I don’t know where this came from but it certainly could have been me. A universal truth seems to be at work.
“My mother taught me so many Godly virtues throughout my childhood that have stayed with me even to this day. I can’t imagine where I’d be without her. She taught me to pray. I can still hear her saying, “You better pray that comes out of the carpet!” She instilled a sense of imagination in me, “Don’t do that again or else….” “Or else what?” She taught me how to anticipate, “Just you wait until your father comes home….” She taught me how to count…at least to three (“1, 2, 3!”). She taught me repentance, “Don’t you ever do that again….” And she taught me self-control, “Don’t touch anything…” and then she’d often combine self-control with imagination, “or else….”
Just so……….
In the Large Catechism Martin Luther explains the Fourth Commandment (“Honor your father and your mother”) with these words, “God has given this walk of life, fatherhood and motherhood, a special position of honor, higher than that of any walk of life under it … he distinguishes father and mother above all other persons on earth, and places them next to himself”.
