A Mothers’ Sincere Faith

It’s been almost 17 years since my mother passed away.

She died following her battle with cancer in her lungs and brain. I was 11 years old at the time. As the years have passed, it’s saddening to admit that I can’t quite remember her through my own memories. The closest way I get to knowing her is through a collection of old photo albums, conversations with those who knew her and an aunt who happily reminds me of her profession of faith before she died.

A mother’s influence on faith

Timothy’s mother and grandmother were influential to his conversion to Christianity. Their instruction in the Scriptures and sharing of their faith to him as a young boy were a means to forming the Christian man he would become. Others throughout Church history have also shared the significance of their mothers on their faith. I’ve been reading Saint Augustine’s book ‘Confessions’, and it’s beautiful reading of how God granted the prayers of his mother, “far more than she used to ask in her tearful prayers.” He also shares that as a boy he “had been told of the eternal life promised to us by our Lord, who humbled himself and came down amongst us proud sinners,” because his mother placed great hope in God.

The legacy of faith

The testimony of my mother’s profession of faith is a precious legacy. It was watching her searching for spiritual life in a deteriorating body that had the most impact on me. My father was Muslim and having grown up not really connecting to what he believed, I watched my mother yearn for truth, after he passed, with awe. After she died, I found myself drawn by the Holy Spirit to want to know more about this sovereign and gracious God. Ultimately, understanding that sin entered our world, leading to a separation between guilty sinners and a righteous and loving God. The great question being how are we reconciled to God? It’s a salvation only God Himself could bring about. He would show us His love through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross (Romans 5:28). On the cross, he took our place, bore our sins and suffered the wrath of God that we deserved so that we could be saved. So that we could have eternal life (John 3:16).

That’s the faith that my mother died believing. A sincere faith that would trigger my own.