Aunt Jemimah - Pancakes & Consequences

Aunt Jemimah - Pancakes & Consequences

It has been said: “You can choose your sin but not your CONSEQUENCES.” How true. When I was seven years old I slipped up, mouthed off and was grabbed by my collar and ushered into our bathroom. My loving Mother took a bar of soap, opened up my mouth and was instructed to stick my tongue out like a lizard looking for lunch. For the next minute my mother “washed my mouth out with soap.”

I don’t recall the curse word that came out of my childhood mouth during those adolescent years but I can attest to this truth. Not to sound haughty or “holier than though” but it was nearly a decade later before another curse word slipped out of my mouth! Consequences can be hidden friends to help us grow in grace and get to the next level in life. Another episode occured when my parents told me and my two siblings to put all our toys in the toy box. Like most kids, their instruction went in one ear and out the other. My mother came back a second time and looked a little more serious and said: “I will not warn you again – clean this room and put your toys back in the box or you will have CONSEQUENCES.” Now picture Andy Rooney from “60 Minutes” saying this: “Have you ever noticed that sometimes we fail to take heed to instruction and/or worse believe the rules were made for others?” Boy, was I dumb growing up. The next thing I know my mom (who really is a loving person) stormed in our playroom the third time like a tornado in Texas and we were DOA (dead on arrival).

Mom had enough! Now, we were going to learn one of my most painful but powerful lessons of our childhood to date. Ironically, she helped us clean up the mess but instead of putting them back in the toy box she had a trash bag in her hand and she started putting all our favorite toys in that bag. TRUST ME – she had our attention now. Then she escorted me with my brother and sister “in tow” and we were instructed to get in the car (with our toys). Without saying a word (those are usually the most powerful statements, sermons or speeches) my mother drove to the poorest side of town and found the poorest house we had ever seen in Southern Maryland. Without missing a beat mom got out of the car while the three of us kids looked like a “deer in the headlights” sitting in the back of the car. Mom walked right up to the door, rang the bell and looked like a white female Santa with a bag filled with “OUR FAVORITE TOYS.”

The poor lady looked like Aunt Jemimah and her kids came from behind her and wrapped around her like a boa constricter and they began jumping, my heart was thumping and now the woman (with our toys) is crying and my brother, sister and I, were literally dying that our toys are now in the hands and home of someone else!

Why? Because of our carelessness and Mom’s CONSEQUENCES – we got what we wanted but lost what we had. It is imperative that we receive instruction and learn to live right and be grateful for what we have. That was a poignant lesson my mother taught us on multiple levels as kids. One, she taught us about OBEDIENCE. Because we failed to listen to her instruction – others won (with our toys). She also taught me about GIVING. They say it is “better to give than receive.” Looking back the truth is it is far “better to give” but more beneficial under more sincere motives. However, because of those childhood “wake up” calls as an adult, I try to be a “giver” not just out to get. Lastly, she taught us by her actions (more than words) that each decision comes with consequences. Today, as an adult I am better for it but may we all live for the Lord like never before. Three decades later, I am reminded it is better to be “content” than suffer CONSEQUENCES.