Remembering Mama on Mother's Day

"Her children rise up and call her blessed..." Proverbs 31:28

I was a daydream-y type kid so sometimes I'd daydream I had a different sort of mama than the one God had given me. I'd daydream she was more like the young and perky housewife with the fashionable capri pants who lived next door or like my friend's mama with the beauty shop hair and ever-present pearl earrings. I'd daydream she was the type of mama that I could confide all of my secrets to, a mama/best friend, like a friend had told me her mama was to her. I daydreamed that Mama was less no-nonsense, and more the type to fuss and fawn over me. But Mama wasn't fancy and she wasn't very emotionally expressive, Mama was hardworking, enduring and faithful. I know sometimes the death of a loved one can cause us to forget their faults and idealize them. I don't think I've done that with Mama. I still remember her shortcomings. What I do think about, still so often even all of these years after her death, is how much I miss her. Because Mama was one very important thing to me. Mama was always there. Mama was my home.

When Daddy left Mama and us kids that were still young enough to live at home, she was still recuperating, still being medicated, after a stay in the mental hospital due to depression. That was the only time Mama was ever gone from home for any extended length of time. When Daddy found somebody else and ended up leaving, Mama was left to figure out how to provide and take care of us. I don't know how she did it, how she got off the  tranquilizers the doctors gave for depression in those days and got a good job. Her job was clear across town, a forty five minute drive, but she chose not to move closer to work so that us kids could stay in the house we grew up in and stay in the same schools. 

On Sundays Mama and us kids started going to a little church in the town next to ours. Being divorced or from a broken home had a stigma in those days, but the people in that little church loved us well, they loved us into wholeness. A time or two Mama thought about going to a church closer to home, but ended up staying put for our sakes. I suppose that was Mama's litmus test for just about all of her decisions. She simply did her best to do what was best for us. For that same reason, Mama remained single. I've always appreciated that she gave us a fairly drama free life, a simple quiet life.There were no men friends coming in and out of our lives. We never wondered where Mama was or why she wasn't home. She worked hard at her job and when she was home she worked hard making good food for us, keeping up our home, sewing us clothes, being there for us.

In thinking over who my personal faith heroine is, I thought of many women who have invested in my life, who have mentored me, who have encouraged me. I thought of women much more vocal in their faith than Mama, much more skilled in Bible teaching, women who could express themselves more easily, who could pray more passionately. Yet, I still kept coming back to the fact that without Mama's steadfast presence, her faithfulness to do her best to do right for us, I don't think I would have had a firm foundation for those other women to build upon.

Mama's relationship with God was a lot like her relationship was with us. She wasn't great at expressing her feelings with her words. She wasn't very physically demonstrative. She did tell me about her salvation experience and it was very real, very sincere. We heard Mama praying over every meal and saw her reading her Bible every night in bed and faithfully giving her tithe and offerings every Sunday, but Mama didn't talk all that much with us about Jesus, pray with us often or disciple us. As I got older, she always asked me to pray for things, expressing feelings of inadequacy about her own prayer life. But,  I suspect God paid more attention to Mama's prayers than Mama realized. The three of us kids that Mama continued to raise without Daddy all ended up to be passionate Jesus followers and all ended up in full time ministry. 

That daydream-y kid who wanted a different kind of mama grew up to be a woman who's thankful for the Mama God gave me. She wasn't a saint, she wasn't outwardly exuberant and expressive about her faith, she wasn't gifted at spiritually mentoring or nurturing me, but Mama was always there. She endured deep brokenness but she didn't run, she stayed.  She was always faithful. She was what I needed. She was my roots.

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Sue Moore Donaldson

Spring Cleaning

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, 

and renew a right, persevering and steadfast spirit within me." 

Psalm 51:10

It's that time of year again! It's time for spring cleaning. I like to do a deep and thorough house cleaning in the spring and then again in autumn before the holidays. In spite of doing a deep house cleaning twice a year, in spite of doing a weekly house cleaning every Saturday and in spite of trying to keep things picked up and tidy daily, dirt and grime and stuff still accumulate! The need to clean my house just never ends!

