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Considering My Great Grandmother’s Prayers

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By the time you reach the age of 40 you assume that you know most of the important details about your family history. Sure, there may be some details that you’ve missed, but overall, you got it. Then a curiously overlooked detail emerges that causes you to pause, muse, and ask more questions.

Such was the case recently when I learned that my great-grandmother was a Baptist. This may not seem like much initially, but I assure you it is.

I grew up Roman Catholic. There was not a whiff of evangelical thinking within miles of our family. My parents were not raised with any biblical teaching or preaching. I assumed the case was the same for all of my grandparents and their parents and so forth.

Now I hear that my grandfather’s mom was a Baptist. And apparently not a nominal Baptist. She was a Bible-reading, Bible-chewing, Bible-quoting, genuine New England Bible-thumper! She was known for her devotion to the Lord. Apparently so was her entire family before her.

This trajectory for our family changed in the 1940s when her son, who was raised in the church, heard family prayers, and Bible reading throughout his youth, married a strong Roman Catholic. This did not happen without strong opposition and disapproval from the Baptists. But it did happen, and the evangelical ancestry stopped there.

Within the span of 35 years this new couple would have children and then grandchildren. These grandchildren grew up without any understanding of the Bible. Myself, one of their grandchildren, remember thinking that “Christ” was Jesus’s last name. I was clueless and lost.

Do you see how fast that happened? Within a generation or two the whole hue of our family changed. Great-grandma’s concerns were vindicated.

I mean no dishonor to my grandparents or parents; I am thankful for them. Instead I bring this out to show a few encouraging items.

First, the importance and priority of maintaining faithfulness in our families. It is no small thing for parents to shepherd and care for their children like they are handing off the torch of the faith to them. There is no time for slumbering or lethargy; we are talking about the glory of Christ and the salvation of souls!

Second, kids need to consider the outcome of their actions. What may seem like love today can lead to apostasy from your first love tomorrow. For Christians love must be built upon Christ and then work outward to others. To invert this is to cross wires; and the disaster is forthcoming. Can you imagine my Baptist great-grandma considering that her children would contribute to a growing indifference to Christ?

Third, I see the power of God in salvation. God still worked in and through this. He still brought the gospel to me. In fact, he brought it to my parents as well later in life! We see him faithfully and powerfully working in spite of us. I can’t help but think that after that old New England Baptist woman pleaded Christ to her son and daughter-in-law that she pleaded them and their children to God. It is a tremendously encouraging and humbling thought to consider her sitting on her porch pouring her heart out to Christ for my family’s souls. I don’t know if she prayed for her great-grandchildren, but it is something that I would do if I were in her place.

We never know how God is secretly working for his glory but we do know that he is. And as a result, we must be all the more diligent to do the same on our watch.

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