Legacy of a Godly Wife and Mother

Yesterday, after hearing about the sudden death of a godly mother in our church, I felt paralyzed with sadness. No words, just disbelief mixed with pain. As a mother, I immediately thought of the children. As a mother of children who have lost a parent, I found myself consumed with thoughts of the next morning of their lives, waking up without her. When I awoke this morning, that is where my heart went. Facebook is full of thoughts, prayers, and memories of close friends who knew her best. All feeling the devastating loss. As I read, I could see the details of her life that will become a legacy. She was a loving wife, building up her husband, overlooking his faults to see the man God had created him to be. All who entered her home were treated as family. Her faith was real and impacted those who knew her. One post stood out to me. It was a picture of a sign that hangs on their refrigerator. It reads, 

Train your children as if they won't have you in a year. Treat them as if you won't have them in a year.

 

Those sweet boys were given her best as a mother. She has left them a legacy of love and faith. She spent her life teaching, loving, and soaking up her family, not assuming that she would have them tomorrow. 

 

A love like hers will leave a void in their lives, deep and unimaginably painful. A love so deep does that. Her faith, real and just as deep, the faith she taught her children and, more importantly, lived before them will be both a comfort and a compass as they live their lives without her. 

 

Another post, written by their pastor's wife spoke life to me. "Jesus...that's the only word I've been able to say today...it's enough." 

 

Jesus has been this sweet mother's hope, her breath of life, her everything. She lived that everyday in front of her family. The hope her husband and sons have in him, the hope of heaven, the hope of seeing her again, will be enough. The Jesus she lived for will not abandon her family. 

 

Praying now that her legacy will impact lives of other mothers. Praying that our faith would be real and our love would be deep.

 

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

New International Version (NIV)

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.