There are some similarities between the need to keep our physical home clean and maintained and the need to keep our "spiritual house" clean and maintained as well. Our "spiritual house" could be called our innermost being, our soul or our heart. No matter what we want to call it, the truth is, dirt and grime and stuff accumulate in us just as they do in our home.   (Join me for the rest of this post on Sunday, April 18th at Woman to Woman Ministries, where each Sunday I share a bit of Sunday Soul Food!)

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Sue Moore Donaldson

No Longer Hopeless and Helpless

Hopelessness and feeling helpless are one of the cruelest weapons of the enemy against us.  satan relentlessly lies to us that our situation or circumstances are hopeless and that we are helpless to do anything to change it. The enemy tries to get us to accept this as the truth and to paralyze and immobilize us from moving forward in life. Thoughts of hopelessness, helplessness and despair are not from God, our God is the God of hope!   (Join me for the rest of this post on Sunday, April 11th at Woman to Woman Ministries, where each Sunday I share a bit of Sunday Soul Food!)

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Sue Moore Donaldson

Make Sure Your Foundation Is Trust In God

 "I know that I can trust You...

I lean not on my own understanding

My life is in the hands of the Maker of Heaven"

("Climb" by Will Reagan and United Pursuit)

When I sing these words from Will Reagan's song, "Climb," I realize two things - just how true those words are and just how far I have to go in wholeheartedly living them out. I completely believe the Bible and the Bible says that God is trustworthy, but there is a kind of "I know" that means I really truly know it personally and intimately. I KNOW that I can trust Him is something we learn and grow in throughout our journey of walking in a living, breathing, growing relationship with God. There have been many times over the years that I may have struggled to sing those words with personal assurance.  (Join me for the rest of this post on Sunday, March 28th at Woman to Woman Ministries, where each Sunday I share a bit of Sunday Soul Food!)

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Sue Moore Donaldson

Seasons Change

"...You have been upheld by Me from birth,
You have been carried from the womb:

Even to your old age, I am He,
And even to gray hairs I will carry you!
I have made, and I will bear;
Even I will carry, and will deliver you."

Isaiah 46:3-4

It is the first day of spring as I sit and write this post. It feels as though the seasons come and go with breakneck speed the older I get. As I have gotten older, I sometimes wake up in the night with a panicky feeling because of the unknowns about the future that come along with aging. That ought not to be. The truth is, what tomorrow will bring is unknown to all of us, no matter what season of life we are in.   (Join me for the rest of this post on Sunday, March 21st at Woman to Woman Ministries, where each Sunday I share a bit of Sunday Soul Food!)

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Sue Moore Donaldson

Finding Hidden Treasure in God's Word

I believe it's been about two years now that I've begun my morning quiet time by writing Proverbs 3:5-6 at the top of each day's journal page. I used the version of these scriptures found in The Message Bible - "Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He's the One Who will keep you on track." It became my daily reminder to do what it said-to trust God and to quit trying to figure things out myself.

This past week I thought I'd dig deeper into this passage. To do that I simply explored the words of the passage in the original language. What used to involve the need to have an extensive library of concordances and lexicons and other Bible study books is now readily available and accessible through apps like blue letter bible or bible hub . (Join me for the rest of this post on Sunday, March 14th at Woman to Woman Ministries, where each Sunday I share a bit of Sunday Soul Food!)

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Sue Moore Donaldson

A Spirit Filled Personality

Finding your personality profile seems to be all the rage right now. If you’re on social media you’ve more than likely stumbled on several personality tests and may even have clicked on and taken a few of them.  It can be fun and sometimes even insightful as you read your personality strengths and weaknesses and think to yourself, “yes, that’s me alright!”

On several different occasions I’ve taken the Myers-Briggs test. The results always show that I am an INFJ personality type. One of the strengths of an INFJ is that I am empathetic, I can feel and enter into the pain that others are going through. One of my weaknesses is that I am sensitive. I can be easily wounded and offended.

Insights into ourselves can be helpful, but, when stubbornly held onto they may become harmful. I'm sure you've heard yourself or someone else say, “that’s just the way I am!”

Unfortunately, this can be said with a tinge of stubbornness and pride and an unwillingness to change.  (Join me for the rest of this post on Sunday, March 7th at Woman to Woman Ministries, where each Sunday I share a bit of Sunday Soul Food!)

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Sue Moore Donaldson