I sure wish I could call my mama now
After I was grown, married and living away from home, my mama used to constantly say two things to me.
Every time I went to see her, she reminded me how long it had been since I had been to see her. Then she always said, “I wish you would come more often.” Every time I called, she always said, “Well, I haven’t heard from you in a while.”
I might say, “Mom, I called you only a couple of days ago.” She would say, “Are you sure? It sure does seem like longer than that.”
Before I hung up she would say, “Don’t forget to call and come when you can.”
She used to say she wished I would bring my guitar when I came and sing her a song. The funny thing was, when I was a teenager playing some good ol’ rock and roll on the red electric guitar, she constantly said, “Would you please quit banging on that guitar or at least turn it down.”
Your mom did, or does, those same things too? They aren’t trying to be nagging parents; they just love us and miss us.
One mother showed her daughter a picture of herself waiting by the phone that never rings. Not long afterwards, her daughter called one day and got her mom’s answering machine. The recording said, “If you are a salesperson, press one. If you are a friend, press two. If you are my daughter, who never calls, hang up and call 911 because the shock of you calling will probably give me a heart attack!”
I realize that Mother’s Day is a day of mixed feelings and emotions for some. Some never knew their mother and unfortunately some may wish they hadn’t known theirs.
Some, myself included, had a great mother who loved them dearly but now she is gone. Mine has been gone for 17 years and I still miss her greatly. I can still enjoy sweet memories and laugh at some of the things she used to do and say.
Some of you are blessed enough to still have yours. If so, have you called your mother today? Better yet, go see her if you can.
Thank you, moms, for all the love, sacrifice and wonderful things you do. I hope you have a blessed and wonderful Mother’s Day.
—Bill King
EDITOR’S NOTE — Bill King is associational mission strategist for Tuskegee-Lee Baptist Association and a Christian humorist.
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‘First thoughts’
On the first day of each month since arriving at Samford in 2006, I’ve shared with students via email “First Thoughts,” an accumulation of matters that are rattling around in my brain. I suspect the percentage of students who automatically delete the messages is rather high, but sometimes I manage to break through the clutter. Such was the case with these points:
- I need to listen carefully.
- I need to guard and limit my own speech, spoken and written.
- I need to extend grace to others even if I feel I have not received grace from them.
- I need to find happiness in the fleeting moments of the day.
- I need to apologize —quickly and without qualifying conditions — when I have been wrong or when I have hurt someone.
- I need to recognize the loneliness I sometimes feel is actually shared by everyone.
- I need to take a walk when I’m stressed, even if it is raining and — perhaps — especially if it is raining.
- I need to remember that every person I see today is made in the image of God.
- I need to remember to love the Lord with all my heart and not lean on my own understanding.
—Andrew Westmoreland
EDITOR’S NOTE — Andrew Westmoreland is president of Samford University in Birmingham.
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Letters to the Editor
The article “A Glimpse of God” in the April 11, 2019, issue of TAB notes there are “evangelicals who are eager for a more nuanced approach to science — one that accepts the findings of evolution, for example, while also regarding the Bible as a source of ultimate authority.”
According to innumerable biblical scholars, pastors, scientists and students of the Bible, if the Bible is the “ultimate authority” because of its being accepted as God’s inerrant Word, then no evolutionary doctrine of origins could be considered.
God plainly states His method of Creation throughout the Bible and no evolutionary paradigm is found there. If life evolved from elements on a sterile Earth, one would reason that scientists who now have the best laboratories, chemicals and sources of energy, could produce life-forms from sterile components.
Yet after centuries of such experimentation, no success is found. The basic problem for biological evolution is the absence of any true scientific evidence supporting life’s origin.
It is surprising this article was printed in TAB, as it could dissuade some readers from the absolute truth of biblical origins.
Jerry Akridge
Arab, Ala.
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I do believe God is using the passage of this very offensive state law [expanding abortion rights] to awaken the conscience of many New Yorkers.
Terry Robertson
Executive director, Baptist Convention of New York
Our churches are all praying and even our associated churches that are not a part of our Baptist network have joined in too.
Michael Carlisle
Director of missions, San Diego Southern Baptist Association
Religious liberty is an inherent good and an inherent right, and it is inherently good for … a nation and nation leader to embrace this.
Sam Brownback
U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom
If the Lord puts a burden on your heart, don’t hesitate to respond.
Pastor Danny Sinquefield
Faith Baptist Church, Bartlett, Tenn.
During times of transitions God still challenges us to go and be on mission.
Ryan Brooks
Baptist campus minister, University of Alabama
There is an appropriate and necessary anger that must be nurtured in our hearts toward the sin in others and in ourselves. As we channel our anger in this way — as we correct and rebuke one another, not as with a sword to destroy but as with a scalpel to heal — we become channels of God’s love to one another.
Scott Sauls
Author, “Irresistible Faith: Becoming the Kind of Christian the World Can’t Resist”
It is only when I am completely vulnerable before God that I find true freedom. I am not in control. I am not invincible. I am not superwoman. When I can stand totally stripped and vulnerable before God, He becomes the wind in my face, the power on which I ride, and I become a conduit for His work through me. In Psalm 104, the psalmist sings the praises of the Lord’s creation and providence. … Being vulnerable before God makes me able to walk on the wings of the wind with Him and experience the freedom that comes with complete surrender.
Terri Stovall
Dean of women and professor of women’s ministries, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
According to Leslie Leyland Fields in “The Myth of the Perfect Parent,” Bible-believing parents have imbibed the philosophy of John B. Watson, an early 20th-century psychologist who boasted he could train any child. Christians often follow the same kind of behaviorism, giving it a Christian veneer with selected Bible verses. And yet many children in evangelical homes are not “turning out” the way we hope or expect. Our expectations of parenting are clearly off-kilter and need to be rethought.
Stan Guthrie
Author, Christian Bible Studies ChristianityToday.com
There are a thousand things you can do and be. Ask God to be your everything, and then in His leading, go find them and do them.
Grace Thornton
GracefortheRoad.com
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From the Twitterverse
@jdgreear
On this #NationalDayOfPrayer, asking God that he would make our nation a more kind, civil society. Praying we would assume the best, give the benefit of the doubt, & extend grace to the level Jesus did for us on the cross.
@museumofBible
The Bible is saturated with prayer with praise, prayer and praying mentioned over 500 times! As you engage with the Bible on this #NationalDayofPrayer, you’ll discover the prominence given to prayer in every aspect of this book of books!
@doogilla
Pastors, spend more time in the Word than on social media, more time with your family than seeking to win wars on Twitter, more time shepherding the flock amongst you than scrolling through memes, more time protecting your members from error than trying to correct everyone online.
@billineastala
Was reminded this morning that today is the eighth anniversary of one of the most stressful days of my life, and everything turned out well. God answers prayer.
@SHoddeMiller
Aspiring women leaders, the gravitational pull of your ministry will always be “to be encouraging,” but what the church desperately needs is women who are prepared to name evil and face off with it.
@rayortlund
Never give up. Someone else needs you. They need your weakness, anguish, bewilderment. They need to see a buffeted Christian go to Christ and hang on for dear life and make it through. They need that from you today, and they will need the memory of it years from now. Hang on!
@newsomblake
On the need for humble ministers, Lloyd-Jones: “You read the old records of the activities of God’s greatest workers, the great evangelists and others, and you observe how self-effacing they were. But today we are experiencing something that is almost an exact reversal of this.
@DrPaulChitwood
“You don’t have to have a passport to join the @IMB_SBC strategy to reach the nations. Prayer is a crucial part of our strategy” @JToddL #1Tim1:2
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