Reflections on a Mother’s Life Well Lived

Posted by Beth | 0 comments

From the moment I received the sad news that she had passed, I knew in my heart that I was not going to miss the 94 year old lady’s funeral. More importantly, it was imperative to me that I take my boys to what I considered was going to be a very important funeral.

One day when our body is laid to rest it will not be what we accomplished that people will remember the most but the way we loved them best.

As we sat in the large-scale church, which was quickly filling up, I knew I had made the right choice. I had decided to cut our school day short so that my boys could hear about someone who had lived their life well. I knew that the things they would take in that day would teach them more about life than the schoolwork that lay at home on the table unfinished. We have read many influential stories to our children about heroes like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred for resisting the Aryan Clause under Hitler’s Regime, but how often can they garner the opportunity to be influenced by a modern day one. Consequently, there is nothing quite like the engagement of a funeral, where heart warming stories will be shared, to cause us to stop and reflect on the art of living one’s life well.

Before arriving, I had taken the time to share with my young boys what this lady’s life had meant to our family. During her almost 100 years she had loved on a lot of people in the 30 churches they had either founded and/or pastored. In addition to that they had pastored my extended family’s home church for 30 years. Her well known husband was behind the pulpit the night I tugged on my grandmother’s skirt and asked her to go with me to the altar. Even at the age of 5, I vividly remember that moment as if it were yesterday.

My mother’s heart proudly admired my boys for sitting there quietly as they took in each story that was related by someone sharing a touching memory. At the end of the day I reflected on the fact that it really wasn’t the list of accomplishments that people easily remembered about this lady but the simple way she loved on each person she came in contact with. In essence, the church wasn’t filled because of the big things this woman had accomplished but because she had been faithful in the little things. It wasn’t just the way she handled the organ or played the piano but it was the loving smile that was on her joyful face while she played. It was her genuinely positive attitude behind everything she did that people remembered the most. It was the love they felt in her presence that far outweighed anything she had ever done.

As I left the funeral, I pondered the inspirational lesson that this lady’s life had bestowed on us that day. The way she lived her life taught me that in the end people will not remember us for our achievements as much as they will remember the way we loved them while we were accomplishing those seemingly important tasks. It’s not what we do but how we do it that matters.

It was how she lived in the unplanned moments of her life that counted more in the end than all the gathered achievements that had been carefully planned out. That distinct carriage had given her a well lived life.

Beth discovered how fun learning can be when she began homeschooling in 2003. She considers homeschooling to be a treasured blessing.On the path with her are her 2 boys and husband John, who is her biggest supporter and fan. Somehow she has enabled her frog loving outdoor boys to love tough subjects like Latin, Writing and Grammar. (She is not kidding!) Now if she could only get them to eat all their vegetables. Beth loves capturing life’s precious moments with her camera and decorating them with Photoshop. You can visit her blog at Pages of Our Life.