The Legacy of Mothers

Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right, let's talk. A daily program powered by the Truth Network.

This is kind of a great thing and I'll tell you why. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Good afternoon Truth Talk listeners. This is Alisa Grimes and today we're going to be talking about mothers. Just in case you have forgotten, this coming Sunday is Mother's Day.

And so heads up on that. I don't know what you have planned. I'm sure you have lots planned to honor your mother.

But I had a few questions today and I would love for you to call in and answer some of these questions. Really you can tell me anything about your mother. But I would love to know is there something that your mother taught you that you have carried on in your family?

Maybe traditions or recipes or anything like that. But are there things that you learned from your mom that you've passed along or that you see yourself doing? Maybe it's a funny thing that your mom does that you always thought was quirky.

And now you see yourself doing those very same things. Some of you, your moms are not around. So if you could say one thing to your mom or your grandmother today, even if she's not here, what would it be? So our call in number is 866-348-7884.

866-348-7884. And so I love my mom so much. I know most of us do. A little later in the broadcast we're going to talk about when motherhood or parenthood maybe goes wrong. And what are the feelings left around some of these holidays that should be a great celebration.

But you're really possibly processing these holidays a little differently than other people. So just to start with though, I'm going to throw out some stories. I'm going to throw out some questions for you. And I would love to have you call in. This is a great day to call in because the topic is so great.

866-348-7884. The older I get, I guess this is so difficult. The older I get, the more I see myself sitting here, saying things and having mannerisms and just, just little things that are so much like my mom. And I think I look like her as I get older.

And I think those are things that are super, super sweet. Another question, you know, what is something that your mother used to say to you that would encourage you? Maybe who is a spiritual mother or a mentor in your life? And have you seen God's love reflected through a mom or a grandmother? So grandmothers, we're going to incorporate grandmothers today too, because grandmothers for, for so many people, when they talk about the most impactful person in their life, maybe it was a grandmother, you know, a grandmother who took extra time. Maybe you were in a family with several kids and your grandmother just went the extra mile to make you feel really special. Grandmothers have a way of spoiling kids just a little bit, maybe not too much. So maybe you're a grandmother and you want to call in and say what, what it means to you to be a grandmother, but grandmothers just have a way so often of making things special.

And maybe they have just a little more margin or a little more life perspective. And they take the time to do things that maybe moms, moms are just, when you're in the thick of it as a mom, you just, you just don't have time for maybe a whole lot of extras, but what are some things that maybe your mom or your grandmother did for you when you were growing up and how has that, how has that continued in the way that you are maybe a parent today? So another question, another group of questions is just around generational influence. And, you know, what kind of family traditions did you have in your family that were passed on? And are you seeing yourself becoming more like your mom or grandmother?

And what kind of legacy do you hope to pass down? So lots of great questions to talk about as we anticipate Mother's Day. I would also like to know what has been your favorite Mother's Day gift that you've received if you're a mom or that you have given if you are a child? My love language is quality time. So I even told my family this week, my birthday is actually Wednesday. And then Mother's Day is Sunday.

And all I really want to do is hang out with them. We can build a little fire in our fire pit. We can sit around. We have this awesome questions book. I'll tell you this, this is a life hack right here. I bought a book offline maybe three or four years ago called 300 Questions to Ask Your Parents Before It's Too Late. Now I know that's a topic, I mean a title that's a little bit ominous, but it just has all these fabulous questions that you can ask your parents. And you will find out amazing things about their lives that you've never known. My parents don't really talk a lot about their childhood. They'll, they'll answer questions if you ask, but they've never been ones just to sit around and tell a whole bunch of stories from growing up. So I bought this book before we went on an like an extended family.

Our whole extended family went on a vacation three or four years ago. And I bought this book and I had the questions. And so at night we would sit around and ask them these questions. And some of them are like, you know, what natural disasters have you lived through? Or did you ever get bullied as a kid?

All of those types of things. But that's one thing that I hope to pass down as a mom to my family is just this, this importance, this emphasis on conversation, on good conversation, meaningful conversation. So anyway, so I just told them, I don't care what we eat.

