10 Life Lessons My Mom Taught Me

Mom is barely over 5 feet tall and just a slip of a thing.  We all passed her up in height by the time we were teens.  Tiny, but mighty.  Growing up, Mom was the heart of the home.  Kind, giving, loving, and determined.  She embodied strength, dignity, and gumption.  From the eyes of a child, it seemed like she never messed up and always knew just exactly what to do in any situation.  She was confident and calm – at least to us. 

Somehow, most of my strongest memories of mom are wrapped around the scents of her kitchen –a roast stewing, green beans bubbling on the stovetop, and an enticing chocolate cake baking in the oven.  Mom was always cooking something for someone, always feeding somebody. 

It’s What Needed Doing

And yet, just recently, she told me, “I really don’t like cooking.” 

“Then why did you do it so much?”, I asked.

  Her answer was quick, “To take care of all of you.  To serve you.  It’s what needed doing.”

And that set me thinking of all the wonderful life lessons Mom taught me that are rooted so deeply inside that I couldn’t forget them if I tried.  Lessons that have shaped me into the person I am today:

10 Life Lessons My Mom Taught Me

1. Love Jesus

Mom loved the Lord with all her heart, so she taught us to love him, too.  Mom carted us to Bible class and worship services 3 times a week, every week like clockwork.  She and Dad taught us how to pray before we were barely old enough to lisp the name of Jesus.  They drilled Bible facts and memory verses into our minds.  She sang to us sweet hymns about God as we fell asleep.

Mom modeled the heart of Jesus in her kindness, compassion, and character and spanked us whenever we set a toe out of line!  She instilled in us that serving God is the most important thing in life and nothing else matters if you miss that main point.

READ: Kids Bible Songs

2. Love people

Mom has a heart for people, especially children and lonely folks.  She taught me that love is active, sacrificial, and means supporting the interests of those you care about, even if you don’t give a flip about the thing itself.  So, she attended every music concert and every sporting event we ever had. 

She patiently helped us collect seeds and even stuck pins through bugs for the science projects.  (Thanks, Mom!) We made salt maps together for geography.  One year, she even sewed me an elf costume for my school Christmas play.  

Mom faithfully pressed all Dad’s shirts every week.  She watched my sister skateboard and my brother march in ROTC and when I hated soccer, she tried me in painting and then piano until I found a place where I could shine, too.  Mom listened tenderly to our little woes and soothed our fears with kindness.  She deeply loves her husband, her children, her friends, her church family, and anyone who comes into her realm of life.

3. Be generous

Remember how Mom had a heart for lonely people?  Well, each and every one of those lonely folks she ran into ended up at our kitchen table.  Mom has always been the most generous person I’ve ever known.  If you happen to know her, you’ve probably been invited home with her at least once.  My Mom taught me to be giving of time, resources, and money.  She was always looking out for the needy, checking in on someone, taking them food, inviting them over and feeding them. 

Mom stayed busy, busy, busy and rarely sat down.  When we lived out of the country for awhile, she kept a bag of dry foods in the van at all times just so she could stop and give food away when she found someone in need.  She made sure there was a pull-out couch and a double bed somewhere in the house so that she’d have a place to offer the visiting preacher or whoever needed a place to stay.

4. Make home a home

We moved a lot.  A LOT, meaning almost every year.  Mom was a military wife, but moving never seemed to bother her or cramp her style.  Even if we only intended to stay for 10 months, which happened several times, Mom completely unpacked the house and set up housekeeping. 

She surrounded our home with beautiful things and garnished it with works of her own hands like curtains she had sewn, plump pillows, and hand-crafted trinkets.  We only lived out of boxes for about a week each time.  I look back on that now and I find it kind of amazing.  Mom worked hard to quickly turn the ugly, military base housing into a comfortable space where we could do family together amid familiar objects. 

And of course, she cooked, remember?  For years and years Mom baked fresh sourdough bread weekly.  She carefully transported her “starter” with us from place to place and we knew we were home when we smelled fresh bread baking in the oven.

5. Be strong & resilient

Mom taught us to be strong.  She knew life was filled with ups and downs and didn’t expect that everything would always go according to plan.  She was adaptable and taught us to adapt as well.  When hard times hit, she trained us to lean on the Lord and fix our eyes on Jesus.

