In celebration of my mom’s birthday this week, she offers many, many qualities I could describe: Her impromptu generosity, particularly with time and creativity; her frugality and the way she manages money; her seamstress abilities providing the perfect costume or prom dress; her green thumb; her fight for the underdog and underprivileged, and the many lives she’s touched as an educator… but what stands out to me most this year is her gift of faith. It’s God-given, but she’s exercised it well. As Corbin and I face the joy and challenges of parenting young adult kiddos, entrusting the big and small details of their lives to our Heavenly Father, my mom’s gift of faith is just that – a GIFT I’ve come to cherish even more in recent years. Happy happy birthday mom, thankful for you and the faith you continue to pass along. 

 

‘We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

 

“I’m not borrowing tomorrow’s trouble.”

I heard these phrases many, many times growing up. She was resolute. My mom had no interest in wasting her time on worry or borrowing trouble.

A couple of quick memories –

Newly married and having just bought our first home in Fort Worth, I peppered mom with questions about how she felt about my dad’s remodeling career. She was installing red floral fabric on our dining room walls and I was pretending to help.

“Mom, what’s dad going to do in the next few years? He’s already over fifty, climbing up and down ladders, hauling paint and tools and wallpaper, what’s he going to do when he’s not able to do all that manual labor?”

Mom gave a few simple responses, reminding me that he was healthy, that he’d been doing this for years, and it would all work out.

With every staple of the fabric, I kept pushing. I didn’t even realize it at the time, but I was baiting her, wanting her to express concern, because I was worried. Here she was offering her time and creativity in helping me with a pretty big home remodel project, and I was pestering her about their future with it’s financial and physical unknowns.

Finally she snapped. “Tonya! I don’t know exactly what dad’s going to do. But right this minute I’m choosing not to worry about it. I’m still fully invested in my career, and dad is happy and healthy with his work. The Lord has provided all of these years, why would He stop now? What good is it going to do me to borrow worry about tomorrow when it’s still today?!”

Message received. I hope I apologized. In the moment I was extending my worry about their future income into her life. And she was having none of it.

How admirable.

Mom needed my support, not my baiting. I look back on this now and feel like one of Job’s friends, warning her to find stability and hope outside of the Lord’s plan and timing. And like Job, she shut me down – thank goodness.

A few years later, I asked my mom’s advice for a friend:

“She’s working full time, her husband is a musician and worship pastor, but they’re ready to start a family and she would love to work less, to have more flexibility with a baby.”

“So as of today, they’ve bought a home, they both have jobs, and they can pay their bills?”

“Yes, but looking ahead – it feels like there’s no way it’ll work financially moving forward as they start having children.”

This time without the “snap” but with a similar resolve – “Oh, they have nothing to worry about! You tell her to keep putting one foot in front of the other, and the Lord is going to provide all that they need. There are way too many directions all the dominoes will fall to possibly know what’s ahead. If you’re asking my advice, they just need to keep enjoying each other, keep working, and they have full confidence to look into the future with expectation of God’s provision.”

Well.

With this one example, we could write a book on all the ups and downs these friends have experienced over the past 25 years since that conversation between me and Mom: Moves, house fires, job changes, cancer, risk-taking with entrepreneurial endeavors, and the Lord is still allowing them to depend on Him one step at a time. He’s not only provided creative business ideas, He’s provided grace to keep their marriage and family tight knit, and in the process these friends continue to encourage a zillion others through their unique and profound gifts along the way.

Mom was right. And she clearly has the gift of faith.

What a goldmine for our family to have this modeled for 50+ years.

“There’s a stream of trouble across my path;

it is dark and deep and wide.

Bitter the hour the future hath

When I cross its swelling tide.

But I smile and sing and say,

“I will trust and hope alway;

I’ll bear the sorrow that comes tomorrow,

but I’ll borrow none today.”

Tomorrow’s bridge is a dangerous thing,

I dare not cross it now

I can see its timbers sway and swing,

And its arches reel and bow.

O heart, you must hope alway;

you must sing and trust and say:

“I’ll bear the sorrow that comes tomorrow,

but I’ll borrow none today.”

                               – Streams in the Desert, June 9

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Happy happy birthday and love you, Mom!