The Prayers of a Grandma

     When I reflect on my childhood, some of my very best memories include those days spent with Grandma and Grandpa, driving to east Texas to tend the garden, snapping green beans, canning the best tasting peaches, learning the secrets of a seamstress; but my favorite times of the day were late nights and early mornings as I was tucked in my bed and could hear Grandma and Grandpa bombarding the heavens in intercession for everyone they knew. I remember hearing Grandma calling out my name and asking God to place a desire in my heart to serve Him, to surround me with people who would teach me and disciple me, to protect me from unrighteousness, and to become alive in my spirit. At some point during their prayer, I would drift off to peaceful sleep and awaken the next morning to hear them petitioning the heavens again.When I was a young child, I thought they had prayed all night long, which led me to believe that old people must only require sleep on Sunday after church, lunch, and the dishes had been washed and put away, because they were faithful in their Sunday afternoon naps.
     
     Even after Grandpa left us to be with Jesus, Grandma prayed powerful prayers. She was a remarkable woman, a true Proverbs 31 woman in every possible way. As a teenager, I remember getting frustrated with her when she would see me act ugly to one of my siblings or my parents and she would ask me, "What would Jesus Do?" (This was long before everyone else was asking this question. In fact, I still think Grandma deserved the credit for that campaign.) 

      Grandma lived the last years of her life in a nursing home. Alzheimer's had taken her memories and her ability to speak, but her nurses would often ask us if Grandma was a preacher or a praying woman, and they would tell us how they would walk in her room and hear Grandma praying in the spirit.

      I used to wonder why God didn't just take her home and why she had to go through the humiliation of such a senseless disease, until I realized that she had held on to life so that she could continually intercede for me (and the rest of the family too).
     
For her influence, for her faithfulness, for her strength, for her selflessness, I am ever-so-thankful.