Things mom never taught me

This morning as I got ready for the day, I slathered lotion on my legs and arms and just giggled. My mind is always processing - remembering, thinking.

About 20 years ago in February, I was at a prayer retreat. Those were always wonderful weekends. But, one afternoon I went back to my room - my legs were so dry, I nearly scratched them raw! Carol had a little bit of lotion in her travel bag, I had none.

This was one of those things that mom didn't do well with. She was never into the body care stuff at all. If there was lotion like that in the house, the bottle was thrown out long before it was emptied just because it was so old.

Mom didn't take us to stylists (well, she did once and it was a disaster), she didn't know how or teach us to use makeup. Her complexion was amazing, her eyes were stunning and she might have used a little lipstick when she dressed up. It wasn't important to her. She didn't paint her nails and would never have dreamed of something like a pedicure.

So, it was in my 30s when I realized how important lotion is during the dry winter months. And just this year, I finally realized that putting some on the bottom of my feet would actually be a good idea in order to avoid those hideous moments of itching when you're in a meeting and can't take your shoes off!

I chuckle when I realize how I didn't receive any of this information from mom and how I had to figure it out on my own. Silly things.

Those are the things she didn't teach me.

The things she did teach me are far and away of greater consequence than a few lessons on personal care.

I still hear her voice in my head when I drive (those driving lessons must have been intense!). I learned how to teach from her. There was nothing she loved more than transmitting information she had just learned to someone else. I learned to love the written word, whether I was writing or reading. She taught me that the people who weren't 'popular' were actually more interesting, a lot more fun and definitely more loyal as friends. She loved me so much that I couldn't imagine a life without love. I learned that I was a person of worth because she imagined nothing else for me.

Mom's passion for the Bible lives in me. Once that woman found out who Jesus really was, she was His for life.

She balanced her passion for Jesus with a passion for people, so that doctrine and rules were never more important than His love for them.

Mom was never bored. There was always something going on in her mind. She hated busy work, housework, meetings ... anything that took her away from being creative. She taught me how to live like that. Life is too short to only be spent on the mundane.

The things mom didn't take time to teach me are so insignificant that I can only giggle when they occur to me because the things that she did teach me are what define me today.