Almost two years ago I got really into researching my ancestry. I had always had a little bit of interest in knowing more about my family history - I was a Sociology major after all! I love knowing how someones environment has made them into who they are. Take my great-grandmother for example. She was born the youngest of three children in 1914 to a young, sickly mother, Mary Charlotte. I am not clear about the details of the matter, but what I do know is that my Nana almost died as an infant, and Mary Charlotte died shortly after giving birth to her sweet baby girl that she would never see grow up. After the death of Mary Charlotte, her recently widowed husband married another young woman. This young woman was still a child herself at 15 years old and for some reason was unable to care for my Nana, so she was sent off to live with an aunt. She was loved and cared for, but you can't help but wonder the heartache she must have felt having been separated from her father and her two older siblings. My Nana grew up knowing she did not want to be the 15 year old wife her own mother and step-mother were. She was going to be strong and independent. She lived through the Great Depression, like so many others, and she met a man who courted her, loved her, and married her when she was 21 years old. She gave birth to three strong and responsible and independent children. She then went on to go to Nursing School, excelling at everything she did, always at the top of her class. And after over 50 years of marriage, she lost her husband. She, however, went on to live a full and strong and independent 92 years. She saw three generations from her offspring, and saw the promise of a fourth before she took her last breath. A family full of women who are strong and independent.
Those are admirable traits to be passing along to your children. Those are all things I hope to teach my own children, but I also want to share with them the eternal love of Christ. Of all the wonderful I things I learned from my Nana during the 19 years we shared, many of them were not actually told to me. Rather, I was able to learn from her consistent examples. And now as a mother myself, I hope that I can provide consistent Godly examples for my children. I can already see the compassionate spirit in my two year-old son. I'm so grateful the Lord has blessed him with that quality because it is something we can share in together. I want to nurture that characteristic in him so that he may grow up desiring to serve "the least of these" in our world. I want to provide an environment for him that allows him to exercise his compassion. I want to see him come to know Christ at an early age so that he may never remember a time when he did not want to love and serve the Lord. I want him to be a blessing to others and I want his light to shine before all men, that they may see his good deeds and Praise our Father in heaven. I want these things, and so many more, for my son.
I've known from a fairly young age that the Lord had given me a spirit of compassion and mercy. I always befriended the new kid at school, even when everyone else made fun of them or didn't want to play with them. I even remember my grandmother pointing out to me that people who are often rejected or ignored in our society were drawn to me. (She said it was because of my aura and the energy I emitted from my smile...) Even the boy who loved me in high school, who was a trouble maker and a drop-out, was drawn to me. Of course at the time I didn't understand it. I didn't think it was really anything about me personally that was special, but I knew they saw something in me that drew them in. Now looking back as an adult, I can see why. Reading the scriptures about Jesus and all the people who followed him: tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, out casts. He wasn't a handsome man. He may have had a warm smile, but people didn't flock to him because he was popular. They came to him because he had something they wanted, something they needed. Hope. Peace. Freedom. As believers we are all called to have compassion and show mercy, to share the love of Christ with others.
So what am I doing with my life to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God"?
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