A Mother's Promise

A Mother’s Promise

11/09/11

Humans have a peculiar fact about themselves that other humans find fascinating to learn about; and that is the varying types of promises that they make to themselves.  It does not matter what kind of promise is made, the promise just serves the human heart as a hope for something in the future.  Promises are usually made when some event, pleasant or unpleasant graces our lives in a time when things may not be going our way and provides us the proverbial rock to stand upon.

When humans listen to God and understand His ways it separates us from the world in a way that is sometimes difficult to explain.  These ways contact our lives in such a manner that give us direction that often goes against normal or typical knowledge.  We have said many times in our lives that we believed that we have heard God’s voice and heard His directions for our lives.  Some of us have heard His promises to us.  All of these events are true and they have special meanings in our lives.  But as time rolls along our faith and hope in these promises from God wane and our beliefs in these promises are placed into the back of our minds.

How many times have we believed that God has said that his blessings would be upon us just to have circumstances occur that would make us believe that there would be no way that God could keep these promises.  We have read many passages of scripture, watched hundreds of movies, listened to thousands of personal stories which all told of miracles that have graced people’s lives, but while participating in these events we wonder when our promises would come true.

It is human nature to be patient for a short time and then become restless when our needs have not been met.  It is human nature to get angry when our timing is not met with things that we believe should happen.  It is human nature to question our foundations when that very foundation is being shaken by means that we do not understand.

Know that God has heard your prayers and knows the desires of your heart.  He has an answer for you and is willing to share it with you.  As a spirit, God communicates through spirit, He also communicates through the most unlikely people as well.  There are many ways that God can do to give you your answer and your promises.

My mother had a desire, and believed that God had spoken to her and promised her two sons.  What a great blessing from God to know that He has given such a great and confident statement to a person.  What a wonderful feeling that she must have had about this confirmation.  How her mind must have dreamt about what they would be like, how tall, how bold yet meek, what kind of leaders they would make, what kind of sports would they play, who they would marry, how to discipline them with love or what they would do for God’s kingdom, and many more ideas and hopes for them. 

Hopes came to life when she learned that she was pregnant and how exciting and nervous she was to tell her husband the news.  The plans that were going to be made, the new additions to the house or apartment would come in time and it seemed that everything was lining up as promised.

Calls were made to close friends and family and letters written to others of the blessed event.  Anticipation of the baby’s first kick in the belly, dad’s hand feeling the movements and talking to the baby through mom’s tummy were all being dreamed about.

Very soon tragedy struck and my parents lost their first child.  Follow this by a series of miscarriages and hope must have been dimmed quite a bit.  But along came another pregnancy and this one was different.  Hew hope began to persist and it was looking more and more like a child would soon grace my parents lives.  A short time later a baby boy!!!  A bouncing HUGE baby boy was born, and boy did he ever make an entrance.  Being in the medical field we have some sayings that just sum things up and one of these sayings is attributed to the OB side of things.  This saying and it applies to this case, is that my brother ripped mom a new one…literally.  It was a tough birth and many life saving techniques were done to ensure that mom was going to be around to see her son grow up; as if he wasn’t big enough when he came into the world J

With the birth of my brother came the reality of the birth.  It was said that with all of the complications at birth that it would not be advisable for mom to have another child.  The risks would be too great and it would not be guaranteed that if she became pregnant again that she would be able to carry the baby to term much less give birth again.  What a down-turn this must have been for my parents to hear.  And what faith they must have had in God to keep His promises.

So, as Sarah did in the Bible mom and dad tried to do it their way, which resulted in more disappointments and heartbreaks.  I know that doubts had to have risen into their hearts since God had clearly spoken this promise.  Adoption must have been talked about, but nothing ever came of the process.  Wonderings and wanderings in my mother’s mind must have been present as she saw new babies being brought into the church and local community; still asking God…where?

Then came the stork, at night even and out of the blue.  A gracious woman who had made a choice nine months ago decided to make the ultimate sacrifice and give up her child so that God’s promise could be fulfilled.  The woman had no idea of what was actually transpiring in my parents’ lives and what the events actually proved.  An event around the week of Holy Week 1967 was enacted that would fulfill God’s promise to my mother, an event that my mother had no idea that was happening but reaped the benefit during the end of harvest season.  Don’t get me wrong…dad and bud were there too…just at the grocery store buying baby necessities.

See, God has plans working in people’s lives that we do not have a clue about.  If you believe that God has given you a word, or a promise then believe on it and always hold on to what He has said. It may not always work out like this story has but it will in God’s way and timing.  Even the things that you consider to be mistakes can prove to be a blessing to others in some form or fashion.  Your life has purpose and has a meaning and it is our responsibility to show this to others in our world.

It is written that God will provide for us the desires of our heart.  He did not say that He would give us our wants but our needs.  The needs in our lives are things that we will use for our families for a cause or a specific purpose.  Needs are things that will call out to others that are in need of rescue or help mankind.  Needs are things from the heart and not entirely based upon emotions or whimsical ideas.  A need serves as a function for something or someone…in need.

I love you mom and thank you for listening J