Mom's Influence on Me and My Friends

My mother has probably had the greatest and most positive influence on my life of any one person ever. That may sound like someone stating the obvious, at first blush, but I don't think so.

Remember the statement that was made by Paul to and about Timothy? He said that the faith that had been known and seen in his mother and grandmother, could now be seen in him. In 2 Tim. 3:14, 15, We find Paul referring again to what Timothy had been taught from childhood, even infancy. "But as for you, continue in what you have learned, and have become convinced of, because you know those of whom you learned it. And how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

My sisters and I received a foundation in the scriptures that few people outside of our small circles of influence would understand. How that literally from infancy we had the Bible stories of the Old and New Testaments read to us, over and over. We were told in our ears, in our Sunday School Classes (taught by our parents' friends) that God loved us, knew us, waited on us and wanted us to know Him. We were taught that when we pray here, even in the midst of trouble, our voices were heard by the almighty God, and that He loved to answer prayers of kids just like us. The closest thing I know to compare to how my mother, and both of my grandmothers taught us and read to us from the scriptures, would be how Jewish boys were/are raised in preparation for their bar-mitzva. ...From a child you have known the holy Scriptures...
The adults that I knew did their very best to live a godly life, both in public and private. Doesn't mean they were perfect, but they had integrity of heart.

My mother was a leader to all the young folks in my church. Many of them have become influential in their world and have told her and me that she had a major impact on their lives. Men like Alan Allen, Randy and Ronnie Darden, both of whom have been burned in separate electrical accidents. Bobby Whiteley, pastor in Salisaw, OK, who has walked through times of great personal trial, but when the world stopped shaking he had a faith in God's love and power that my mother helped put there. Women of faith like Kim Nance, Suzy Morrison, Sherry Darden, and others - many others. Women like Kim, who has been a stable, solid influence on wave after wave of ministers and missionaries who graduated from Agape School of World Missions in Little Rock, Arkansas, were raised in my mother's Junior High Sunday School class. Kim was not from a stable home, but God put something solid in her heart in those early years that has stood the test of time and trouble.

I remember my mother preparing for her class by telling us kids not to bother her while her bedroom door was shut. She would have her Bible, her lesson book, and a list of the kids who were part of her class. She would shut the door and begin to call the name of each child before God, and ask Him to help them. She would ask God to come to her classroom and manifest himself in the hearts, lives, and needs of these kids. Many were already in trouble with drugs, rebellion, illicit sexual relations, and from horrible, unstable homes. She would pray and begin to weep for them, for their parents, and for their future. I heard her say that unless God would somehow do miracles in their lives that would over-ride the negatives and help them, they would never become productive members of society, of church, and of heaven. He heard those prayers and is still working in our lives.

In the late sixties and early seventies, our church young people began to be pulled hard by the outside world. Some of my best friends began to be pulled by sin and rebellion. Our parents joined together to fast and pray in what they called a prayer chain. It was prayer around the clock and they did it until God revealed Himself to the kids in that small church and to hundreds of our school friends an amazing revival that changed the course of our history. That is a story for another day.

Only eternity will reveal what their prayers accomplished for us and for the people we have influenced, and those yet to be influenced by them.

My mother is still doing it, now. How can you put a price on that kind of person, of prayer, of unconditional love? You can't.

I sure am thankful!