Lessons From Grandma

My Beautiful Grandmother

 

 

 

 

 I know that I am not the first to lose someone close to them.  In fact, so many grieve with loss for someone they love.  My grandmother lived a very full life.  She had spent the last few years of her life struggling with health issues, some of which were of her own making.  I am sure that God called her home for His reasons in His timing.  

What is amazing is that I am still learning from her.  Years ago she wrote a book, an autobiographical account of her life growing up with evangelist parents.  She lived poor during the Great Depression, but you would never know it from her words on the pages.  She talked about her family, the many moves, her friends, her education, and her Lord.  In fact, the way she talked about God are so powerful.  She had a deep relationship with Jesus from a young age, an age most of us today don't think children can have.  She proves us wrong. 

She always remembered dates.  Never one to forget a birthday, even if all she could afford was a card, she knew the importance of remembering those she loved.  She remembered dates such as the date her father accepted Christ, after the entire church began praying for him.  This would have been my Great-Grandfather!

She wrote about her church services as a teenager.  I think her words were actually pretty profound.  She wrote this in 1992, but it still applies today.  

"I always loved our youth services, they were really special. They were at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday evening before the regular church service that started at 7:00 p.m. Everything was done by the young people of the church. We would have such great services that none of the adults wanted to miss them.
God can use kids in a special way, and kids back then knew how to pray and receive from God. Now they have them off someplace while the adults are in service, and the kids never get too hear what is going on. Most kids now try to make it on their parents' religion, and seldom really get salvation, even if they are old enough.
That is why when they are ready to leave home and get it in their own, they leave the church because they really never had an experience with the Lord." - From The Eyes of Love - Barbara Swallow

I can't describe how amazing it is to read her wisdom, to have that gift.  Her life was a blessing to us.  Her loss in great.  I love that she left words for us to read, to learn from.