Vantage
point
Thank
God for godly mothers
My mother’s last several
years of life were not pleasant ones. Several strokes left her increasingly
incapacitated and, following the strokes, the onset of Alzheimer’s disease
took most of her distinctive personality and characteristics. No longer was
she the one who always seemed to know when something was wrong. No longer
would her love, empathy and prayers strengthen me during difficult times.
But in the midst of her trials,
she struggled to give what she could to the body of Christ.
My mother was an encourager. Long
active in her Women’s Ministries group, she found ways to touch people’s
lives that others missed. Like sending dozens of cards with personal words
of encouragement each month. After her strokes the cards didn’t always
make sense. She didn’t even get her own name right sometimes. But the
message was still clear. She was sending love and she would pray.
The Alzheimer’s eventually
took that away, too, leaving her a shadow of the wonderful woman we knew.
But that love was still in her spirit. As I would wheel her down the corridors
of the nursing home where she spent the last years of her life, she would
instinctively reach out to touch people and say, “I love you.”
Mother never knew that my dad had
passed away. But I’m sure she missed the company of the gray-haired
gentleman who sat quietly alongside her day in and day out. When the call
came that she had slipped away, it was not as difficult as I thought it would
be. We had really already said goodbye to the mother we knew. And now I pictured
her walking through heaven’s gates — and finding my dad waiting
for her. She had to be surprised that he was already there.
It’s been a decade since
Mother left the nursing home to take up residence in a far nicer abode, so
I can’t send her a card or tell her I love her. But I have no regrets.
I did it while she was with us … and I’ll see her again.
Thank God for your godly mother
today.
— Ken Horn
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