When I was a little boy, my mom would often vaporize me. No, not the Star Trek phaser vaporization to eliminate me, but Vicks® Vaporub® put into the top of our 1950’s era vaporizer. The vaporizer would be put in our room, and she would apply Vaporub® to my chest. If I needed an aspirin, she would crush it and put it in grape jam for me to eat. We often had Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup as well. Mom wasn’t perfect, but she did everything she could to care for my physical body and was concerned about my emotional and spiritual needs as well.

The go-to cure for the many colds I got as a child.

I thought of Mom’s multifaceted care recently. Cindie told me her brother Brad’s doctor recommended Vicks® Vaporub® for his toenails. My toenails are getting thicker and were getting discolored, so I thought I would try it too. It is almost a miracle transformation.  Sometimes the cures from sixty years ago still work, even if it is at the other end of this old body. I still take aspirin per doctor’s orders and enjoy Progresso® chicken soup with rice.

While your mom perhaps wasn’t everything she should have been or is, God gives specific instructions about how you and I are to think about and treat our moms. God said, “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” Deuteronomy 5:16 (ESV) This is not just presented as a “good idea” but as something required. Here is how important God views this commandment: “’Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’” – Deuteronomy 27:16 (ESV) Let that sink in. Let’s honor our fathers and mothers.

Here is some good advice for mothers who are still caring for young children:

Desiring God: https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/soul-care-for-exhausted-young-mothers