We have lost some amazing people in our church congregation recently and its had me thinking about the people we pattern our lives after. We all look to other people and admire their character, what they have, what they do, but some of us look to celebrities more than to ordinary people who do extraordinary things for God. It really bothers me when I’m sitting in a group of teenage girls and all they talk about are celebrities and TV shows. There is so much more to life and if those are the people you admire and pattern your life after, your life will not amount to much.
God has placed people in all of our lives that we should look up to. Until recently, I had 4 simply amazing Christians in my life. My life isn’t the same without them, but through my life and the lives of many others, you can still see the effects of who they were. My great-grandmother, Momma Mac to everyone who knew her, told the most amazing stories about living through the Great Depression and she was probably the most effective prayer warrior I’ve ever known. A few months ago I got a phone call from my aunt. She had been reading an article in a ladies’ magazine produced by the Pentecostal Publishing House. The article was about a minister’s wife and she was giving her testimony. As a young girl, she became deathly ill. Apparently, the doctors actually pronounced her dead. On the way to bring her body to the morgue, her dad told the driver to go to Veda’s house first. My great-grandmother, Veda McDonald, prayed for that little girl and God raised her from the dead. I’ve heard story after story of amazing things that happened through Momma Mac’s prayers. Those stories continually built my trust in prayer. I know the effects of true intercessory prayer and I also see the incredible need in the church today for ladies that really know how to pray.
My grandmother was another amazing lady God used in my life. She went through a divorce when she was very young and raised two children by herself. She had so much courage and really believed that with God’s help she could accomplish anything. After my divorce, heartbroken and filled with insecurity, I moved in with my grandmother. She refused to let me have a pity party. There were many times she came in my room and told me I had 5 more minutes to cry and then I had better be up and smiling! For the 6 months that I lived there, I went to sleep every night to sound of my grandmother praying for me. Every morning we sat in the living room and drank coffee together. She would encourage me and push me to pray more, to study more, to believe that God’s plan was so much better than my own. She taught me a lot about enduring life and trusting God through it all.
And then, there was Bro. and Sis. Turner. Dorothy and Joe-baby to me. Joe-baby didn’t call me Amberly or Amber very much…it was usually Sambo and I really don’t have any idea why, but it was our special thing. They never had any children of their own, but as the directors of the Sunday School department, they raised more children than most people do. They loved everyone. Really, everyone. Race, social status, addictions, mental diseases – it just didn’t matter to them. They loved the drug addict as much as they loved their Pastor. I remember as a kid being terrified one night after hearing a message about the tribulation. I was spending the night at their house, like I did very often. Joe-baby was in “his chair” in the kitchen and I was sitting in his lap drinking my strawberry milk. I asked him “What if I don’t know who the anti-christ is? What if I don’t recognize him?” Joe-baby picked up his Bible, it was all tattered, full of handwritten notes and dates that were important to him, and he said “Baby – you get in this word. Don’t take for granted anything any minister ever tells you. You read this book cover to cover, over and over again, until you know and understand what it says. That’s how you’ll know who he is.” After he passed away, I looked through his Bible. On the very first page, he had written a row of dates. At first, I couldn’t figure it out, but then I realized…each date represented another time he had read the Bible completely through. There were so many dates and once again he inspired me. I decided then to read the Bible through every year – no matter what. February 14, 2011, Joe-baby had been gone for 1 year. I’m working on my 2nd year of reading my Bible cover to cover.
Another very important thing he taught me, was to live by faith, knowing that if I dedicated my life to God, He would use me to do something amazing. Most of you have probably read Hebrews 11. The “roll call of faith” I’ve often heard it called. Joe-baby taught me that those men didn’t do anything more than give God control and follow where He led. Hebrews 11:31 says “By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient” and right under that, Joe-baby wrote in my Bible “By faith, Amberly…” as my own little reminder to trust God and always hunger for more.
These people impacted my life so much. They taught me to have faith, they taught me to pray, the taught me to believe what God says, to study His word. These are the people every young person needs to look up too. Find the people in your life who live out the word of God…people who will teach you something that matters, who will pray with you and push you toward greatness. There is nothing valuable to be learned from One Tree Hill or any other television sitcom. There is nothing life-impacting to learn from any actor, actress or singer. But there is so much to be learned from great men and women who have lived faithfully for God, through good and bad…people who know what it truly means to say “tis so sweet to trust in Jesus…” Let those people be the ones you look up to, follow their direction, learn from their experiences and believe that you are destined for even greater things.
XOXO
Amberly
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