I shared this story as part of my Mother's Day message and hope that it will be helpful to us all as we seek to give the best to those we love.
Pass On What Matters
A nurse
named Nan Pinkston learned a great lesson from one of her patients. Rebecca
came to the doctor with real problems and strange symptoms only to learn that
she didn't have long to live. Rebecca was a wife and mother of two girls, ages
six and four. As Rebecca wrestled with the short time she had to live and as
she thought about all the things she wanted her daughters to learn and know,
she decided to prepare them a very personal, very special gift--in fact a set
of gifts. In the months that Rebecca had left, she took time to record messages
to her daughters--the things she most wanted them to know and live by at
different stages of their lives. There was a tape about going to school, about
becoming young women, about dating, about faith in God. The last day of her
life she taped her last gift to her daughters, guidance in how to welcome a
second mommy into their lives if their Dad should be blessed to marry again.
When Rebecca realized how very short her life would be, she made passing on
what really matters the mission of her life.
Our lives with our children are brief at best. Before you
know it, they're grown up and gone. We work for God when we pass on what
matters, when we make teaching our children the mission of our lives.
If you had been Rebecca, what would you have recorded on
those tapes for your children? What matters so much to you that you would have
to be sure they knew it, even if you were gone?
Aren't those the things that we need to be passing on to our
children right now, even today? The Bible says, in Deuteronomy 4:9,
"But watch out! Be very
careful never to forget what you have seen the LORD do for you. Do not let
these things escape from your mind as long as you live! And be sure to pass
them on to your children and grandchildren. (Deuteronomy 4:9 NLT)
Do your children know
your testimony? How you became a Christian?
Have you told them of
God’s faithfulness in your life?
Do they know the
difference that Christ makes in the challenges you face each day?
Moms (and Dads), your most important mission with your children, in this world of delay and
distraction, is to pass on what really matters.