"Maiden" Mothering

Try explaining to a chip-devouring, Dr Pepper-consuming, book-engulfing 14-year old girl (Sounds a lot like someone you used to know, huh?) that NOW is the training period for domestic skills needed in marriage. That was my job this morning as I discipled my young student in the ways of HOUSEHOLD DUTIES.

There were a few gasps and attempts of explanation as to WHY starting at home (of all places!) was a bad idea. But I held out and am almost certain to have scored a few points in the domestic department.

I gave her a take-home quiz to test her (late?) blooming domestic abilities. She had no good reasons that I haven't heard or lived through myself to NOT do (more than?) her share of keeping house. But it made me smile to hear them coming from someone else, nonetheless.

While I am thankful to God that He has given me a position of discipling the younger women, I cannot help but smile at the irony of it. It wasn't many years ago, that I was the younger woman, desperately needing the counsel and guidance of wise and godly mothers. Being that I am still very young, and also youthful (which is very different from being young *wink, wink*), I am in a wonderful position of gaining the trust of girls who are neglected in teaching at home.

My own daughter is also learning the beauty in domestic support here at home! I've watched her mature-- from that unorganized child that we all started out as-- and develop into a most beautiful young lady who faithfully "keeps" her spot in the home clean and free of clutter.

She is now learning to bake and takes joy in serving others. And what a joy she is to me!

My own "maiden" years, comical as they may have been, began with a rough & awkward start; quite painful in many ways!

At age 13, my (much) younger cousin had to show me how to boil water and make Ramen noodles. This is about the time I had to learn how to "cook" tasteless eggs in a plastic bowl in the microwave (because I was afraid of the stove-fire, no less). I was doing a bit better by the time I was 14, except I didn't know there was a difference between ground pork and ground beef. This was quite traumatizing when I and my little brother dived into a huge plate of eggs n' sausage to find out, it wasn't quite. "It just doesn't taste like when Mom makes it." Go figure.

I still remember a phone conversation with a friend and coworker of my mom's: "Is my mom there?" "No, she's out right now. What do you need?" "Um. How do you know when the egg is boiled all the way?" Silence. "I'm not sure-- Isn't it supposed to float or something? Did you try tapping it to see if it cracks?"

When Mom took on school AND work to learn a career and have some money at the same time, I took on the "mother" role--trying to help in all ways possible (for a thirteen/fourteenish girl, that is).

Every morning (more often than not), after a shower and a quick clean-up of my own room, I headed to the master bedroom to make her bed, open her curtains and clear her dresser. (That always gets messed up when you're dressing in a hurry.)

I'd get in her closet where she kept baskets of clean clothes from last night's laundry and began the long process of ironing each individual piece and hanging them up. I aquired many burns! [All this came back to memory last summer as I was teaching a few 13-year olds how to iron. At first I was surprised they had never ironed before, but enjoyed the process of showing them all the right ways to NOT burn your fingers, hands, arms, ect.]

I can still remember the first few successes of cooking! Brilliant! One was a spaghetti I made for Mom. --Both parents tried it and stated that it was "pretty good", but I think that was out of politeness.

The other was a few years later, at age 16, when I cooked my first meal for my boyfriend. Nothing like greasy homemade tacos! I maintain to this day that this is why he married me.