7 Family Members My Mexican Mother Kept at a Distance (And the Bible Was Right About Every One)

Every Mexican mother keeps a map of the family in her head, and she never once writes it down. Who sits where at Christmas. Who gets told the good news first and who finds out from someone else. Who is allowed to borrow the car. Who gets the spare room and who gets the couch. Which cousin you hug at the door, and which cousin you hug at the door and then keep your purse on your shoulder. My mother ran the whole family off that map for fifty years, and not one person ever saw it, because it was not a list of enemies. Every person on it was family. Every one of them ate at her table. But some ate at the near end and some at the far end, and she decided which. After the video about the people my mother would not help, so many of you wrote the same thing: Bertha, that was about neighbors and strangers. What do I do when it is my own blood? That is this video. That one was about your hands. This one is about your door. In this episode of The Mexican Mother's Bible, Bertha gives you the seven, each one with a Mexican-family face, the distance her mother kept, and where it sits in the Book: • The cousin who borrows and forgets. She gave him twenty dollars as a gift and never lent him a dollar again. "The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously." (Psalm 37:21; Proverbs 22:7) • The tía who carries every secret out the door. She did not avoid her sister. She avoided telling her sister things. (Proverbs 20:19) • The one who mocks your faith at the table. She never argued. She moved the chairs. "Blessed is the one who does not... sit in the company of mockers." (Psalm 1:1) • The brother who only calls when he needs something. "Call me when you do not need anything, so I know you can." (Proverbs 18:24) • The in-law who tells each sister what the other one said. Warm at every party, and given nothing to carry. On the same list as shedding innocent blood: "a person who stirs up conflict in the community." (Proverbs 6:16-19) • The drunk uncle at every party. Fed first, keys taken at the door before the first drink, driven home last. "Do not join those who drink too much wine." Do not join them. It does not say do not love them. (Proverbs 23:20-21) • The grown child under your roof who will not work. Not about the help this time. About the room. "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands." (Proverbs 24:33-34) And the part she holds back until the end: what "at a distance" actually meant in that house, because it is not what the other videos mean by it. Stay to the finish. "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." (Romans 12:18) 💛 A gentle word: this is a list about your peace. It is not a list about your judgment. Nothing in it makes you better than the cousin, or the uncle, or the boy in the back room, and if you finish this video feeling righteous, watch it again. You are not deciding who is good. You are deciding what comes through your door and how far, so that the thing everything flows from stays clean enough to keep loving all of them. If your family does some of this differently, take what is yours (Romans 14). I am not a pastor. I have no letters after my name and no pulpit to stand behind. I am a mother with a worn Bible, passing down what was passed down to me. Everything here, go and check for yourself. Do not take my word for it. Take His. If one of the seven has a name in your family, please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE so this reaches another kitchen before Christmas. God bless you, mija. 📖 Tell me in the comments which of the seven is in your family, and the distance your mother kept that I did not name, because every family has one more. And tell me the plate: the thing she still did for them anyway. The call in December, the tamales sent over, the seat at the table. That is the half of this the world has forgotten. Be careful with each other down here. Tell me your county. I read every one. #TheMexicanMothersBible #FamilyBoundaries #Proverbs #BibleStudy #Romans1218 #GuardYourHeart #DifficultFamily #Christianity #Faith #GodsWord #Scripture #MexicanMother #FamilyPeace #CloserToGod