I don't care what we do. I just want to be together. But maybe you're a mom and you really like gifts. So have you ever received a gift that you really loved as a Mother's Day gift? I know when I used to work with the kids at church and every Mother's Day, we would, you know, make some kind of something for the kids to give their moms. And usually it was, it was questions.

We were even talking about this yesterday with my sister because she works in with, with TKs, preschoolers. And she says, and she says, she, you know, of course they ask all these questions at Mother's Day and she said, she didn't really anticipate some of the answers because she asked one of the little, one of the kids, I don't know if it was a boy or girl, like, the question was, I like, oh, I can't remember it right now. Something to the effect that they said they liked their mom better than their dad. And she was like, oh my, I didn't anticipate that.

That was the answer to their question, whatever the question was. But I think it's always just fun to see what kids think about their parents. She said, some of that questions they asked was, what do you think your mom does all day? She said some hilarious responses to those. But I remember when our kids were little and probably through Sunday school or preschool, they would come home at Mother's Day with the little handprints or with these sweet answers, funny answers to some questions that they were asked.

And it was just always fun to see what they would come up with. So when we come back in our next segment, which is, will be just in a few minutes, we're going to talk about some different mothers in the Bible. So obviously there's a whole lineage from Eve through the New Testament.

So lots of moms to pick from, but we'll start just going through scripture and pulling out some of the mothers in scripture. Some of them were tremendous and left great legacies. Others were not so good. Others had flaws, just like we do. I feel like it's always reassuring to read the Bible and find out that those are real people and they were not perfect.

And they made a lot of mistakes. And when I look back on my parenting journey, I am just really thankful that God filled in a lot of gaps and continues to do that. So we're not necessarily looking for perfect mothers. None of us have perfect mothers.

None of us are perfect mothers, but what can we learn from women in the Bible who were mothers? So I think I hear our music coming on. But in the meantime, if you want to call in, let's see here. Our number is 866-348-7884. We'd love to have you call in. Welcome back to Truth Network.

This is Alicia Grimes and we're talking about mothers. If you want to call into the show, we would love to have you give your thoughts around your mom, maybe your grandmother, how she made an impact in your life, things you learned from her. The number is 866-348-7884. And I think we have a caller. I think we have a caller, Kenneth from South Carolina. How are you doing, Kenneth? Good.

I listen to y'all show every day. What y'all was saying about our grandparents, you know, asking them questions, you know? Yes.

Yes. On my mother's side, I didn't really get to know my grandmother, but my grandfather lived longer. But he really wouldn't tell us anything about him. And he was in the hospital. I remember he was in the hospital when I was around 25. And he was telling the nurse about, you know, some things, you know, but us kids, grandkids, he would not tell us anything about him growing up. I don't know why. And he was a good man and everything. But, you know, I'd go to ask him questions.

He'll say, we'll discuss it later. Interesting. Why do you think certain generations just, it seems like that was almost a generational thing. And I do know that a lot of men who fought in the war, they really didn't want to talk about that except to other veterans, maybe.

And, you know, you can understand why some things were hard, but, you know, a lot of, a lot of people just, I don't know, maybe they were a more humble generation. They didn't want to talk about themselves, but you got any thoughts on that, Kenneth? I don't know. My grandkids, if they asked me anything and I'm willing to tell them anything, if they asked me when I was growing up, you know, I don't know.

I don't know. Well, I appreciate your call. You know, I, that's kind of why I brought up the question book that I ordered offline. I don't even remember who the author is, but it made me realize that my parents, you know, not, not all, you know, not all people will respond to all these questions, but that's that my parents did. And I remember my dad is the kindest man in the world. And we were talking about, if you had ever, we asked him and he's, he'll be, he's coming up on 82, just super great health, strong.

I just, my hero. But I remember asking him, dad, did you ever get bullied in high school or anything like that? But he was, he was super small in high school.

I think when he graduated high school, he was like, I don't know, 125 pounds or something, really small guy. And, you know, I figured he might've gotten bullied and he told us the story of my kids were there. It was our kind of my sister and her kids. And he said, well, yeah, one time I got bullied and I jumped on that bully and I broke my tooth off in his head.

