I love my mother-in-law. I love her because she gave birth to a little precious boy 35 years ago. She nurtured him, provided for him, and taught him how to love. She kissed all his boo-boos, and wiped away his tears. I know that she was nervous to send her little one to school and she provided him with flowers to give to his teacher on the first day. When her son was ill, she had wished it was her instead of him.
She is a Godly mother who loves and fears the Lord. A day has never passed where she had not said a prayer for her son.
She is not perfect and I may not like some of the things she says but I will choose to honor her with kind words instead. I will choose to throw her a beautiful birthday party set for a queen. I will make the effort to go to her work on her son’s birthday and give her flowers and balloons. On her birthday, I will let her know by giving her a birthday card that I choose to be like Ruth. I will go where she goes. Her God will be my God.
I will honor her because I love her son. If she had not chosen to keep him, I would not have had the joy of spending more than half of my life with her son. I would have not had the four sweet beautiful children that I have today.
So you see, at the end of the day it is important to set aside bitterness, hurt, and frustration. Listen to her advice and her concerns. You do not have to follow them but honor her by showing her you have considered them.
I know that you might be thinking that you will never say the things she says when you become a mother-in-law but chances are…. you will.
Honor her the way that you would like to be honored in the future. The Lord reminds us in his word to treat others the way we want to be treated. We forget so often that she has lived through the stages that we are currently in today. She has made mistakes. She has learned the hard way and has wished that she could have done some days over again. Our mother-in-law’s know things that we do not understand. So just maybe we should listen to a thing or two she has to say.
Honor her by not speaking poorly about her to your children. If she brings candy every time she visits, let it be. This may be the way she shows that she loves them, don’t take that away from her. In life some things are not worth fighting over.
Honor your mother-in-law because she is worth honoring.