Mothers-In-Law & Google Baloney

The older I get…..    and I’m really not that old (56-1/2)….     the more I realize how very little I know.   By the way, my friend told me that once you reach 50, you get to do that cute little “and a half” thing that all small children do because they are so proud of being almost the next number.  Heck yeah!   I’ve earned a few degrees from the School of Hard Knocks in the past five plus decades, so “and-a-half” is like a medal or a trophy.  I’ll take it!

Anyhoooo…..

A few friends and I have, over the past five or so years, been making jokes about, crying over, laughing about, having serious and heartfelt discussions about being a……..

Mother-in-law.

No, really!   How does one do it?   And how does one do the daughter-in-law thing?  (I never met my mother-in-law, so….  I dunno).

So, recently we hit the Scriptures because, as we like to believe, and we certainly like to tell our friends and family…..    there’s nothing in life you’ll encounter that you won’t find in the Bible.

Now, please understand I’m literally jotting this blog down like a personal journal entry at what is the very start of my now serious search of such Biblical wisdom and…….    all I can find is Naomi, who seems to have had an incredible relationship with her daughter-in-law Ruth.

Certainly there’s more wisdom about being a mother-in-law than this though, so I then did what, as an RN, I tell all of my patients never, ever, ever to do.   That’s right.  I ran to the great and powerful …..GOOGLE.

Yep.  Guilty.  I GOOGLE’d Biblical Mother-in-Laws.  Guess what I got?

HUNDREDS of articles about how to deal with a toxic mother-in-law.  Hundreds.

Now that is just plain NOT FAIR!!   Um, grace anyone??

And goodness gracious…  would someone please tell me exactly why there are so many mother-in-law jokes, and so few father-in-law, son-in-law, or daughter-in-law jokes??  Is it because we are more emotionally vested and attached to our children than their fathers are??   Maybe.  I dunno.

Why does “a son is a son until he takes a wife, but a daughter is a daughter for the rest of her life” come up in the search?  Why does every mother of an adult son know that saying so well?   Why does every mother of sons I know seem to feel as if they are on a to-do list, written down to make sure they are not forgotten?   Why does Google assume we are all toxic?  Why are there cartoons of sad birds returning to a nest with a worm, only to see that she has no young ones left and she is all alone?  Why didn’t anyone write a book, or tell us how to do this?   Again, grace anyone???

Wait.  If only Naomi comes up in the Scriptures, maybe that’s because she is the best example.  Maybe there ARE no toxic mother-in-laws.  Maybe that whole “son is a son till he takes a wife” is just Google Baloney.

Yes, that’s it.  Google is just full of google baloney.

I always pray (not just for me, but for my kids), that God would remove people from our lives, and place  people in our lives, so that we could be doing life along with those whose iron sharpens ours, and hopefully who we can sharpen with our own iron.  My circle is pretty small but, lately I’ve just really taken a step back and realized He’s answered my prayer and given me quite a small but mighty powerful circle.  I’m seeking some of these young, and some of these “and-a-half” friends for wisdom lately and…….

Just really hoping that all of my jotting and journaling gets me a little bit-and-a-half wiser some day…..

Man, I really just wanna be a good mother-in-law, ya know?

And maybe, just maybe……     Naomi and Ruth are all the examples we need.  Naomi and Ruth’s love for each other is so beautiful, and really a great picture of how God loves us!  Perhaps it really is a great place to start!   So, it’s where I’m digging my heels in, and I’m going to take my own advice and stay away from Dr. Google.  He’s just full of baloney anyways.

Are you a “and-a-halfer?”   a daughter-in-law?  or just someone with some wisdom?   Feel free to comment 😉   All wisdom is welcome!