And we just died laughing because I would never in a million years have pictured my dad jumping on a bully and breaking his tooth off. But, you know, and then some of their stories about the depression and, you know, we asked them like, you know, what was Christmas like for you growing up or, you know, what were, what were the traditions that you had? And he worked in, you just got to ask the questions and, you know, sometimes they'll answer and sometimes they'll don't. Well, Kenneth, I appreciate your perspective. And, you know, I think maybe, maybe what we need to do for our kids and our grandkids is just start telling them some of these stories because, you know, time passes and then those stories are gone and they, you know, stories, they're coming back and, you know, it does explain some things about, you know, why our parents did certain things or, you know, everybody knows anybody who lived through the depression, you know, they save their stuff and, you know, they save their paper bags and they say, but they're reasons why they help explain our behaviors or our perspective on life or our faith, maybe because they went through, you know, a serious illness and that, that changed their faith and the way they view God in their lives. So, you know, even if your ancestors are not around to tell, tell their stories, I think the importance of leaving a legacy for a mom or a dad or a grandparent of just the stories that, um, of, of their lives and especially faith stories, you know, God's goodness in the midst of tragedy, all those things can help our families and children and grandchildren develop their own faith story just by hearing ours. So, um, Kenneth, do you, do you have any- Sometimes it takes a tragedy to, um, straighten us out, you know. Well, it does and, you know, I think when you, when you look at young people and they, you know, some of them have, a lot of them have not had, you know, some major life experiences or tragedies and I think there's a value in sharing our story, especially if we can share it in a hopeful way that, you know, God was with me when I, you know, if you've heard me talk on here before, I had a brain tumor in 2011 and brain surgery and a lung recovery, but that's part of my story and as part of me giving God the glory that he never left us and he was with us and, you know, he, he brought us through that and he brought people around us and I love telling that story, not because it's about me, but because it's about God and hopefully the day will come when they face something and they don't quite have their own personal history, but they draw from our history and, you know, that's what the Bible's about. It's about stories of people living life, encountering God, God's faithfulness despite their sinfulness and, you know, it doesn't always have to be a great story. Sometimes it's, wow, I, I, I hit the bottom and, and God was there too. Have you got any stories for us, Kenneth?

Maybe stories about your life that you feel like are interesting or as somebody else might be able to learn for? I've always been good to me. I've always had a little bit of money.

I've never had to walk for anything. I pray every day, you know, ask God for forgiveness every day, healing power, you know, I mean, every day, you know, I tell it, we ain't kids, you know, don't be afraid to talk to God, you know, he's there, you know. Absolutely. Who do you feel like impacted you, like had shaped you, had an impact on you? Oh, is there any certain person in your life for several people? It was my grandmother on my daddy's side. How did she shape you? How did she impact you? She would always tell us to do the right thing and if we got in trouble, she would scold us really bad. Straighten you out.

Yeah. Well, she cared enough about you to not just let you, you know, continue to get in trouble, so. Yeah, she was a good grandmother. I really miss her. My other grandmother, I really didn't get to know her. I wish I would have.

She was a real God-fearing woman also, but, you know, that's the way it is. Right, sure. Well, you can hop off if you want to, but I'll be calling back some other time.

That sounds great. Well, thanks for your time. Take care. That reminded me of just some lessons I learned from my grandmother's, both of them. My grandmother, Kiker, on my mom's side, they grew up farming and my grandpa, my grandpa Kiker, he, they were farming, I guess they had four kids at that point and he lost his arm in a farming accident. And years later, I've got, I was looking at it this past weekend and I was like, I have this printout of pages and pages where my grandmother, Kiker, closer to the end of her life, just wrote answers to questions that her, that her kids, my aunts and uncles asked her.

And she wrote those out in her handwriting and they're probably, I don't know, they're dozens of pages and she talked about Christmas and she talked about when papa lost his arm and that was the darkest day of her life and how the community came around and helped them and just kind of how they moved forward through all that. And, you know, when I look at my life and I come up on hard times, some of those stories that my mom and my dad and my grandparents told me, they do resonate with me. And then of course we have all the faithfulness of God in his word. It's his story. He's told us his story and he's pulled us into his story so that we can know him and we can have faith in him that no matter what happens in this life, that he is with us. And so I think grandparents and parents have a unique role in the lives of their kids and their grandkids to instill that kind of faith. You know, what I, what I love is that we don't have to put up a perfect version of ourselves.

