Wisdom From My Mother

For over a year, I have neglected my blog. But life happens. For one, my husband retired and we pulled up our thirty-five-year stakes in Indiana and moved to Pennsylvania to live closer to our children and grandchildren.

Moving is an exhausting adventure. It took months to find a house to buy and settle into. Then there was adjusting to our new place: finding a new church (a happy find), new doctors (iffy on this one), new barber/hairdresser (always a problem); getting new license plates, new drivers licenses (ugh!); making new friends and finding our niche in our new community (fun times). Living near our grandchildren meant giving time to them on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, something we didn’t have to think about in Indiana because they were so far away. Then I agreed to proofread and edit a manuscript my brother was writing, which turned out to be a monumental, time-consuming project. On and on it goes. Thus, the blog went by the wayside.

For months, I have debated with myself on how to resume. Shall I take up where I left off or start a new direction? The dilemma has left me at a standstill. Yep. Writer’s block--or rather, blogger's block.

Today, I am cautiously resuming my family history blog on a different tic—for the time being. Part of a family history is the spiritual heritage. Where did my parents' strong faith originate? I've wondered. I have found hints from the far past and have reflected often on the example of faith they set for us.  Lately, I’ve been thinking about my mother, Lois McIntyre Troutman, who died August 6, 2008, ten years ago today. If she were still living, she would have celebrated her 96^th birthday last month on July 16. So she has been on my mind, especially a few days ago as I read this post on Facebook:

“Always PRAY to have

 eyes that see the

best in people,

a heart that forgives the worst,

a mind that forgets the bad,

and a soul that never loses

faith in God.

Amen”

(Womenworking.com).

Mom would have embraced this motto. Whether she ever saw the idea expressed exactly in that way, I do not know, but she lived it. She particularly applied it to family. Her fierce loyalty to all of us—her siblings, especially—no matter what we did is legendary in the family. If you said anything negative to her about a family member, she would jump to that person’s defense—even if she knew you were right.

What would happen if one of your family members slighted you and your brothers and sisters? An act that might have been lawsuit worthy, even? And you probably would have won. This happened in my mom’s family. What did my mother and her brothers and sisters do? They forgave and forgot. Never heard them mention the incident again. They went on with life as if it had never happened. Family unity and loving relationships were of utmost importance to them.

What better legacy could a mother give her children? Proverbs 19:11 asserts, “It is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.” Mom, you are glory. Thank you for seeing the best, forgiving the worst, forgetting the bad, and never losing faith in God.

My mother (standing 2nd from r.), her mother and her siblings.