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J. Shares More About HIs Mother
Sat., Nov. 5. 2022 12:35am EDT
J. Jackson, lead singer and lyricist for ApologetiX (That Christian Parody Band) here again.
I wanted to tell you a little bit more about my mother.
Known as Pat to her friends, Joyce to her siblings, and Pattie to her grandchildren, she was married to my dad for 66 years. They had four children, 13 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
My mother and father each had five other siblings, so they had many nieces and nephews, too. Dad was the fourth of six kids, but Mom was the oldest and has been the matriarch of her family since my grandmother died over 20 years ago.
If you like ApologetiX, you can thank my mother for a big part of that. She was a voracious reader, and her kids followed suit. She and Dad bought me my first (and second) Bible. They also sent me to 12 years of parochial school, where I had religion classes every day.
My mom made sure we never missed church unless we were seriously ill. I vividly remember one Sunday after church when she asked what the sermon was about, and I couldn't tell her. She warned me that I'd better be able to answer the next time she asked. I never forgot that.
I don't remember Mom telling me a lot of Bible stories, but one I do recall stuck with me — the time when the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream and said He'd give the young king anything he requested (1 Kings 3:5-15). Mom told me Solomon had asked for wisdom and God had made him the wisest man on earth. I've asked God for wisdom many times over the years because of that.
My mom loved music and could sing and play piano equally well by ear or by reading music, and she encouraged me to sing while she played. She loved musicals, and inspired all of us kids to listen to cast recordings, attend performances, and get involved in our own school plays.
Mom bought our family the albums for both Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, two productions that greatly influenced my songwriting. She also forced me to watch Jesus of Nazareth, which profoundly impacted my perception of Jesus and become my all-time favorite film.
Our family dinner table always included generous portions of puns, and Mom urged us to do creative things like poems and parodies. Moreover, she made me vacuum the house (even the upholstery) every week, which necessitated that I sing to entertain myself over the drone.
Her favorite television show was Jeopardy, which might explain my love for trivia and knowledge, and she encouraged me to become a writer at a time when I was leaning more towards being an artist.
My mom had a strong conscience, and was extremely honest. She was no pushover, but she was ultimately very merciful. And she supported and promoted what we did in ApologetiX, even though she didn't recognize over 95 percent of the songs we spoofed.
Oh, and she also carried me around for nine months before I was born, made sure I was fed and clothed afterward, and a bunch of other stuff!
I praise God that He gave the world 93 years with her, and gave me 58 of them (technically 59, if you count the nine months before the rest of the world got to meet me).
Addendum: I put this article together on Thursday night. I try to read the Bible with my three youngest kids every evening, but circumstances had prevented me from doing so Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday night, we picked up where we left off, and lo and behold, the entry was that same story from 1 Kings 3 that my mom shared with me when I was a kid! God is so cool!
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