Great devotion. I thought you were writing about MY parents!
Karen Cottenin TX
On Wednesday, June 23, 2021, 1:03:55 PM CDT, Rhonda Hobby
<rhondahobby@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello Ladies,
1 Corinthians 13:4. Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love
doesn’t brag. is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek
its own way-
Today being my day for the devotion, I want to talk a little about 'LOVE'.
Today would have been the 77th anniversary of my parents. They were married
almost 56 years when Mama died.
I look back and I see a few things that are sorely lacking in some of today's
marriages:
Commitment...a vow was made to love honor and cherish until death parted and
that was what Mama and Daddy did until the end. Wash their marriage perfect in
every way? No! If a problem arose, they talked it out and a solution was
obtained. They never thought of heading to divorce court.
Common Sense....if they didn't have the money for something, they didn't buy it
until they did, or were sure they could make the payments. I remember when we
were young, my Mama's sister, Aunt Eloyce and her husband, Uncle Henry were
share croppers. They had 8 children....Mama had 3....that did not matter.
Right before school that year, Mama and Aunt Eloyce got down the Montgomery
Ward catalogue and ordered what all 11 of us needed to start the school
year.....only the necessities. Then when the bill came, whomever had the money
paid it....when the crops came in, Uncle Henry paid. When Daddy built a house,
he paid. No one said....Your part of the bill is 60.00 and my part is only
40.00....it just did not matter. I remember the most they ever had to pay was
5.00 a month...that was a lot of money back then. And here we are dragging out
calculators to figure who owes what on a lunch tab.
Respect....they respected each other and each other's opinion without a doubt.
There was never any thought of dictatorship in their household. They made sure
they showed respect for each other in front of people, family and the
children....no one had to know what went on behind closed doors. Now, nothing
is a secret...the world knows everything! They made agreements sometimes to
disagree!
Parental Discipline.....it was (I can assure you) meted out when necessary.
There was no such thing as 'children running the household'. The house was
Mama's domain and Daddy's domain was to work and provide the necessary things
to run a house. If punishment was promised, then the promise was kept. There
was also no 'wait until your Daddy comes home'....Mama took care of business
right then and there. I felt that little keen switch on my little legs many,
many times! I was a mean little girl!
Stick-to-it-tive-ness....(I know that is not a word, but y'all know me...)
There was always that goal of having a happy family, living a happy life,
providing for the family, never giving up and above all all, honoring God. He
was always first in our home life. If the doors of the church were open, we
were there....matter for fact, I told my Daddy one time that one time when I
wanted to go somewhere else on Sunday night.....it was the first, only and last
time I made reference to the doors of the church!
Physical care.....Mama had cancer in 1957 and was given 2 months to live...I
was 12, my sister was 10 and my brother was 2. Oh, what a trying time...the
closest place for cancer treatment back then was Atlanta...a 3 hour drive from
here. There was no known treatment for Mama's cancer at that time, so
everything they did was experimental. She went to live with her cousin in
Atlanta for almost a year. Daddy traveled back and forth every weekend...we
stayed with family and friends (yes, people did that back then). Never once
was there a thought of 'I can't do this any longer)....Never! You just did
what you had to do with the help of everyone else and God. Mama lived to be 76
years old after living a wonderful life...even with a 2 month death sentence.
And, on a side note, she never referred to 'having cancer'....it was not in her
vocabulary. When, and that was a rare occasion, she said anything about that
time in her life, she said, 'when I was sick'....she never let it define her.
So many of our youngsters today go into marriage with the mind set that if it
does not work out...hey, that's ok...I'll just get a divorce. Society has
changed us (to an extent) and our children (to a deeper extent) and our
grandchildren (to an even deeper extent) that I don't think they take marriage
and family as seriously as our parents did.
Please don't think I am condemning anyone or any of your children or
grandchildren. I am just speaking in general terms...and maybe life might have
been simpler back then....but life is what me make it....happiness is in
ourselves and cannot be bought.
Thank you for reading this to the bitter end...it really give me cause to think
about Mama and Daddy and the battles they fought and to pray for our children
and grandchildren, that they develop the same character of their
elders....especially their relationships with God.
Love, Rhonda
