October 23, 2011

• Everyday Heroes

  This weekend I made my annual pilgrimage to the Women of Faith Conference. I did not go alone, as I have the last couple of years. This time, I went with a good friend, her Mom, and a friend of her Mom's who I had never met before.

  It was a great weekend!

  I could tell you about the wonderful time I had chatting with my friend on the ride to the conference and back.

  I could tell you how I was emotionally affected by listening to Angie Smith's story about the baby she lost. (She is the author behind audreycaroline.blogspot) How I laughed and cried while listening to her talk and how she inspired me with a new perspective on the story of Peter walking on the water.

  I could tell you about Luci Swindoll and her encouraging talk. She, who at 79 years of age, is still so excited about life and told us that we should follow our dreams. Just go out and do things because "no one is telling us we can't."

  I could tell you about the way the worship music affected me on Saturday afternoon and how God used a couple of songs to bring about healing in my heart and to remind me that God is bigger. Bigger than whatever we are facing or whatever temptations we are dealing with. How I sat there with tears just running down my face...worshiping and praising God and feeling SUCH a sense of his presence.

  I could tell you about the talk that Nicole Johnson (the dramatist) shared and how she talked about anger. How it got me to thinking about some anger that I feel in my own life and how her encouragement to "interview our anger" and figure out what is fueling it gave me some new perspective.

  I could blog about the things that I scribbled down in my notebook. Great quotes and reminders that especially stood out to me. Moments of clarity that came to me in the midst of everything that I was hearing and seeing.

  But, the day after getting back, none of those things that I wrote about are really what is on my mind the most. They are not the things that made the biggest impression on me, although my worship moment with God will stay with me for a long time, I am sure.

  What I am mostly thinking about is the one lady that went with us to the conference. My friends' Mom's friend. (if you follow that) I had never met her before, even though we have lived in the same town for over 20 years. I'll call her Cathy.

  She is about 55 years old, I would guess, although I didn't specifically ask her what her age is. She has short grey hair and an air of grace and calm about her.

  She has been married to her husband for 36 years and has raised two children of her own. And now, through circumstances and happenings that I am sure were totally beyond her control and that I don't really know a lot of details about, she is raising her 3 young grandchildren.

  One of the blogger's I subscribe to wrote a post the other day about Heroes and asked us who our heroes are. I have been thinking about that some since then.

  I have never been one to really idolize the people who a lot of other people consider to be heroes. Those people who have done really great and really big things. Maybe it just seems too far out of my reach, I don't know. Maybe it is because I don't know them personally and even when I read about them, they are too far off for me to really relate to.

  But the people who I consider my heroes are people like Cathy. She is pouring her heart and soul into raising these 3 grandchildren. She is back in the throes of mothering. I am sure she never expected this turn of events would happen in her life. That at 55 years of age she would be back into the world of Dora and kindergarten and potty training and bedtime routines and going to child discipline classes to improve her methods of training up her grandchildren.

  And she is doing it with SUCH a spirit of grace and acceptance and love and peace. The whole weekend, I never once heard her make a negative comment. Not once did she mention anything about how this change has disrupted their lives. How this certainly isn't what she had signed up for. I never once heard even a twinge of resentment in her voice when she talked about the daily in's and out's of raising her grandchildren and told us stories of recent adventures and issues that she is dealing with.

  When my friend asked her what is different this time around than when she was raising her own 2 children, she said "Well, my house is a lot more dirty this time." She already knows what most of us young Mom's are still trying to really get through our heads. That thing people are always telling us about how "they are only young once" and "they'll be grown before you know it". She has already lived through all of that and her perspective is clearer and sharper because of it.

  Her simple response, when I commented on how good it was/is of her and her husband to take in their grandchildren was something that shouldn't have really surprised me, but it still did. She simply said, without fanfare or ado "With the circumstances and situation there were in, there was just no way we couldn't take them into our home." That's it. Just like that. Their empty nest filled back up and their lives turned upside down. And then she added "We just LOVE them. We are So thankful for them!"

  She inspired me and encouraged me and made me want to be more like her. She, my friends, is a hero in my mind. Will she ever get "credit"? Probably not. Will anyone ever write about her in a magazine or will her story be told to many people? I doubt it. But that doesn't make her any less of a hero in my mind.

  • 7:26 pm
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