Judy's Jewels, Volume 1

I don't know if I have told you before that my mom has always had most of the answers. When I was growing up, she was a walking dictionary. It came in handy when I was doing homework. She has gained much wisdom from experience, and she reads a lot. I appreciate that she is good about passing along jewels of wisdom gained from life, books, or people in her path. I will take all the help I can get! If something touches or inspires her, she is good about sharing it. She should probably be blogging about it...but she does not blog nearly enough these days. It's true. So I thought what if I took it upon myself to impart Judy's Jewels to the blogging world? Kids are not the only ones who need to be recorded! So this is my first in what I anticipate to be a series of posts on this topic. May you be as richly blessed by them as I am.

There are certain quotes from my mom that resurface often over the years. These are the ones that are so classic that my sister and I say them to each other if Mom is not there to say them for herself. Here are two examples.

"Assign the problem to whom it belongs."

Sometimes we worry about situations over which we have no control. Conditions in our schools, communities, or places of work. Maybe even among family members or friends. No good comes from worry, so at the end of the day, assigning the problem to whom it belongs is a great policy. If the problem is yours, work on it. If it belongs to others, let them work on it. If anyone involved needs some divine intervention, it couldn't hurt to ask for some. Mostly, she wants us to remove those unnecessary burdens from our shoulders.

"How do you eat an elephant?"

This comes up when I am overwhelmed. When duties start stacking up and I can't figure out where to start to remedy the situation. The answer is, "One bite at a time." It is impossible to fix everything all at once, so I have to step back and chip away at it one small step, or small bite, at a time. What are some things your mother told you that should be shared?