Tim Wildmon

AFA president

Above, the Wildmons circa 1973: Front – Donna, Angela; Back – Don, Mark, Lynda, Tim

May 2017 – You ever wonder why God gave us only Ten Commandments? I say “only” because that doesn’t seem like a lot of rules to follow. But then again, because we are so apt to disobey God, we tend to violate these 10.

It shouldn’t be that way. It doesn’t have to be that way, but I’m going on personal experience and what I know to be true from others. Our goal each day should be to live as God, has taught in the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount.

In Exodus 20:12, we find the fifth commandment: “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”

Now, the Ten Commandments were given to the children of Israel. But because they are reconfirmed in the New Testament it means that they apply to Christians today as well. So, believers are to “honor” their parents. For most of you reading this, you don’t have a problem with this because you have had a good relationship with your parents. However, for others who have had an alcoholic father or a drug addicted mother, it may not be so easy.

The best way I can answer this is to use the presidency as an example. I didn’t agree with much on anything President Obama did in office, but I still had respect for the office of the presidency. I see this commandment in the same way. We are to hold in high esteem the “office” of mother.

I certainly find this easy to do with my mom. Lynda Lou Bennett was born June 23, 1940, in Booneville, Mississippi. Like many of that generation she was raised on a farm with three younger siblings in the rolling hills of Tishomingo County in the northeast corner of the state.

In high school and college, mom was a beauty queen, a basketball star (who once scored 54 points in a game), and a top scholar.

One summer she attended Blue Mountain College in nearby Blue Mountain, Mississippi, where she met a young man named Don Wildmon who asked her out for a date. She declined, saying she had to study for a chemistry class. He asked her a second time, and she declined. She had to get her hair done. Fortunately for me, Don swallowed his pride and asked her out a third time, and finally she said yes. They went to a movie and on the way back to the dorm, Don told Lynda he was going to marry her. That’s right, on their first date. Dad was ambitious like that and almost always got what he went after.

I was the first of four children Mom had from 1963 to 1971. The photo below was taken in about 1973. That’s me next to my mom.

She served dad faithfully as a pastor’s wife – even though she couldn’t play the piano. (I don’t know about where you’re from, but a pastor has a lot better chance of getting a pulpit in a little southern church if his wife plays the piano.)

She taught junior high home economics after we all reached school age, and she taught cake decorating classes on the side to help make ends meet. Like any good mother, she invested herself into teaching her four children right from wrong and how to get the most out of life. If she ever sinned, I don’t think anyone knows about it. She was – and is still today – a traditional, mannered, sweet, loving, praying, caring southern belle. In short, she is a godly Proverbs 31 woman.

We need to do as the Bible says and honor our mothers. Jesus certainly did. There is an old saying: The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.

How true that saying is. How true it is.

Thanks for all you’ve done for me, Mom. Happy Mother’s Day!