A Grandbaby!

A Grandbaby!

Just one year ago today I took my mother, Mary Lloys Himes, to my son’s house because John and Rachel had a surprise to share with her.  The surprise was Mikaela Jocelyn Lamb. My first grandbaby had been born September 19.

            Mother sat in a rocking chair holding Mikaela and talking to her.  We videoed her, we took pictures, including the four generation picture of Mikaela, John, me, and Mom.

            I took Mom back to the assisted living and it was the very last time she left the building.  A little more than a week later, Mom left her home again, this time for a heavenly home.  But she got to see her great-granddaughter first.

            I was very close to my grandmother, Lloys Rice, but she has been gone for more than twenty years.  My children have no grandmother, as of a year ago.  But now I have a chance to be a grandmother, one like my grandmother, a major influence in my life.  I have the chance to  influence Mikaela.

            I was reading this morning from II Timothy 1 where Paul says to Timothy,

            “I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy.  For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.”

            What did I learn from my grandmother that I want to pass on to Mikaela?  The first thing is I knew Gram loved God supremely and she told me I needed to view every individual as someone Jesus loved.  And because Jesus loved them, I should love them.  I knew Gram loved the Bible.  She is the one who taught me how to use a Strong’s Concordance and find verses on a particular topic.  She was memorizing Scripture when she was in her nineties and taught me to value Scripture.

            I want to treat people the way Gram treated people and I want to teach Mikaela to do the same.  Gram listened to everyone with every fiber of her being.  She was riveted on my Stephen when he told her the story of “The Three Little Pigs,” just as she was riveted on me when I talked about the heartache of being rejected by the one I loved.  (She gave me a ring to replace the one I no longer had and told me he just didn’t know what he was missing!)  She was my biggest cheerleader, believing, and almost convincing me, that I could do anything.  I never felt I had to perform to earn her love or that if I failed in any way, she would reject me.  I learned unconditional love from her.

            I know that the years ahead will bring great joy, tears, and fears as I watch Mikaela grow.  Just after the verses I quoted come the words, “God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.”  I am not sure why Paul put those words together in the same paragraph, but I can apply it to myself and my relationship with Mikaela and any future grandchildren.  I will be tempted to fear the heartaches and trials  Mikaela will encounter and even the choices she may make, but I will love her unconditionally, encourage her, and try to be an example for her the way my grandmother was for me.

                                                                        ~~Faith Himes Lamb