The Rare Commodity of a Good Role Model

I’ve been blessed with good role models throughout my life; women who I wanted to emulate. I remember Ms. H. She was beautiful, statuesque, and her make-up was flawless. She was my third grade teacher. I wanted to be Ms. H; she commanded respect from the class. Ms. H taught me you don’t have to yell to be heard. Then there was Ms. M. She was my Sunday school teacher. She had beautiful long black hair. Ohhhhh, this lady would make me so mad, but deep down I wanted to be like her too. She knew the Bible and could talk to me about Jesus at my level. It seemed that every time I moved to the next class in Sunday school so did Ms. M. She would call me by my name and say “young lady I expect more from you”. I’m grateful to her, because my relationship with the Lord is based on a firm foundation fostered by the lessons taught by Ms. M. Then as an adult I met SD. I looked at her marriage and I wanted the same type of marriage. I witnessed her and her husband laughing, playing and more importantly they seemed to work together for the common goal of their household. However, the best role model I’ve had is my mother. I wanted to be all of these women but today I am my mother. I see her every time I look in the mirror. I see her bags under my eyes, I see her big forehead, but most importantly see her beauty and compassion. She taught me that bad things happen to good people, but your life does not have to be defined by those bad things. My mother used to say, “I can show you better than I can tell you”. I find myself using that exact phrase on many occasions. I learned more from my mother’s actions than I did from her words. I saw her roll out of bed going to work daily. While she didn’t teach me how to be domestic she did teach me the importance of being an independent thinker. I was never allowed to follow the crowd. She taught me how to be a parent. My sister and I were her first priority. Another one of my mother’s saying is “When you learn better you do better.” I keep trying to do better. I thank the Lord for the rare commodity of good role models.