As I reflect on the past 35 years of my life with my precious mother, words cannot begin to describe my respect for her or my complete gratitude...how do I use just a few short minutes here to express words to adequately honor her or describe her to you? As I look at this gathering of people, I’m reminded that there isn’t a need to explain my respect for her or why I loved my mom because each of you are here because you knew her. Andyou too have that same respect and gratitude and love for who she was and the legacy she left.
So instead I want to share with you a glimpse into her heart and how she was able to face each day of the past 3.5 years of her life. Our family heard a sermon this summer, which truly put into words the actions, and emotions that we have been living through these last few years. The sermon re-affirmed for my mom as well as each of us God’s plans for suffering. I want to share part of this message given by Levi Lusco who lost his little girl from an acute asthma attack.
As we listened to Levi’s message this summer on seeing suffering through the eyes of a lion, we realized that mom always had the eyes of a Lion. You see, Lions have extraordinary vision, they can see far away. Their eyes are created to see and God made them to have night vision. They have a white strip under each eye, which maximizes glare and even with the tiniest bit of moonlight, it will shine enough for them to see. The lion is able to take advantage of the light that’s there to see and they can see 6 times better than humans.
We often see the world as we are but in reality we cannot fully live what God wants us to live until we see what He sees as He sees it. So the question my mom had to answer early on in her illness was what lense would she look through? Would she choose to have anger that she was losing the ability to go on walks and runs with her children and grandchildren? Would she sit at home bitter when she couldn’t drive and was losing her independence? Absolutely not, she put on the correct lense and began to see life through God’s eyes. If God was allowing this cruel disease into her life then He must have a purpose for it. Did she grieve? Yes, we all grieved each stage and loss this disease caused. But, with the grief, she always modeled hope.
She used the lense of faith to see her difficulties. We’ve learned that faith is like a telescope lense, it brings close what seems far away. Faith changes the way we face grief, face loss and look at death.
My mom always taught us to prioritize time in the Word, to train for the trial that is going to comebecause its just a matter of time before our trial comes and storms reveal our foundation. When the storm hits, that is not the time to build the foundation. I remember as a young girl waking up to find my sweet mom sitting on the couch with her Bible and with her prayer journal and she would be writing her prayers for each of us.
In the sermon we heard this summer, Levi shared these 4 statements, and I want to briefly share them with you because they truly describe how my mom and our family have faced this time of pain and suffering.
First, We have learned to Look Beyond –Mom always wanted to live til she was old and gray. She dreamed of seeing my Bella get married and watching the boys grow up and play all their sports. But, my mom taught us to look beyond the present circumstances in order to hear and seeGod. She focused on the promises that He is theway the truth and the life, and that He is the resurrection and the life. She looked beyond.
Second, We have learned to live with a spirit of earnest expectation. Mimi focused on the fact God is going to come back to this planet and re-set it. There will be a New Earth. She taught us to live with earnest expectation and a longing for heaven.
Third, we all had to all constantly adjust to thenew normal – It seemed that every day, she was losing her independence or losing an ability such as walking, holding a baby, grasping, eating, swallowing or at the end breathing. But amidst hersuffering, my mom adjusted and continued to look for opportunities to spend time ministering to others. Charles Spurgeon said - God gives his most difficult assignments to his most trusted soliderand my mom was indeed a trusted soldier.
Finally, we have learned as a family that weneed to be prepared for when suffering comes –We will all face trouble so we must take heart for He has overcome the world.
We as a family learned even more the importance of sticking together! Lions are the only social cat. Lions live in prides. Nothing messes with the pride of lions. We have learned to be there for each other especially on our worst days. Every time I see a lion, I’m going to be reminded ofmy precious mother who was a tiny woman yet was as fierce as a lion.
Mom was a prayer warrior. She was praying for our Salvation and for our future husbands salvationfrom the time we were born. As soon as we had grandbabies, she began praying for their salvation and she did everything she could to instruct them and show them Jesus. Such a blessing that Mimi was able to be a part of Bella accepting Jesus and her baptism 2 years ago. She wrote in Bella’s new Bible that she wants Bella to memorize, 2 Peter 3:18 “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” She said, “I pray you learn to love and praise Jesus.” On August 12,just a few weeks ago, my Jackson accepted Jesus as his Savior and within a week of his decision, Houston and Sadie both made the decisionindividually to accept Jesus as well. We told Mimi on her final days that she can trust us to be faithful parents as we take the baton she has given us and run the race set before us to carry on her legacy and train these children to love and praise Jesus.
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