I’m Still Alive Because My Mother Didn’t Strangle Me

Testing the limits of patience, physics, and a mother’s iron-clad faith

I was that child, you know the one. The one that would take a cardboard box and turn it into wings and jump off the top of the house to see if they could fly. The child that the school had to call their parents every day. The child that would just disappear early in the morning and not come back home until after dark. That was me.

I raised my mother’s blood pressure more than just a few times. I’m sure she wanted to strangle me, in fact I heard her say it several times. I think I am only alive because murdering your child breaks one of the Ten Commandments. I think the Lord put that commandment in there just to protect a few of us that he knew would test our parents patience.

There were five of us kids and I was the “Emergency Room” child. The one, that for no fault of my own…Ok, it was my fault sometimes, ended up in the emergency room on a regular basis. I still do for some reason. However, the Lord has blessed me because I have never had a broken bone. ( I literally just knocked on wood after writing that.)

Ok, wait, I did fracture a vertebrae in my back, but I was an adult…and it was no fault of my own. Well, sorta.

But I am almost certain that if my mother hadn’t been a christian, I would have been the one she sacrificed because she had four more. And I quickly learned that reminding her that ‘patience is a virtue’ when she was mad at me…..was also just as bad of an idea as jumping off the house with cardboard wings. ( I still think that will work somehow)

Her prayers for me never stopped even when I was an adult, they only intensified. I believe that her prayers over me was the safety net that caught me after life had pushed me off of a cliff. From job loss, divorce and many other things, I truly believe it was her prayers and sacrifice that put a hedge of protection around me.

As a child, she was my light in the darkness and now as an adult I see where her light came from, her faith. I know it’s the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that provides salvation, but in my mind, it’s the sacrifice of mothers that leads their children to the Savior.

I know the world says that mothers raise children but in my case she went further and petitioned Heaven on my behalf. I still have those moments in life where it feels like I am standing on the edge of the roof with nothing but cardboard wings, but now when I look down, I no longer see all the mistakes I made, I see grace.

I’m still thankful for those Ten Commandments that kept me alive as a boy, but now I am grateful for the faith that I learned through my mother that keeps me whole as a man. My mother is gone now, but I am truly thankful for when she stood on the Word when I was too busy trying to fly.

My life is a legacy of grace that started in the Appalachian Mountains, by a woman who knew her wildest child needed more than just a good talking too, he needed a Savior. And because she never stopped praying and leading me there, I finally found the one thing that actually lets me fly. Be sure to thank the one who has led you.

( Wait, wings are too small, what about a hang-glider made out of cardboard?)