You Are Not Alone: She is a Prayer Warrior

 

I woke up on this first day of 2021 and was thinking about my mother’s pie crust. It’s delicious! Her recipe is so flaky and good tasting that I like to cut it, bake it on a cookie or pizza pan, slather on real butter or ghee, cinnamon and sugar, and, sometimes, a dash of nutmeg. The problem is I do not eat it in moderation, I eat the entire thing over the course of a few days. I am not challenged for the last piece because my husband likes fruit pies, not cinnamon flats! I love my mom’s pie crust—no joke.

Why write about my mother’s pie crust today? It connects me to God. He is someone who is perfect tasting, someone who is all mine, someone I rely on to be there for me because I love His dash (of nutmeg) to hear my prayers and concerns, and someone I can make all mine whenever I want--as much as I want with no bad calories consumed. How selfish of me, right? I do share Him, however, instead of being stingy I’ll share God with anyone. My husband has his own touch of God in his own way. Mine is my mother’s pie crust.

About my mother, she has stood the test of times. Yes, I write the word “times.” There are many things in her life that have strengthened her resolve to serve and worship Christ. She has been married for 62 years to the same man, she has raised five children and went through the loss of losing one of them at one year-old through a very tragic accident, she has lost both of her parents and her only sibling—a sister. She has endured the loss of her best friend who went to be with Jesus after cancer had its way with her. She helped the healing of my father who endured and suffered much with cancer. She was very attentive and careful with him and he survived the cancer—love and healing is pie crust. It has been many years since his illness, now, and she still cares for him. She had to take care of her mother at one point before her admission to a nursing home where she lost her mother. Oh, I forgot to say that she raised me. I’m a child who silently challenged her many times, and she knew it was happening. She was and is very clever that way! That’s why she makes such good pie crust! Knowing when to stop working it.

She faithfully serves God and is a true prayer warrior like I’ve never known. I strive to be a prayer warrior and I look to her example often, especially when I think of her pie crust. Did I tell you, it’s the best pie crust?

My first story of the new year began in an app called You Version. I cannot say enough about it. I have opened it daily since mid-August just before my retirement from preschool teaching. I love that age because they still believe what you say! Something I did not always do with my mother or some of my teachers. I was silently skeptical of everything and of the motives of others. I still fight skepticism. I pray for a God-view of everyone and everything. That is my focus for this year. Prayer and a God-view of all things and all people. I want more of my mother’s pie crust.

God made the same pie crust when he created my mother. I’m convinced that’s where my mother learned prayer and faith, after all, she is a great prayer warrior. She allowed God to mold her through the trials and errors of life. What would my mother say a prayer warrior is? Constant and immediate prayer, I presume. I called her today to ask her what is a prayer warrior? Instead, I asked, again, how she made her pie crust since I couldn’t find my copy. God didn’t use a mold to make my mother, he made a special pie crust and the filling is perfect as well. I, also, want to be filled with perfect filling hand-made by God. I want to be a prayer warrior.

You want to know a secret? When I’m by myself and thinking about my mother’s pie crust, I call her Mommy.

What do you call your mother?