By Teresa Hampton
- D. Anderson wrote, “The three sweetest words in the English language are mother, home and heaven.”
Mother is what makes home a home. She plays a pivotal role in making the home an endearing, safe haven for her loved ones. She molds her children to be what God wants them to be. She is a guide, instructor, disciplinarian, and much more. She uses her home to serve the Lord in many other ways, loving those within and without the church.
On a personal note, three things stand out about my mother. She is the queen of hospitality, a giver to anyone in need, and an extraordinary teacher. Her mission in life is to teach her children, leading them in the path toward heaven. For that reason, she seeks every opportunity to spend time with her fifteen grandchildren and eighteen great grandchildren!
Mother, Home and Heaven, and I would add another sweet word—Grandmother. In many families, both parents work outside the home and the children are often cared for by grandmothers. Grandmothers, then, become the guides, instructors, and disciplinarians.
My maternal grandmother, we called her Granny, taught her children and grandchildren to not just know about the Lord, but to love the Lord and be devoted to His word. When she gathered around her pot-bellied stove she told Bible stories to her youngest daughter (my mother) and two grandsons. One of the boys grew up and dedicated his entire adult life to preaching to lost souls in four foreign countries. He established numerous on-going preaching schools for natural born citizens so they could reach the lost in their own land. He also helped fund a program to care for widows and orphans in those impoverished countries. He is now eighty three and still traveling to that country several times a year to check on the preaching schools. I can just imagine my grandmother reading from James 1:27, Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
When my grandmother would tell us Bible stories, my brothers and sisters and I were mesmerized. She could make us smell the fresh clean air that Noah breathed when he came out of the ark, or sense the fear in Abraham’s heart when God told him to sacrifice his son of promise, Isaac. She used her artistic talent to draw Bible characters that we would then sit and color. She helped us understand the amazing story of redemption that begins in Genesis and ends in Revelation. She called it the Scarlet Thread of the Bible.
Anyone who sat at Granny’s feet learned about the Father of all grace, about Christ who gave His life blood for every soul on earth, and about the Holy Spirit who breathed the words of life into chosen men so they could impart them to you and me.
I am reminded of Lois and Eunice (2 Timothy 1:5). I imagine they did many things to capture and hold the attention of an active little boy, Timothy, while they taught him from God’s word. As a young man, he assisted Paul in his missionary journeys.
The sweetest words in the English language are definitely mother, grandmother, home, and heaven. Mothers and grandmothers play an important role in making a home, and guiding children to love and obey God so they will all reach heaven!
Today’s Verse: I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also (2 Timothy 1:3-5).
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