It has been 10 years since my mother's passing. She passed away on Mother's Day 2006. She had went to church that day; she preached the early morning sermon at her church, conducted Sunday School, went to my brother's house for dinner, went home, and while sitting in her chair with her oxygen mask in her hand------went to her eternal home. She would have been 81 years old this past April.
Some think that since my mother died on Mother's day, I would be depressed or sad. But I'm not! I celebrate her life. I can't think of a more appropriate day for God to have taken her home. Like Paul, she had completed her assignment, she had finished her course.
In memory of Mom and Grandma, I reprint the following that was written 2 years ago.
"When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also." I Timothy 1:5
Whenever I read the above verse regarding Timothy's mother and grandmother I think of my mother and her mother, Grandma Nannie. My faith in the Lord was birth out of the faith I seen exhibited in these two women. I don't recall my mother or grandmother ever teaching us the scriptures, but I do remember seeing them live out the scriptures.
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| Grandma & Me (celebrating my 7th birthday) |
I remember one Mother's Day my siblings and I had bought gifts for mom and grandma. Before grandma would accept our gift she asked if we bought our paternal grandmother a gift too. We explained that we did not buy her a gift because we didn't believe she cared about us. Whenever she came to see us, which was rare, she'd spend the whole time taking about her other son's children; how wonderful they were, and the things she bought them. She never bought us anything and she never had anything nice to say about our mother. Grandma Nannie would make us keep her gift until we bought a gift for our other grandmother. Of course our gifts were always rejected and given away. But we continued to show her the same honor we did Grandma Nannie. And then it happen, after the birth of my 4th child, this grandmother who always dissed us, had a change of heart. She began writing me letters, and sending me vegetable and flower seeds to grow in my garden. When she came for a visit she asked to see my children and meet my husband. The seed of love that Grandma Nannie taught us to sow in our other grandmother's life had taken root and now she was able to love us back.
This lesson I learned from grandma of loving and blessing those who do not love me has been applied many times to the difficult people I've met during the course of my life. Is this not the kind of love Jesus commanded His followers to have for those who hated them?
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| Cordelia Ann Webster (mom) |
During times of lack my mother would go to the piano and worship God in song. As a child I would slip into the living room and sit quietly on the floor, at the foot of the piano bench, and watch my mother pour her heart out to the Lord.
"Wonderful Grace of Jesus, greater than all my sins. How shall my tongue describe it, where shall its praise begin. Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free------for the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me!" I still remember the verse and chorus of that old hymn and others I learned while listening to my mother's songs of praise unto the Lord.
When I grew up and experienced hardships and other difficult situations, I'd steal away to a quiet place and worship the Lord in song and praise. I discovered what my mother had learned; peace in the middle of life's storms can be realized when we direct our attention to the Lord. Not only does the Lord grant us peace in the middle of the storm, He also makes a way in, through, and out of the storm.
I learned to call on the name of the Lord and to trust His word through the example of my mother and grandmother. I pray that my children and grandchildren will learn the same from me.
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