The Legacy Mom Left

I found a note today that I'd written on the back of a program. Seemed fitting to find it today, the anniversary of my mother's death in 2005. It's been eleven years. The year of the ice storm. What follows is a transcript of the note I wrote in 2008. 
   

As I sit here at the women's conference after the singing and worship portion, I'm so thankful that all the adult women in my family are born-again Christians. Our lifestyles are different. Professionals, moms, retired ladies, missionary-types,  single, married, and step-moms.

Mom, as a teenager babysitter

Oh, how precious it is for me to rest in the fact that Jesus is your Savior. My prayer is for all the little souls who will come after us, my great nieces and nephews, that they will have the faith we do and pass it on.

I think often of Yos, my great-great-grandpa on my mom's side. He'd be proud of us! He'd traveled here from Russia, left the colony to live the American life of freedom. I'm so glad he did.

May whatever you're doing today as you get my hand-scribbled note [it seems I'd planned to copy this and mail it but never did], may you remember that the choices we make affect future generations, just like Yos' did.

Just like Stella's did when she went forward to accept Christ as a young woman all those years ago. And Dad followed. Maybe you don't know that story [most do now since it was shared at a reunion this summer], but it's an awesome example of how one little, yet very important, decision changed the course of lives.

That's what it said. That note. Full of gratitude and yearning.

I must have come home from the retreat and stored it away. It was well into the morning today when I realized this was the day Mom had passed on. Then in mid-afternoon, I found the pink note. Seems Mom was giving me something to blog about at the start of this new year.

She wouldn't like today's world. We have strife. Seems worse than ever, she'd say.


Economical. Racial. Political. Religious. Even within our Christian faiths, Catholic and Protestant alike, we disagree on many so things. Mom would say, "Devil's havin' fun amongst us."

But one thing never changes: Christ's love for us. The gift of eternal life through His son.

I'll close with another one of Mom's favorite sayings when she didn't know what to say when people's behavior seemed to disappoint our human thinking, "I'm sure glad I'm not the judge."

I'm certain the judge on the throne found her faithful.