(Thank you God for letting Faith Evangeline (Kopp) Cass be my mother!  I honor her on this Mother’s Day.)

When taking a nap my mother always had to have at least a sheet over her.  I didn’t understand why she felt a “draft”.  Hello!  I now have to have a covering over me when taking a nap!  (And yet at night I throw off the blanket … go figure!)

Mom drank hot water with a lemon.  No way I said.  OK … so I do that also.

Mom always took a sweater with her into an air conditioned store.  Yeah, you guessed it … I do likewise!  And yet in the car I want that AC directed at my face!!

When I look in the mirror without my make-up, I see my mother!  And yet most people say I look like my dad.  Well, the mirror doesn’t lie!

I can also remember when my youngest daughter threw up her hands and said, “I AM MY MOTHER!”  And in many ways she is 🙂

My mother was a focused woman.  She loved daddy, my brother and me, the ministry and her trumpet.  Earthly things were not important to her.  When mom and daddy died they had nothing of earthly value … no jewelry, no property (except a very old mobile home!) and little money in the bank.  They lived below their social security income.  And try as we did to get them to move into a nicer place, it was always “No, we are happy here.”

How do I want to emulate my mother?

She was a woman of prayer.  She prayed privately and she prayed with daddy.  Oh my, I remember hearing my name and my brother’s name called out in prayer.  That’s hard to forget.  She prayed for missionaries and those in need in the churches they pastored.

She loved her Bible.  It was a marked Bible and believe me it was marked!

Mom did not waste time in frivolous reading.  I don’t ever remember my mom reading much of anything except the Bible and the Pentecostal Evangel (magazine of the Assemblies of God).  Oh, I do think she read the Christ for the Nations magazine.  I don’t ever remember her reading any Family Circle, Women’s Day, Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping or anything similar.

Mom was NOT a gossiper.  In fact as hard as I would try to get information out of her on anybody, she kept her lips sealed.  Even to her dying day I couldn’t get her to talk about what happened at L.I.F.E. Bible College (she attended and graduated from there in the 30’s) concerning Aimee Semple McPherson!  Even though I had read various books on the subject … she was mum.

Mom was a partner with daddy in ministry.  Mom could preach.  Mom played the piano and her trumpet.  Mom taught Sunday School.  Early in their ministry mom worked in the office of the Christian Day School in the church they pastored.  She even did radio work early in their marriage.

Mom loved the ministry.  Her health was always the best when they were overseas doing missionary evangelism.  In mom’s later years I asked her one day what her favorite hymn was (I was thinking ahead for her memorial service when needed!) and her answer, “Rescue the Perishing” … that was mom’s heart.

Mom taught me how to clean house.  Every Saturday morning I had my chores … change sheets, hang laundry outside, dust furniture … all before I could play outside!  Oh yes, she taught me how to sprinkle and iron shirts (days before steam irons!) too!

Mom taught me to turn to God when I had a problem.  I remember well the day I was ironing with tears running down my face.  She asked what was wrong and I blurted out my indecision regarding a guy!  Mom’s advice?  Take it to Father!  I did and thank God the guy got out of my life!

Mom usually could be heard singing around the house (daddy was a “hummer”!)  One I remember well,

“Speak to my heart, I’ll do my part.

Speak to my waiting, listening heart.

Show me Thy will, my place to fill.

Speak to me, speak to my heart.”

Yes, I often sing around the house as well!  One of my son-in-laws remarked one day, “Now I know where your daughter gets it!”  She’s a house singer too!

I smile as I look back at some of the things mom did and did not do.  She was an excellent editor for daddy’s writings.  Spelling and grammar were her thing (sorry mom, they are NOT mine!).  In grammar school she won the spelling bees.  So even when I was in college and wrote letters home she would circle my misspellings and send the letters back to me!!  That did not make me a happy camper! Ha.  I can still see her little marks for punctuation, spelling, etc on my letters.

Mom also typed on an old Underwood typewriter and would NOT even go near daddy’s electric, then word processor and finally his computer.  No, no, NO!  I guess if the old Underwood was good enough for Jesus it was good enough for her! (Smile)

Mom and I weren’t real close as she was a very intense person.  Daddy was the warm and fuzzy one.  But mom taught well, she loved well and she loved God.

That is what I want to emulate.