Why Mothers Would Make Good Politicians

By Dr. James L. Snyder

In thinking of Mother’s Day, I could not help but think about the mess our country is in right now. Not that messes remind me of mothers in particular, but honesty compels me to admit they are good at cleaning up messes. Moreover, the messes they cleanup are not their doing, which is what makes it so terrific.

Somebody needs to clean up the mess we are in.

Anybody who steps outside their house knows that the country is in a terrible mess these days. It would be impossible to blame one political party over another. In this area, everybody is equal. The truth is, politicians make messes. Furthermore, they leave these messes for other people to clean up. Many politicians have dirty mouths and minds, but none has dirty hands from cleaning up messes.

There are two kinds of politicians in our country. Those who make messes and those who allow those messes to be made. Wouldn’t it be nice to find a politician who actually would clean up a mess?

Our country is in the soup, and not the kind of soup your mother used to make. Politicians make soup out of circumstances that nobody can stomach while mothers have a marvelous way of making soup out of almost anything, and it tastes heavenly, plus it is good for you.

Not too long ago some politicians were in an uproar and quite nervous over the swine flu situation. And there was good reason. With all the pork in Washington these days, they should be afraid they might catch whatever is going around. Maybe, and I know I’m a little sadistic here, it might be good for a couple of them (okay, all of them) to come down with some kind of flu and send them to their beds for at least a month. Maybe a high fever might clear up their thinking. Plus, our country could use a vacation from politicians. We could put them all in quarantine until the danger is over. (I’ll let them know when it is over. Honest.)

But getting back to my subject, I believe mothers would make wonderful politicians. There are several reasons why I think so. Mothers, generally speaking, know how to ask questions.

“Have you washed behind your ears?”
“What time are you coming back?”
“Do you have clean underwear?”
“If all your friends jumped off a bridge would you?”

It is one thing to ask a question, but it is another thing altogether to ask the right question. I firmly believe asking questions is a highly refined art. Politicians, for example, ask questions they think people are asking. Before they query any audience, they take 197 polls to make sure they have the right question so they are not embarrassed.

Mothers, on the other hand, ask questions to embarrass you and put you back on the straight and narrow.

Politicians rarely expect answers to their questions. They are all rhetorical. They ask questions in such a way that nobody in their right mind could ever answer it. Quite frankly, if they ever got an answer to a question they would be so shocked they would not know what to do about it.

Mothers expect an answer to their questions immediately…without delay.

Their universal answer to everything is, “Because I’m your mother!”

Question a politician, you get the runaround. Question your mother and she will chase you around. It would be more beneficial to be chased around by your mother than to have some politician give you the runaround.

Another reason mothers would make good politicians is that they never stop until the work is finished. Everybody has heard the old saying, “A man works from sun up to sun down, but a woman’s work is never done.” At the end of the day, every mother has something to show for her work.

It would be beneficial for our country if every politician were apprenticed to a mother with four or five kids. Let him follow her around for a week, if he can last a week, and he will get some idea of what working is all about.

Let some politician clean up after four or five kids for a week and experience real work. Perhaps, if he has to clean up messes of other people’s making he might think twice before he makes a mess himself. The only work a politician really does, is working his mouth, which rarely accomplishes anything useful.

By her very nature, a mother is always thinking about others. Rarely does she take any time for her own personal pursuits. Other people come before her interest and comfort. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful trait in some politician? Instead of always thinking about the next election and what can get him reelected, he begins to think about other people and their needs.

Instead of putting his political career ahead of everything else, he would sacrifice himself to benefit other people, to help clean up the messes around him.

Although it may seem like a good idea, we cannot afford to send mothers to Washington and neglect the important work she has at home. Nehemiah said it so well, “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” (Nehemiah 6:3).

God knew exactly what he was doing when he put together a marvelous creature we now know as Mother.

The Rev. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of God Fellowship, in Silver Springs Shores. Call him at 352-687-4240 or e-mail jamessnyder2@att.net. The church web site is www.whatafellowship.com.