We can put up a real version because the glory is, is to God anyway. We don't need to pretend that we are something more than we are. So we're going to hop off, but when we come back, we'll continue talking about the impact of mothers and grandmothers. Welcome back to another edition of Mother's Day. I'm your host, Welcome back to Truth Talk Live.

This is Alicia Grimes. And today we are talking about the impact of moms and grandmothers. And we spoke with Kenneth earlier and we were just talking about the fact that sometimes we don't know a lot of information, maybe about our grandparents, because they didn't talk about a lot of things and just the importance of passing on our faith verbally to our kids and our grandkids. And I was telling them earlier about, um, a book that I have that I ordered online called 300 Questions to Ask Your Parents Before It's Too Late.

So it's a little bit of a downer title, but it gets the point across that sometimes if you don't ask, then it is too late. And those stories pass away with that person. And so, you know, if you want to pass your faith down to your kids, pass down your stories. A couple of weeks ago, several weeks back, we had a women's conference here in our city, and we had 500 women from 79 churches. And one of the breakout sessions was on generational legacy. And a mom of seven kids, seven grown kids, talked about what legacy had looked like from her grandmother. Her grandmother had read the Bible numerous times. She would read the Bible through every six or eight months, and she would annotate it. She would write in it, she would take notes, and then she would put it aside. And so when she died, they had all of these Bibles with her notes in the Bible, and the grandkids and the kids all got to have one.

And what a phenomenal legacy. And so, you know, just your stories, the things that have happened in your life. She also talked about how she tries to share with her kids, with her family, with her extended family. They have this mindset of what she calls God's collateral goodness. And I think it, I don't remember exactly where she got that idea. But just looking back in time, even at the really hard times in your life, and seeing the goodness of God in those dark places, and talking about those, giving words to those, because it gives hope for us as we move forward.

And one thing I love about that concept, I was talking to another lady another day about this very concept. I said, when you start to do that, and you start to see from, like looking back is usually when you can see God's goodness. But eventually, if you do that long enough, you'll start to look forward.

And you might be looking into a very difficult season, or a diagnosis, or a loss. And you know through faith, because God is faithful, because he's been faithful in the past. His word says he's faithful, so we know that. But you can know in faith that God is going to bring goodness, or that you're going to see his goodness, as the, as the scripture says, see his goodness in the land of the living. And that starts to transform your whole perspective on the future. And so being able to live with that kind of perspective, what a legacy that is as a mom or a grandmother. And you know we're, we, we don't get it right.

We, we don't measure up. Sometimes we're not the best versions of ourselves, but just to consider what kind of impact we're leaving on our families with our attitudes, or with our outlook, or with our faith, or the way we navigate grief or disappointment. We, we are passing on a legacy to our families. And so I was thinking about my grandmother Kiker again, and when she was in her 80s, I think she was maybe 86 when she died, but I would say 80. I maybe, I may be missing that number, but she was much older, three, maybe two or three years before she passed away. And she planted a fruit orchard. She planted fruit trees. And I remember saying, grandma, like you're planting all these fruit trees.

How long does it take for these trees to bear fruit? And she said, oh, it'll be long after I'm gone. And later as an adult, I reflected back on that. And she was still, even at the end of her life, looking forward to what she would leave for people coming behind her. And that's such a great way to live.

You know, that what you do in this life through, through your actions, through your legacy, through what you love, what you give to is going to outlive you. And so that's the story of many of our grandparents and our parents. My mom is amazing. She taught me so many things. She just loved us well, my mom and my dad both, but my mom was just always there. She was just always there. We were talking this weekend about how she always made us a cook, a home cook breakfast before school every day. And, you know, she was at our sports team. She was at our games. She just was a super supportive.

I know my, my junior high, seventh and eighth grade were probably possibly well at that, at least by 20, the worst two years of my life. And I remember so often she would sit at the end of my bed and I'm sure I was so dramatic. And I'm sure she wanted to say, Alicia, suck it up buttercup, but she just listened and she was so kind and so understanding and just so comforting.

And I finally, you know, made it through that. And I hopefully was not as difficult or as dramatic as I was those two years, but she was just there for me. And I love that about her. And she's also probably the first person that really impacted me as far as somebody who really loved God's word, because she was always studying her Bible. She had a prayer notebook and we would, when she would go outside, she loved to garden. And she, she and my dad raised us in the country, which I told her about a month ago. I said, mama, I really love that you raised us in the country. I love the values that I learned in the country.