She wanted us to think for ourselves and be confident in our conclusions.  Mom encouraged us to test the scriptures and not just believe the things she taught us about God because she said so.  She wanted us to trust him for ourselves so we would serve him for a lifetime.

Mom modeled that when life knocks you down, you get back up, dust off, and go again.  She knew folks weren’t always kind but taught us to treat them with respect and kindness no matter what. Mom taught us to laugh and take things with a grain of salt.

6. Family Matters

Mom taught us how to do family.  She came from a large crew of eight kids and stayed connected to each one.  She and Dad made twice-yearly pilgrimages, summer and Christmas, to go around and visit extended family, and of course, we all tagged along. 

So, we grew up in a frenzy of aunts, uncles, second-counsins-twice-removed, and folks we weren’t sure how they were related to us but we knew Mom loved them.  And we knew they loved us too. 

Mom and Dad created a tight knit family in our home, too.  Through all our endless moving, we never seemed to mind much because we had each other, and it was better than anything we left behind.  As we children grew and left home, Mom readily embraced our spouses and especially her grandchildren.  Her love grew and grew to hold us all!  Mom taught us that family is special.

7. Work Hard

Mom grew up poor, working on a farm and picking cotton.  So, she was always a hard, hard worker.  She woke up early, hit the ground running, and stayed busy all day. 

Mom taught us to do chores and how to be workers at home.  She took us up to the church building to work and modeled how to be workers in the Lord’s kingdom helping out the local church. 

Mom expected us to be honest and do our best work at school.  Meanwhile, she planted gardens, mowed the yard, painted the house, cooked, cleaned, sewed, and did about anything that popped into her head….and all that without YouTube! 

She seemed to to know how to do most everything and I wondered how she had learned it all. 

READ: 120 Pretend Play Ideas for Nurturing Imagination

8. Be organized, neat, and tidy

Mom kept a clean house.  I’ll admit it, at times it seemed a little suffocating growing up and I defiantly left my stuff sitting around on multiple occasions, but somehow tidiness grew on me until I came to appreciate and desire it in my own life as an adult. 

Mom believed in “a place for everything and everything in its place.”  She and Marie Kondo would have been great friends!  She taught us that an organized home environment leads to an organized mind.  If we couldn’t find something, she generally knew right where it was, which was pretty handy a lot of the time!

9. Serve Others & Be Involved

Mom taught us to not hide our candlesticks under a basket.  She said if God gave you talents, you’ve got to use them to glorify him.  And she showed us just what she meant by putting all her talents to work in whatever way she could find. 

She pretty much always taught a children’s Bible class or a Ladies Bible Class at church.  She served on our school PTOs, she volunteered in our classrooms, she worked in the Officers Wives Club and volunteered hours to support different causes. 

When Dad’s income needed a boost, she went and got a job teaching preschool to help the family out. Later on, she started a craft business selling teddy bears she had hand-sewn.  In every sphere of life, she was on the look-out for those whom she could serve, support, and help.

10. Take Care of Yourself, too

In all her busyness and love for others, Mom also modeled the idea that self-care is important, too.  She never actually said those words – she didn’t seem to talk much about herself – but she showed us in what she did.  Her nails were always painted, usually a dark burgundy color.  She did her hair and make-up every day.  She got dressed each morning no matter her plans.

(Yikes!  I’m sitting here in my pajamas.  Sorry, Mom! Guess I’m still working on that lesson.) 

She went on a daily constitutional walk pretty much every day.  At one point, she and dad joined a soccer team.  We children all went to their games and cheered them on! 

She rarely ever sat down to rest, but when she did, it was to dive into a book or study the scriptures.  She had a special hexagon-shaped end table with a cabinet underneath where she kept her Bible and all her Bible materials to teach little children and she would sit there to prepare her Sunday school lesson and to study God’s word.

Lessons My Mom Taught Me

 “It’s what needed doing,” sums up a lot of her life decisions and explains her servant’s heart and sense of duty before God.  Her godly character and who she has always been is so deeply rooted inside of me that I couldn’t reject it if I tried. 

I don’t know if she set out intentionally to instill all these life lessons in us as children, although she probably did.  I only hope I can measure up to half the momma she has been and pass on the lessons to my own children.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! I love you!

Strength and dignity are her clothing,
    and she laughs at the time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
    and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household
    and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
    her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women have done excellently,
    but you surpass them all.”

Proverbs 31:25-29

I’d love to have you join me in your teaching and mothering journey. Let’s stay connected!