Book Review: If Mama Goes South, We're All Going with Her

As I picked one aisle to browse before the kids self-destructed after library storytime, I recognized this book. I remember hearing Lindsey O'Conner's fascinating testimony on Focus on the Family. I always thought the book title made it sound like a light read, and with Wesley and Cora running circles around me I thought a light read was what I needed! Once we got home and the kids calmed down, I was delighted to discover that this book has real depth. This book is also pleasant to me because O'Conner's mindset seems similar to mine. For example, she is one of those rare moms who is giving her children the classical education that I'm aspiring to give mine.
I don't think I need to define what it means to go south! O'Conner offers suggestions for building up your spirit, body, and soul in order to prevent...losing it. Her ideas hit the mark with me so well that I have four pages of notes and a long list of book suggestons to show for this read. I was sad this wasn't my copy of the book to write in! I'm just going to run through my notes and hit each of these topics here.

O'Conner presents some revolutionary ideas about our spirits and our relationship with God. Are you ready...this is really good! Here it is: I am a receiver before I am a giver. Do you feel like you give, give, give...and it all just makes you feel empty? When I think this way I am not embracing the grace and blessings that are the gifts of God. Out of many scriptures on this, I'll select just one to encourage you. "From the fullness of His grace we have all recieved one blessing after another"(John 1:16). Well, maybe another wouldn't hurt. "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed" (2 Cor. 9:8). What have I to give but what God gives me first? His gifts are perfect; I am a receiver before I am a giver.

If you want to receive more from God, think about trading in for a bigger pot. This analogy comes from a plant that needs to be repotted. As long as it's in the small pot, the plant growth that you see is going to be limited. Put that plant in a bigger pot, and it will not take long for it to visibly flourish. Consider this excerpt from The Art of Thinking, "Most of us never come to know ourselves fully. We see only what we are and never realize the larger part of us; what we have the capacity to be." God knows the full capacity of what we can become!

In your spirit, remember to abide in Jesus. Think of this as the branch abiding on the vine. The more abiding, the larger the branch circumference, the more sap from Jesus. Keep in mind that abiding is about being with Jesus, not just doing stuff. I love this verse as it applies to the principle of abiding: "And their life will be like a watered garden" (Jeremiah 31:12).

O'Conner offers the basics for building up our bodies - get enough rest, drink water, exercise, eat right, get sunlight - the things we all know and at least occassionally implement. But she goes beyond that for me in two areas. First, she recommends fasting somewhat regularly. She points out that in Matthew 6:16, Jesus says, "When you fast..." not "if." Secondly, she offers some important discussion as to why we should keep up our appearance.

"It affects our influence. While we will never please everyone, nor should we try, we mustn't be naive. What others see can affect what they hear. In other words, our appearance can help or hinder other people's ability to hear our hearts, and that is important.

"One may say, "I'm me, regardless. I won't dress to please people." That's fine, but I'm not talking about pleasing people, I'm talking about influencing them. We don't need to be popular. We do need to realize that our appearance can be an asset or a stumbling block to what we want to communicate to others.

"Another reason our appearance matters is that it affects how we feel and perform.

"Antoher reason our appearance matters is that God has a thing or two to say about beauty. If beauty were something to be avoided to attain great spirituality, then our Creator would have to remake most of His creation."

Next, O'Conner covers "soul rest" and the intellect. I love how she encourages my desire to strenthen my intellect by offering some great pointers. I'll just lay out some of the quotes that struck me in this section.

"When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before." Clifton Fadiman, Any Number Can Play

C.S. Lewis recommends reading one old book after every new, or at least one old after three new, to "help correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period."

"Adopting the strategies of forming mulitsensory associations when the brain is still at or near its peak performance - in the forties and fifties - builds a bulwark against some of the inevitable loss of processing power later in life. If your network of associations is very large, it's like having a very tightly woven net, and the loss of a few threads isn't going to let much fall through." Keep Your Brain Alive

"However, such [classical] learning is challenged today because we live in a world of two extremes, the elite knowledge of specialiation and the dumbing down of America. This produces information technologists with multiple degrees alongside others with sluggish thinking and language inspired by a culture saturated in all things visual--the "Dumb and Dumber" effect." If Mama Goes South, We're All Going with Her

The author also goes on to cover our will and our motivation. Another great sliver caught my eye in this section, going back to an idea mentioned earlier. She suggests that God has given men the gift of authority and women the gift of influence. I can think of couples who in the past have been the perfect illustration of this in my life. Right now, my pastor is leading Eric and I into a place of spiritual growth we've never seen before. At the same time, his wife is influencing me dramatically. It makes me take seriously the influence I have to offer.

This was a pretty short book, but it holds so much to think about. I hope you are encouraged. I sure would hate to see you go south!