I love that I got to play outside and just have a kid's childhood. And there were so many things about the way she raised us, the way they raised us that just impacted me as an adult. But I was thinking about some of those things and we were just talking through and, you know, she loved to garden, but when she would go out to her garden, I would sneak over and I would look at her prayer journal, which I hate to admit that now, cause that's super private, but she left it beside the chair. Maybe she wanted me to look at it. I'm not sure, but I would look through it and I would see where she was praying for me.

And that just really impacted me. And I would see her, you know, study and read and she taught, she taught God's word. She's still to this day, a phenomenal Bible teacher.

And so if you know me, if you, if you cut me, I hope I will bleed Jesus family and women's discipleship, but I love God's word and I love to teach. And I'm sure that early exposure to a female who loved God's word and loved to teach was very impactful to me. My grandmother Nicholson, she was a lot of fun. She lived on a little, a little lake.

And so she liked to fish and we just, we just had a lot of fun with her. She always had ice cream and lots of things that only grandparents will give you large quantities of, but she would take us into town and buy us outfits. And then we had to hide them from our grandfather.

So we would hide them under the bed until it was time to go home. And then we'd have to sneak them out to the car, but just so many great memories with her. And as she got older, she was just such a kind woman. And I just, I just treasure the time that I had with her. I'm thankful. I'm thankful for her. Dads and grandfathers also make such an impact on us.

And maybe we can talk about dads and grandfathers as we get closer to father's day. But I wanted to talk about a few women in the Bible who were obviously very impactful and played into the line of Christ, into the big picture of what God has been doing since before he created us until eternity future. God has been writing this story. He's been unfolding the story of redemption through Christ. The whole Bible is about Christ. So your story has been grafted in to the story of God. I hope you know that.

I hope you realize that your life is about something bigger than just yourself, which for me is super exciting because I want my life to be about something bigger than just me. But we start with the first woman in the Bible is Eve and she's our first mother. We meet her in Genesis. She's known as the mother of all living things. And she endured a lot of grief and a lot of joy in motherhood.

You know, motherhood is not, um, an easy path. And we see that from the very first mom, she had grief and she had joy. She had the joy of having these two children, the grief of having one son murdered the other son. She had the joy of living in this garden and this perfect relationship with her husband, Adam, with her God. And then she had the sorrow and I'm sure the regret of believing the lie that Satan told her that there was something better that God was holding out on her. And she bought into that lie, ate the fruit and then sin entered the world actually through Adam and his lack of protection over her. But she was deceived by the serpent. And so I'm sure she was a woman who dealt with a lot of inner turmoil and inner conflict that God still provided for Adam and Eve and went on to through her seed, through the seed, through the child of Eve, we see in Genesis, the promise that a savior would come, that Satan would be destroyed and the savior would crush Satan's head. And so that's the rest of the Old Testament is this unfolding story of the seed of the woman unfolding through the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all the way up to when Jesus Christ takes on flesh, comes to earth to, um, to bring about our salvation. So she, um, her life reminds us of grace after failure, because I'm sure she, you know, struggled with that failure in the garden, but the grace of God on her to not cast her away, they left the garden, but, but God still provided for them. And like I said, through her line, redemption came for all of humanity. Later, we look at Hagar and Hagar story.

Is it a little tragic? Sarah was actually married to Abraham, but she couldn't bear a son. And so eventually Abraham gave his handmaid, Sarah, uh, Hagar, um, Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham and Hagar had a son Ishmael. And Sarah was brutal. The scriptures say she was brutal in the way she treated Hagar and cast her away.

And so she cast her out of the home, but the out in the wilderness, God spoke to Hagar and called her by name. And she actually gives God. She's the first one to give a name to God. She said, you are, um, Jehovah Nissi.

No, that's not it. Um, my protector, you're my protector, whichever one that is. She was the first person in the old Testament to give God a name based on his character because he protected her and provided for her. Then we skip along. And I was thinking, coming over here, um, the mother of Moses, what a wild motherhood she had. She has this baby.

