How sweet it's been to spend the week with my precious mother-in-law. This trip to Tulsa gave us the opportunity to share and visit about so many things. I was able to query her about her early years of love and marriage and life -- something I should have asked about long ago. FYI -- loving means eye-to-eye contact and REALLY being interested in what matters to someone else. We've had some sweet conversations about the challenges she faced over the years and the victories that she won in the process.
I feel like I've been incubated here in this home where there is such a sense of peace, comfort and rest. In fact, it is in this home that my Sweetheart would come to pay Mom a visit. The only problem was....he'd get here and spend a few minutes in conversation with Mom, but in just a few short minutes, you'd find him in one of her recliners.....sound asleep. That's what peace can do for us.
Mom, at age 94, has well established routines -- I've witnessed them and you'd be highly advised not to mess with those routines. It's clockwork -- from getting up every morning at a specific time, going through the morning rituals of getting her aching body moving by stretching and bending, opening all her blinds and curtains, then drinking her instant coffee and eating her yogurt sprinkled with cheerios and a piece of toast. If I stopped there, you'd think "what a monotonous existence", but you'd have to know Mom and her desire to be a witness of God's love to see that she's no slacker.
She believes that God still wants to use her. She's still here on planet earth, so she's not done. Daily, people call her to pray for them, and she does. She also has a daily habit of making telephone calls to people to just encourage them with an I love you and I'm praying for you. No big deal to some, but in the light of eternity, she's laying up treasures. And, we know that every breath she breathes, she moves steps closer to those treasures in heaven. Once I heard a well-known televangelist speak about those who pray for him, and he said, "I know those little grandmothers who pray for me will be at the front of the line in heaven AND will receive the greatest rewards."
I was the recipient of those prayers many times over, but none were sweeter than last night when I needed a Mama's touch and Mama's encouragement. Yes, I am a warrior, but sometimes the warrior is a child and there's nothing like hearing a veteran warrior's words of "Tis' so sweet to trust in Jesus. Just to take Him at His word. Just to rest upon His promise. Just to know 'Thus says the Lord'. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him. How I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh for grace, to know Him more."
In any given day, you could walk into Mom's home, and more times than not, you'd find her at her kitchen table -- reading her Bible, praying or visiting on the phone with a soul who needs her words of encouragement. She knows she's on assignment and being God's spokesperson is her greatest heart's desire. If you're really on queue, you might also be able to draw a promise from her "Bread of Life" promise box that's filled with single verses from the Bible. That 70-year-old box was a wedding gift to her and Dad, and those words proved so true in the many years of life together. No doubt -- those scriptures will point you in the way you should go, too!
I pray that one day you'll meet up with a saint like Mom -- but if not, maybe you and I can be that saint to others in our world!
