Mama Required Manners

It is true I was born and raised in the south. It is true southern girls are taught manners from a young age, or at least in my mama's house. My Mama thought if you breathed air, you had a responsibility to do something for someone else and, least of all, clean up after yourself. I do believe my Mama could sniff out a speck of dust I missed, better than one of my daddy's old bloodhounds could sniff out a rabbit. 

We were taught to keep our rooms clean, "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" she always reminded us. If pots and pans started to rattling in the kitchen we had better get in there to..."see if you can help your

Mama." Wiping the table and setting the plates and napkins out were always done by the 'help,' my sister and me. We always 'wiped' the table again after we ate and cleaned up the table. Remember, cleanliness is next to Godliness! It was a clean kitchen, Mama required it. 

She required other things in life, that southern girls 'ought' to do, like writing out 'thank yous' for the birthday gifts or Christmas gifts. There was once she made my sister write a thank you for a lady complimenting her dress at church! Mama said it was awfully nice of that lady to say such sweet things, she needs to be told how kind and thoughtful she had been. Oh yes, the notes had to be handwritten, since there was not such thing as facebook or text or twitter! 

The thought comes to me how special those written notes are to someone. Now that we have technology, most folks send an electronic message, if they send one at all. But the handwritten notes take time and sure mean a lot more than a mere 'smiley' on a phone. 

When we went to visit relatives or friends, we always cleaned up our plates and any mess we may have made, before we left. Mama's rule was: Leave the place nicer than you found it. Make up the beds, clean the dishes or anything else that needed to be done.

Now this was hard when we visited my Aunt Ruby in Florence, AL. Aunt Ruby never had any children and her house was spotless with little knick-knacks everywhere (which we were not allowed to touch.) I remember visiting there once and she was serving Brussel sprouts. Now to a 10 year old young, southern girl, you had to have your best manners on guard at her house, no matter what food was being served. Oh how I remember quietly spitting my Brussel sprouts out in my white, cloth napkin, trying to keep them from rolling out of my lap! When we were cleaning off the table, my Aunt Ruby simply picked up my napkin, holding it in a ball. I thought surely they were going to roll everywhere! I watched in fear. She walked to her pantry, opened up the little garbage lid, shook the little sprouts out of the napkin. When she turned back to look at me, she winked and placed the napkin with the others. She never said a word to Mama. I think Aunt Ruby was also raised a southern girl, she had that special twinkle in her eye!

We all have different backgrounds, but now that we are children of the King, don't we need to act like we are the family of God? We need to do like my Mama said, "Leave this a better place, than you found it." We need to be kindhearted, gentle, meek and all those things of the spirit, as we help one another. Isn't it good to belong to someone that cares enough about us, to still guide us and love us? He does!

“By wisdom a house is built, & through understanding it is established.”
Proverbs 24:3 


Blessings,
gs