I answered, "Maryann!"

#LightTheWorld Day 5

Matthew 15:4 ".....Honour thy father and mother.....". 

I have learned, through the years, that to honor our parents really means that we are kind and loving to others, good citizens in our community, willing to help others be successful, and striving to give our very best each day to our work and other obligations.

I think it is essential for us to understand that our parents did their very best and provided the best life for us that they knew how to give. At some point, honoring them means that we must forgive them for those instances in life where we felt that their parenting was unfair. 

Now that I am older, I choose to remember those little things that are sweet and tender about my parents. 

My mother helped me memorize little readings and monologues that I would present at Farm Bureau Talent Shows. I distinctly remember being very young, standing on stage with the heavy, deep-red, velvet curtains behind me and resighting the family-favorite poem entitled "Maryann". I was holding my favorite doll, Betsy, in my arms looking at my mother sitting on the front row of chairs smiling and encouraging and oh......so proud!    

Maryann

I studied my times tables over and over

And forward and backward too

And I couldn’t remember six times nine

And I didn’t know what to do.

My sister told me to play with my dolls

And not to bother my head.

If I called one fifty-four for a while

I’d learn it by heart she said.

So I took my favorite Maryann

And thought it a terrible shame

To call such a perfectly lovely child

Such a dreadful, horrid name.

I called her my dear little fifty-four

For a hundred times or more

‘Till I knew the answer to six times nine

As well as two times four.

One day at school Elizabeth Wiggleworth

Who always acts so proud

Said six times nine was sixty-four

And I nearly laughed out loud.

But I wished I hadn’t when teacher said,

“Now Dorothy (Michelle), tell if you can,”

I thought of my doll and sakes alive,

I answered, “Maryann!”