They're enslaved in Israel. And then the, um, the Pharaoh comes to power and he's going to kill all the boy babies. So she contrived this scheme, hopefully from the Lord.

It all worked out. So I guess it was, and she left baby Moses in a basket and someone else raised her baby. And so, you know, just the conflicts of motherhood, the things that we have to navigate, this has been going on for centuries, but a mother can leave a tremendous legacy for her children. So we'll come right back for our last segment.

If you want to call, we'd love to hear from you. This afternoon, we're talking about mothers and grandmothers and the legacy they leave. I was, I finished off talking a little bit about Hagar and she was the Egyptian slave. She was the mother of Ishmael and God met her in the wilderness and called her by name. And she was the first person that we see in scripture who gives God a name based on his faithfulness.

So I looked it up during the break and it's Elroy. That is the name that she gave God. Jehovah Nissi is actually the name for it.

Jehovah is our banner. And that was somebody as they were going into battle gave, gave the Lord that name. So Elroy was the name that she gave because God saw her even in her, even as an outcast, even when she had been sent away by Sarah, God cared for her and he provided for her and he provided for Ishmael. And he even gave her and, and her son a blessing. So, so many moms, so many emotions, so many experiences, you know, we go down to the, um, the mother of Moses and I never know how to say her name, so I'm going to just call her Hacobahd. She hid her son in the reeds and Pharaoh's daughter got him, raised him raised him as an Egyptian. And so I don't know how, how conflicted that would be to be so desperate that you give your child over to the people who were enslaving your people. And then he was raised as an Egyptian. Later, he saw the Israelites being mistreated and he killed one of the Egyptians and he fled to the wilderness for 40 years. And there's so much history there, so much beautiful history, but through him, he was the deliverer that God used to bring them out of slavery in Egypt into the promised land.

He's a picture of what Christ is as, as the ultimate deliverer who not only delivers us from slavery, but from sin, from sin, um, and gives us new life and redemption. I think we have a caller. Do we have a caller on the line? Hopefully somebody's going to share a few stories with us.

Um, we'll just see if they, if we can get them on here in just a minute. But the next person I was thinking about in scripture is Hannah and Hannah's story is also tragic, but you actually see her with so much joy. So she was barren. She was made, she was ridiculed and she was just heartbroken. She poured out her soul in the temple.

Samuel thought she was, um, that she was drunk. So she just was misunderstood, heartbroken because she couldn't have a child, not Samuel, um, the, the, um, priest at that time. So she ends up having this child, Samuel, and she dedicates him to the Lord. And when he's old enough, she takes him to the temple and he lives there. And every year she would come and see him. And I just imagined her coming and being heartbroken and just crying because she hasn't seen him and he can't be with her. But instead she gives this song of joy that God had chosen him and that he was taken care of.

And so just the ways that mothers process the joys and the tragedies of life speak so clearly to us. And I think we have Mike from Dayton, Ohio. Mike, how are you? I'm doing great. Um, I love your, your topic and, uh, mothers are so important. I'm glad, I'm glad you called in. I was wondering where Mike was.

I haven't been on here in a while. So I normally, I try not, I don't know. I only try to call when I'm led by God and, uh, yeah. And, um, uh, obviously God, God said, Hey, mothers are important. He mentions them all through the Bible and you're, you've just kept going on and on and on about different mothers and, and from Eve all the way up. And it's just amazing how much God cares about, uh, mothers and, and, and that role and the, and the women's role in the household and, and how, um, important it is to have them in our lives. Absolutely. And, and it's over the years of people have tried to, uh, downplay, uh, women and, and in our lives, uh, they're not that important.

Uh, they're not that they shouldn't have a role in here or a role there. I really, throughout the Old Testament and also, you know, throughout history, um, women are so important in our lives. My mom is such a, Oh my God. Tell me about her. What do you, what do you call her mom?

Yeah, I call her mom. She, she is so sweet and she prays for me almost continually every day, praise for our family every day. She prays for our church. She prays and prays and praise. Oh, she sounds amazing.

How do I know? She's got a journal and, uh, you know, she showed it to me a few times and, um. Were you on earlier when I talked about finding my mom's journal with her Bible and I would sneak in and see her prayer journal? Yes.

