Today’s Wednesday Word is written in honor and in memory of my sweet mama, Lemona Benton Mahaffey.  Mama would have turned 94 today.  Mama was my hero!  When given the opportunity to write a paper on whom I admired or looked up to, I always wrote about my sweet mama!!!!!!!

Now don’t get me wrong, we were neither perfect.  We went through many years of not seeing eye to eye.

You see she gracefully lived through a very abusive marriage with my alcoholic dad until he was murdered when I was 13, Mother’s Day of 1973.  I remember mama being so distraught, so heartbroken, even after being treated so horribly.   I can still see it like yesterday, Mama draping herself across his coffin and saying, “I forgive you C.P.”  What a valuable lesson for this 13-year-old to see that even when we are hurt deeply, we walk in forgiveness.  It was the reason my mama could enjoy her life, she held no bitterness or malice towards daddy.

I wished I could say that was my reality.  No, I was a very hurt daughter who became very rebellious.  I could not forgive my daddy as my mama did.  I would like to tell you, that life was good, but instead, I took on daddy’s role.  My mama was trying to raise me in the admonition of the Lord but I continued to choose my own way.  That did not change the way mama led me.  Mama did not compromise.  She continued to lead by example.  She always chose Jesus and prayed that one day I would as well.

I made many trips down the altar always wanting to do better, wanting to know God but it was not until I was almost 26 that I fell in love with Jesus.  I stopped running, thankfully He never stopped chasing me!!!  I had a praying mama that never gave up on me!  Thankfully, even though mama was not perfect, she always taught me to choose Jesus.  And now I am that mama that is not perfect but that loves her children well and wants only the very best for them!!!  I want them to choose Jesus with every breath.  Mama walked out these sweet words and they impact my life to this day,  “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” Deuteronomy 6:4-8 

Today’s a new day, a new school year, a new job, a new opportunity.  Choose Jesus, teach your children to choose Jesus.  Teach them to stand, even if they have to stand alone, for Jesus is with them, never leaving or forsaking them or you!   Choose Jesus.  Be like my mama, never waiver!!

^….Choose this day whom you will serve,….. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  Joshua 24:15

So thankful you are part of the WBFJ family.