It is hard to believe that next month it will be 14 years since my life changed forever. It was then when my mom took her last breath on earth, and her first breath in heaven. I just can’t imagine what it must have been like for her to go from lying in a bed, with a very broken body and mind…to suddenly being completely healed, praising and worshipping her Lord and Savior.
What I wouldn’t give to have one more visit with her. What I wouldn’t give to have her fix me a bowl of her tapioca pudding, because even though I follow her recipe to a “T” …it is never quite as good as hers. How wonderful it would be to laugh and joke together while watching her do her Barney Fife impression. She had a sense of humor that many never saw…but she could sure make us chuckle with her antics.
Of course, we also loved to get her laughing. There were many times when my siblings and I would “get on a roll” with our strange humor and the outcome was seeing mom laughing so hard she was crying. It was at that moment, when we saw the tears rolling down her cheeks, that we knew we had been successful. It was so much fun to see her so completely relaxed…no cares wearing her down…just good old-fashioned fun.
As much as I would love to experience these moments again with her, I do not wish her back on this earth. How could I? How could I want her to leave perfection…to return to this broken world we live in? How could I want her back to suffer physical and mental pain…when those words aren’t even in her vocabulary anymore? No, I love her way too much to wish her back.
But I also love her way too much to let her legacy die. My mom was such an amazing woman who didn’t just cook for me and laugh with me, but more importantly showed me her Jesus day in and day out. She loved her Lord more than anyone else I have ever known and was willing to do whatever He asked of her…even when the road wasn’t easy. She often showed me by the choices she made and the example she set, that life wasn’t about her…it was about HIM…the One who had died for her sins.
It’s easy to become discouraged, feeling like I fall so short of being the woman that my mom was, but it is at those moments when I often sense her whispering in my ear; “LuAnn, quit trying to be like me…just keep striving to be like HIM.” Yes, that’s the legacy I want to carry on. Striving to be like my Jesus. I happen to think that would make my mama proud.
Have you been blessed with people in your life who have pointed you towards Jesus? Be thankful and then get busy…not trying to be like them…but striving to be like HIM. I happen to think that would make them proud!
“Whoever claims to live in him
must live as Jesus did.”
1 John 2:6
Thanks Lou Ann. What a great reminder to live for Jesus, not others. I get caught up in the world view more often then I care to admit.
ReplyDeleteI totally understand. It’s so easy to lose our focus…we just need to keep our eyes on HIM!
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