Behind and Ahead

On this day in 1932 my mother was born as the last of nine children on a farm in deep South Georgia.  She grew up like most children of that day and region.  Necessities were mostly provided, but not much else.  Her childhood stories were not about dolls and fancy dresses, but picking cotton by hand alongside of older brothers and sisters.  She gave me and my sisters many gifts.  She gave us an education she did not have, a work ethic that kept us away from any feelings of entitlement, and a deep and abiding faith in God.  She lived a long life and became one of those saints who made a difference in the places where God put her as she lived out those years.  

She died back during the days of covid, but I remember her today as one who became one of the foundational pillars of my life.  Any and everything I have accomplished in life is built upon the love and the sacrifice she offered in my behalf.  Whenever we foolishly began to think that what we have done with our own life is all about me, we need to climb down off the pedestal where we have put ourselves and look more closely at those who have made the way possible for us.  Hopefully, all of us have parents who stand first on that list, but there are surely others who have invested in us when we were mostly empty and trying to figure out what to do with the life given to us.  

There is a long list of neighbors, and teachers, and peers who have helped us to reach this point of our journey.  There are so many behind us can no longer hear any words of appreciation, but we can express our thanks to them by being an enabling person to those who are walking along a little behind us.  In many places and in many ways the Word of God calls us to pass on our faith and the values that come with it to the generation behind us.  May we be as faithful as those who have come before us.