She probably didn't mind. Yeah. Yeah. And she's so sweet. My mom is such a kind hearted, loving person.

I've never met my love. I mean, I, I, you can't, uh, maybe you're that way, but you can't out love her. Yeah. You can't, she's just top tier. Yeah.

She's top tier. Yeah. And, um, uh, the legacy of that is, is, is really hard to achieve. Um, you know what I mean? Because over the years, um, Christians have just fallen and not gotten as close to God as much as my mother has.

Right. Because we have been influenced from all around us, you know what I mean? With media and social media and the phone and instant gratification of everything. It's just so hard to be so in tune to God like they were back in the day.

Um, they relied on God because I think a lot because they needed God to help them get through things. And, uh, we are so spoiled. We have everything in our lives. I mean, we have money, we got cars, we got houses, uh, we got.

And if we need something, we can Google it or we can ask chat GPT. And, you know, I think we're losing kind of the connection with the generations as we kind of get so independent and people, you know, generally don't live near family as much anymore. I mean, that there's reasons for that, but you kind of lose those generational connections at times. Yeah. I think we don't live in their families as much as because, you know, we, we want the better things for themselves or the better things for their family.

You know, I mean, and, you know, we move out of town or we move over here because the job's better or that's better. Right. Um, life is, uh, the devil's pretty good at what he does. Uh, you know, I mean, he, he does, the family is so important and the mothers are so important that, um, to keep close to God because of that relationship that you have with your family, it gets you stronger with God.

Right. And the devil knows to try to get that away from me. You know what I mean? Well, you know, I'm sorry if I'm preaching. No, no, I love it. It's great.

It's great. It, it, it reminded me, you were talking about just, um, that the, the Bible elevates and esteems women. And I just taught a few weeks ago on, um, the last little John chapter 20, when Jesus was dying on the cross and some of his last thoughts were of his mother and he looks and he sees John and his mother, and he says, you know, John, take care of, this is your, this is your mother and Mary, this is your son. And his thoughts were on his mother.

Like, he's saving the world, dying for our sins. And in that moment, he just turns his thoughts to his mom. It was so, it was just so profound to think about that, that, you know, he, he could have not been thinking about her in that moment. And so, you know, you brought up something about your grandmother too, I mean, about your mom and she is so faithful and sounds like she's so wonderful, but there's so many people that feel like, well, I've blown it. I just, you know, I'm not gonna leave a legacy, but then I think like about Bathsheba, you know, she, she got in a terrible position with David and lost and lost a child. And then God blessed her and she had Solomon and she's in the line of Christ. And, you know, some of the women in the Bible that, that God used and even in the New Testament, Mary Magdalene, she had, you know, she had, was delivered from demons and, you know, God doesn't necessarily need perfect people because there are none. But even if somebody feels like, well, I just, you know, maybe your legacy is, is turning to Christ and experiencing that redemption and salvation.

And that's your, you know, that's your legacy, but what else? You, you had another thought? Yeah, I did. Um, it's never too late for God. Yeah. God's timing is so good.

Um, man, I got a little heart broken there because, you know, because it's always, you're always there. Right. If you're with God, it's, it's timing. It's not our timing. It's not how, what we can do. Right.

It's not what we can produce or what, how we produce it. It's, it's what God wants. And, um, God knows everyone's heart and what they're going through. And he can, he can conquer all that stuff, you know. Absolutely. You know, he can, he can provide, he can, the names of God is so great. And it's so amazing that, um, we need to rely on him and trust in him. Absolutely. And, uh, you know, I'm so glad you, I'm so glad you know, Mike, I think we're just about out of time, but thank you. No, no, no, no. We've got another 30 seconds or so, but I'm so glad you called in and, um, it just makes me tender hearted thinking about how much you love your mom and, um, make sure to call her when we get off and tell her that you talked to the whole world about her.

I'm sure she would, I'm sure she would be really proud. Her name is Terry Dabalt. Okay. Okay. Mama, mama Terry. Okay. Well, thank you for joining in today and for just giving some thoughts to moms and grandmothers and the roles that they've played in, in your life. And that, um, that if you're a mom or a grandmother, the role that you're playing in the lives of others, we look forward to the next time that we're together. In the meantime, make sure you do something for your mother. It's coming soon.