She always prayers all through the day. When I was younger I did not get it, but as I got older, the habit became my norm as well. Prayer is how I connect to my Creator, and my mother’s example of talking to God, no matter what is going on, is a huge part of how I got to the point of prioritizing prayer. Now let momma tell it, my faith it much stronger than hers, but where I am is because she is. For that I am grateful.

Still Learning Lessons from Momma

Last Mother’s Day my mother had just got out of the hospital 24 hours before, only to wake up to the fact that she was having a stroke. We were at church when we got word and as I was crying and asking God why I just went into a moment of praise the entire ride to the hospital. God whispered to me that she would be alright – it was not yet her time. In that, I found great comfort. Her determination to rise above the stroke that day, regain her speech, and get back the mobility she had lost was inspiring. Through tears, she fought and through tears we supported her and wiped away her fears with our smiles, support, and yes, tissue too.

That day we learned to love even stronger and believe that what God says will be, will be. Yep. Momma taught me that.

We all have lessons we have learned from our mothers. Some are good and some not so good. The point is that we need to learn from those lessons so that our lives are enriched and our assignments have more meaning.

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