OF BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, JESUS CHRIST AND LOVE

OF BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, JESUS CHRIST AND LOVE By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman 08/29/13 A mother's love, like a mother's milk, is the most wholesome form of nutrition for her baby. I was blessed to have both during my infancy. Love's lactation has never stopped, drizzling, even now, upon my soul, although Mama died in 2004. Mama loved school and learning. But, she dropped out in 1950 to birth me, her matrix-opener. From my earliest days of existence, Mama told me repeatedly of 2 men, over and over again. They were the educator and leader, Booker Taliaferro Washington, and our Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. She told and retold to me the story of the Tuskegee Institute-founder's life, as much as she knew. She told me how he had started out in slavery, had walked hundreds of miles to college. Then, once there, he earned his fees and tuition, and got his lesson by sweeping the floors, cleaning rooms, and listening. Although Mama never finished high school, nor did Daddy, they made sure that all 8 of their children did complete high school and went on to college. That's where Jesus Christ comes in most critically. Alone and away from home, one meets life frontally and unfiltered. It is then that you need an anchor. A mother's and a father's prayers and efforts are that anchor. Financial crises are overcome thereby, as are personal crises, indecisions and doubts allayed thereby. For me and for my family, constant succor came through the knowledge of, and through the faith in, Jesus Christ, whose light and whose love had shone steadily through both sides of our family, guiding and protecting our lives in Mississippi, in Missouri, and well beyond. Jesus Christ was present in our every day lives as a source of strength, and as a present help! Even the youngest and most common of mothers can love, should love, must love their babies! Love requires no education nor advanced training; it needs no expensive formulas nor implements, either. Even the most basic of mothers has a hero or heroine, that she can inspire and regale her children with. Even the rudest and crudest of mothers have heard of the baby Jesus who was born in a manger; who confounded the scholars, doctors and lawyers, at puberty; and who died on a cross to save mankind. Love, history and spirituality are, to sum up, the most critical factors in child-rearing and development. For us, it was Booker T. Washington and Jesus Christ. For you it may be others. That is your choice. But, either way you go, do recall and never forget that “the greatest of these is love.” 1 Cor. 13:13.