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Many Hands Make Light Work

June 28, 2016 By Rachel Jones 3 Comments

It would be impossible to overstate the profound impact my mother has had on my life. She is an incredible human being in her own right, apart from who and how she is as a daughter, mother, widowed wife, grandmother, godmother, treasured friend. She grew me in her body, kept me alive, and introduced me to Jesus. And those are just the highlights of how she has helped me be a person alive in the world. I love my Momma. So much.

She would also be the first person to tell you that she didn’t do it alone. And she wouldn’t just be talking about Dad. When it comes to raising babies, you need all the help you can get. And I was raised by a four-square gospel choir of women.

My mother, my grandmother, my great aunt Lu, and my godmother were the four evangelists of the good news of being a girl in our family. And they had their hands full in raising me. Each of them had their own way of relating to me–and each of them showed me how to love things about myself and our family that were often hidden in plain sight.

It would have been easy to insist I stay in the playroom with my godmother’s boys and my own brother, and I did that much of the time, usually by my own choice. But there were magic days in their kitchens while things were being sliced and diced and made ready to share, magic days in the sewing room or Aunt Candy’s Crown Vic, or Aunt Lu’s kitchen, or around the dinner table after everyone was full and happy and the men had retired to the television–and if I was quiet, I heard stories no one else knew. That usually happened at Thanksgiving, or Christmas, or Easter.

But my favorite nights to listen were those long and lazy summer nights in my grandparents’ backyard. Surrounded by the honeysuckle, and serenaded by the bug zapper, they would talk on and on into the long gloaming of Central Texas summer. Sitting there, in my swimsuit or cut-offs or a silly slogan or concert t-shirt, I heard them preach the gospels of their own lives–about miracles from Jesus, resurrections of relationships, Good Fridays, Easters, first dates, burying babies and husbands, dances in barns and back pastures and lakesides, Elvis and Jack Kennedy and the Beatles and John the Revelator, and how to get to the old family cemetery where so-and-so is buried. They extended me such grace by letting me stay there, tucked up in my mother’s lap, or at her knee.

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Mommas and godmommas, grandmothers and great-aunts, you teach us so much with your stories–and the way you love nourishes us in our bodies and souls. Sometimes, it’s hard to keep your train of thought when your precious ones are excited and want to interrupt and ask questions.

Thank you for not kicking us off the porch, or sending us back to the pool.

Thank you for teaching us with your own love how to preach the gospel in the story of our families.

 

[Photo credit: StockSnap, via Pixabay, Public Domain under a Creative Commons License]


 

Whose overheard stories of faith shaped your life?

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Filed Under: Discipleship Tagged With: children, cloud of witnesses, discipleship, parenting, summer

About Rachel Jones

Rachel Jones loves Jesus, her husband, their respective families, barbecue, breakfast tacos, Bob Dylan, baseball, the Book of Jeremiah, trips to the beach, finding money in a jacket pocket, and snagging the shadiest parking spot in the lot—in that exact order. Rachel and Mr. Jones live in Cincinnati with three neurotic cats and a new kitten named Carrie Fisher. Rachel is the Associate Editor for Forward Movement. When she’s not working on Forward Day by Day, she’s usually looking for her car keys or putting up preserves, but should probably be updating her blog at https://makeshiftfarms.wordpress.com

Comments

  1. Julia says

    June 28, 2016 at 10:24 am

    Rachel,
    Thank you for reminding me that every moment, even the small ones like being gathered together in our backyard on a summer evening, can be moments where we can show and share the love of Jesus to our children. I am looking forward to sharing these very moments with my own three little ones.

    Reply
  2. Candy says

    June 28, 2016 at 11:15 pm

    Thanks for sharing your memories with us Rach. Sometimes we forget with all the busyness of life the important things – like sharing our lives, our love and our memories with each other. I truly miss those times we all shared with each other. Each time we have our grandchildren they want me to tell them stories about their daddy, Eekie and when they were little. They love hearing the memories frozen in time in the form of a story. What a blessing to be able to share with them.❤️

    I love and admire the gift God has given you as a writer. May the anointing of your gifting increase each and every day. May your love for Him always intrigue your readers to the point of wanting to know more and more about this Jesus you love.

    I Love you very much!

    Love & Blessings,
    Aunt Candy <

    Reply
    • Nurya Love Parish says

      June 29, 2016 at 6:17 am

      What a beautiful demonstration of the love and faith that Rachel describes in her piece! Thank you so much for commenting!

      Reply

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