Honor thy mother and thy father

July 28, 2013

My mother always honored her parents by sharing stories about them and giving them high booking. Her mother, Clara Bustamente Baca died on influenza when mother was nine months old. Her father, Nazario G. Baca died when mother was barely five, leaving Lucy Baca, Eleseo, Mariana, and Dolores very much alone in this world. They became inseparable and lived lives very much intertwined in the others until each passed through the veil to meet our maker.  What a wonderful legacy; sharing the goodness and mercy of those who brought us into this world.

As a child I often frustrated my parents by being where I wasn’t supposed to be, doing what I shouldn’t, and generally finding ways to keep things on a rocky setting. I am not sure I understood genuine family love until I set off on my own, joined the US Navy and got a sense of what I had missed. My mother was a buzz saw of love, activity, and caring. My father had no clue to what parenting really was. Mother noted on several occasions that she didn’t believe she could have raised us without the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Both of my parents, Lucy Baca Jacobs, and Charles Glenn Jacobs loved us in their own unique way and we were blessed to have them be the cradle of our existence. Each year I learn more of what they went through, how they survived financially, physically, spiritually, and as parents. They did the very best they could with what they had. I honor my parents as pioneers, venturing into the realm of parenting without a script. I truly believe they honored their earthly estate and did the best they could to serve; then return to our Heavenly Father.

I watch and marvel as each of our children share their love with mom and me. They truly care. They worry about the nonsense we get ourselves into and share their spiritual and temporal blessings with us. On my 70^th birthday they gave me several goodies from their spiritual cache. They shared their personal and phone visits with us and gave us their personal love and approval. They think we are getting kind of old and that our gray matter doesn’t serve as well as it once did, but they love us unconditionally never-the-less. In other words they honor us regardless of our crooked teeth and strange behaviors.

I thank God for the incredible life he has provided for me; for my amazing bride of 48 years, and for the opportunity to see the new generations blossom into the kind of posterity that will find ways of overcoming the horrific economic, governmental, spiritual, social challenges they will conquer. They have my deepest and most profound love, support, and appreciation as they take the reins and move forward to the coming of Christ and the restoration of all things.

God bless you all as you work to serve you family, your country, and your God.

Duane Jacobs, father, grandfather, brother, cousin, uncle, and fond friend.

 

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