The Ballestero Blog

Call Yer Mom!

My cousin Pastor Clayton Brown and I sat in the quaint little Italian restaurant across from Bro. Paul Price in Napa, California. It was an honor for us to have supper with such a respected Pentecostal leader. He had been a dear friend of my family and my wife’s family over the years.

“I hear that you call your mother every day. Is that true?”

Those were his first words that evening as we sat down to eat. I was taken by surprise.

“I do my best to call her every day. Sometimes we have a problem connecting because I’m in a bad area or something.”

“Yes but you do try?” He pushed the subject. But now I noticed his eyes were beginning to brim with tears.

“Absolutely!”

The tears still made me wonder why this subject brought emotion so close to the surface for him.

“I’m proud of you for that. I wished more sons would call their widowed mothers.

“I just got off the phone talking to a man about that. I had to bawl him out for neglecting to call his widowed mother. She had no one to check on her. She was desperate to hear his voice. He said he was busy. I can’t tell you how much that upset me.

“Do you know that the Bible has much to say about the treatment of widows? There are curses on those that mistreat and neglect them. God hates them that do.”

The air was not completely out of Bro. Price’s sail yet on the subject, but we were interrupted by the waiter. Although we never continued the subject, I never forgot it.

I didn’t want to know who the person was, but I was glad it wasn’t me and that I had tried to call my Mom as often as I could. I also didn’t know who’d told on me, but I was glad I got caught doing something good for once.

Although my own Mom does very good for 88 years, there are many moments when I wish her short term memory was better. I may have to remind her a time or two within a single phone call where I’m preaching a revival or if my wife is with me or at our house.

It doesn’t matter whether she can remember tomorrow that I called her today or not. I remember. Right now that’s what matters to me.

I’ve pray my children keep close tabs on my beloved wife when I’m gone.

Oh, and here’s a bit of unasked for advice for the rest of you… ‘Call yer Mom!’