What Do Those Words Mean?

The Words She Didn’t Know

            Recently Mother shared a remembrance from her early childhood – one I had never heard. I prefaced this recollection with the fact that she is the oldest Jesus follower I know.

            Mother said she did not know who God or Jesus was as a young child. She did not recall seeing a Bible during her early years. But she remembers distinctly hearing God’s name and asking in her little mind What do those words mean? She even tried to say them with the same emphasis as she had heard those words spoken. When she heard them usually the speaker was exasperated or angry.

            Mother was almost seven years old before her mother made a life-altering commitment to Jesus. Prior to that September Revival of 1931 held in the Bend, Mother had never been to a church service.

            Suddenly for my mother, everything changed. Her mother began reading and studying her Bible every day. The inspiring world of the Bible stories that she cherishes to this day came alive as her mother read them to her.

            The words that Mother had heard used as profanity or cursing now were spoken in prayer before each of their meals. Grandma began teaching my mother each night before tucking her into bed to pray to the God who made her and loved her.

            In August of 1932, just shy of one year after Grandma’s conversion, the little congregation fasted and prayed for Grandpa’s salvation. In God’s gracious mercy, He drew Grandpa into a relationship with Him.

            Even though Mother was already seven years old, her parents’ salvation radically changed their activities, their habits, and their priorities because Jesus became the Lord of their lives and their home. Who benefited the most? Their only daughter who had never heard God’s name used in praise or prayer for her first six years. Yet my sister and I can testify we never heard her use the names of God or Jesus Christ in any way but in prayer, praise, reading, or teaching that built truth into our lives. Even at age 97, she still impacts people by her unwavering faith in the God she began learning about over 90 years ago.

Bernyce Smith Gates, my mother at
age 97 on Christmas 2021.

            As we begin a new year, may parents and grandparents who profess belief in Jesus dedicate their speech, their priorities, and their habits to serve as an example that will surely lead their children or grandchildren into a vibrant relationship with Jesus. The invaluable bonus resulting from a lifestyle of following Jesus is the surety of leading their precious children to receive Jesus and join them on the road to eternity with Him.

An Afterthought - Colossians 3:8 says, But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. What a different nation and world we would have if parents made this singular verse their 2022 motto!