![]() ![]() It’s our prayer that, like our mother, our lives would be marked by the often slow and laborious walk of faithfulness, service, humility and love – a life that Jesus first walked and passed down to us. Painfully and slowly, Mother taught her to walk again. My mother would lift her up, wipe her skinned hands and knees, and they would start again. Many times, my grandmother’s body would fail her and she would fall flat on the concrete. Every day, the two women would take walks down that long driveway. Instead, our then-recently married mother and father moved into our grandmother’s house. She was even encouraged to put her mother into a long-term care facility. Yet, our Mother didn’t give up (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).Īfter my grandmother’s coma, doctors told our mother that our grandmother would never walk again. We have seen the toil of emotional difficulties and laborious work. Like all children, we have seen our Mother at her best and worst. We were taught not to fear sacrifice, and that conviction has anchored us through many seasons of our walks with Christ. She brought heaven to earth because she cared for people, no matter their status, the way Jesus cared for them. We believe Mother was placed within her family to be the hands and feet of Jesus. To believe the message of a Savior who laid down His life for us was not a wide chasm, because we saw it every day in a mother who laid down her own life for us and for others in need (1 John 3:16). And as those who were the recipients and witnesses of that care, that work changed our lives for eternity. The “others” and the “neighbors” for Mother were those God placed in her life through family. What are the needs within arm’s reach? Don’t devalue or abandon the title of son or daughter, wife or husband, mother or father, niece or nephew. Yet, Scripture is clear that we need only love others like we love ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). Well-intentioned questions like “What is my calling?” or “Where are my talents most utilized?” can distract and delay us. But it’s a lie of the devil to think a sacrificial life of serving your family isn’t “a great thing.” So often, the enemy’s tactic is to complicate the simple commands of Jesus. ![]() Our generation has been challenged to do “great things for God,” and that call still beats within our hearts. Only love – for Christ and for others – compels this type of sacrifice. But again and again, she was eager to do good works, walking in when others were walking out (Titus 2:14). It would have been easier to find professionals. ![]() We don’t know how many times she has witnessed a loved one take her last breath. There’s much pain in watching illness and age affect someone you love. She served because her heart, like Christ’s, was moved to compassion (Matthew 9:36). She clearly didn’t serve her family for the praise of man. There were no posts of the waiting rooms she visited. Our mother’s care for others was not noticed by many outside our family, and sometimes family members didn’t realize all she had done. Acts of service are publicized, even glamorized, for the world to see. Our generation broadcasts their lives, or at least a filtered version of them. It’s the message we’ve seen our entire lives, and we hope to share those lessons with you here: Be motivated by love In most every circumstance, the recipients of our mother’s care could not repay her in any way.Īs her daughters, we didn’t need a sermon, a book or a conference to teach us how to see and affirm the dignity in every person, no matter their age, ability or worldly status. Our mother taught us to see with different eyes and to say yes when the world would say no. In the flesh, we constantly evaluate those we encounter to determine if they are worthy of our time, our investment, our money or our heart. Yet, for our lives and ministries, she has been more influential than any other person. You can’t google our mother and see her accolades. The houses and the people changed, but not her way of life. She brought in food and took out the trash. She made notes at doctor’s appointments and called insurances companies. She cleaned toilets and picked up medicines. She began to look after aunts, uncles and cousins. And upon our grandmother’s death in 1999, she began caring for other family members in need. Our mother cared faithfully for our grandmother for decades in every way imaginable. But for every chapter in the story of my grandmother, Mother was the caretaker, the advocate, the executor. Jill Waggoner (second from left) and her sister Allison Hucks share a family moment with their mother and father, Melinda and Lane Martin. ![]()
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