Mother- in-law

While in the university, whenever my friends and I discussed marriage and other issues, I always said I pray my mother in law dies before I meet her son. Due to all the horror stories I heard and saw (movies ignited my already stimulated imagination)

I didn’t know better. I never took the time out to pray for her to die but saying it was also another form of prayer.

This trend continued for a long time till one day, as usual I repeated the statement again among peers; someone replied, she said:

“that will be the same way your daughter in law to be, will pray for your death. Then you will not leave to enjoy your son, see him becoming a man, nor see his children.”

I had a brain reset instantly, I never thought of the woman who I was wishing to die as someone with feelings rather she was some phantom being who stood against my ‘peace and quiet.’

It’s sad how we allow other people’s opinion cloud the way we see and judge things.

Chinonso Ogbogu of the Incubators puts this succinctly in his Instagram post. “…are our opinions really our opinions or they are simply derivatives of someone else’s opinions that we choose to quickly believe, recycle, or propagate? Could it be that many of us are holding on tight to filters or others opinions yet confidently labeling them as ours?

Most times our opinions are not based on the truth but other people’s opinions and experiences.

Around the time I had this brain reset, I also came across late Pastor Bimbo Odukoya’s book in it she had a prayer for mothers-in-law. I confessed my wrong words to God and asked for forgiveness, then I used the prayer along with some Bible verses i found,till I met my husband.

Unfortunately my mother in law is dead but she was a nice woman, she would have been a blessing to me if she were alive. she raised good and strong sons before my arrival.

I have come to realize mother-in-laws are people like me (not demons from hell as some of us will love to believe) not that there are no bad ones, but before you meet that man and before you start preparing to take no-nonsense from that ‘wicked mother-in-law’ why not change tactics and filter her through the word, just like you are filtering yourself and your husband to be before you meet him.

Sorry to disappoint you but that woman will not die because just like God promised, she will enjoy the fruits of their labour, but you may not enjoy yours; which is the fruit of what you sowed in your prayers.

Prayers today will set the pace for your future tomorrow.

NB: Titus 2:3-5 and the story of Naomi is a good verse of the Bible to personalize and declare over your mother-in-law.

xoxo