Mother and Grandmother

My mother grew up on a farm on Clark’s Hill Indiana. She went to nursing school, became a registered nurse in the Army and met the man she married. After having two children, my father was deployed to Korea , and mom and the children went to live with her mother on the farm where she grew up. One day my mother and her mother had an angry fight, which was later reported to be about what religion my mother was going to raise her children in. Hurt and angry, my mother packed her bags, gathered her children and walked out. Her intention was to never see her mother again. Two more children were born after this incident – children that my grandmother never knew about.

Thirty years later my mom called me and asked, “Doesn’t the Bible say that if you have offended someone, you should ask their forgiveness?” I told her it does, but that it also says that if someone has offended you that you should go and make it right. After I gave Mom the corresponding Bible verses (see below), she contacted her mother and they were reunited.

My parents flew my grandmother out to California where they had retired. This was an answer to my grandmother praying every day for 30 years to see her daughter again. The reunion was good and very timely as my grandmother died within a year after their visit.

Forgiveness Verses

Matthew 6:14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”

Matthew 5:23-24 “Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”

Daughter and Grandchildren

My sister Kathy is one if the reasons I left Texas – to go to California and help her. Kathy not only had kidney disease but was recovering from a broken hip. While there I realized she was dealing with some mental illness issues. Her five children had left home, gotten married, and started families of their own. As a result of her mental illness issues, Kathy had offended or angered each of her children. They were not speaking to her. At one point she wasn’t even sure how many grandchildren she had.

I had been praying for Kathy and her children for some time. After becoming part of the Joy of All Who Sorrow church, I started to ask people to pray that Kathy’s children would embrace her again. Nothing happened, but we kept praying. Then last winter, after Kathy was put in a nursing home, all of her children came to visit her. Joyful, I shared the news with all her intercessors. We rejoiced! After five years of dialysis, Kathy passed away peacefully with three of her children at her bedside; the other two were out of town.

The message here is that prayer is effective. God listens and answers according to His plan. In a difficult situation? Don’t give up. Keep praying and build a cohort of like-minded intercessors. God will answer – maybe not the way you expected Him to, but He will answer.

Note: Writer Anna Glass recently celebrated her fifth anniversary of her first visit to Joy of All Who Sorrow and the fourth anniversary of her baptism.