Remembering Mom

My mother was a very joyful person. She never drank coffee, sometimes drank tea, and every now and then she would choose some kind of soft drink. However, I remember the many times I would hear her remark, “I just need a big glass of water.” She declared that absolutely nothing could quench her thirst like pure, sparkling, tasty water. As a child, I was forever wishing she would “give in” more often to my longings for a “soda,” but as the years have passed, I find myself reaching much more frequently for a glass or bottle of water. It quenches thirst.

Mother also taught me very early in life Who was her “water for life.” She taught me by example. Many times I would burst through the closed door with some exciting news to find her kneeling at her chair in prayer. She passed on to me the eternal truth that it was Jesus Who would quench the thirst on the inside.

Life doesn’t play any waiting games. It travels steadily, carrying us along in its swift moving current. I’m no longer the “little girl” bursting through my mother’s closed door. Now, I’m a mother myself. Situations come, circumstances change, and day by day I find the deepest part of me cannot be satisfied with temporal, earthly things we touch and feel in the “now.” Family and friends are God given gifts whom I deeply love and appreciate – but even the closest of them cannot meet all the needs and demands of my hearts. That’s why God is “Emmanuel!” He IS GOD WITH US!!!

In Zechariah 10:1, we are told to “Ask the Lord . . .” We aren’t told to “ask our family,” “ask our neighbor,” “ask our friend,” -- we are to, “ASK THE LORD!” Yes, there are times when those around us help to bear our burdens with an encouraging word or act, perhaps they “talk to the Father for us,” but in reality, our deepest “soul felt” needs find that the Lord is the only lasting Source. No other person or thing in the entire universe can fill the inner need within, or fully supply our needs without. Forgetting that truth will cause us to draw water from well’s that simply aren’t deep enough. When we draw from shallow, empty well’s, our water comes up muddy. It certainly isn’t water worth drinking – and it won’t even begin to quench our thirst – or meet our deepest need.

Our only answer is to simply stop, and draw from Him – the deepest well, with the purest water! The bubbling Spring that washes away impurities! Not a mirage in the desert, but a living oasis! Jesus Christ!

Now it’s my turn to carry on the legacy. When my children burst in the door with some exciting happening, I want them to find me where I found my mom – seeking the Source. When life brings those longings I cannot quench, needs too big for me to provide, and problems I simply cannot “fix,” I want to point them to the Source of pure, satisfying, water for life.

Written by: Janene A. Dubbeld/FGG

Take it With You

“Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime, it is the Lord who makes the storm clouds. He gives showers of rain to men, and plants of the field to everyone.” Zechariah 10:1