Follow

Image credit: cboswell / 123RF Stock Photo

I would like for you to meet Maria, a wonderful fun loving, give you whatever you need, kind of Mom.

She works outside the home, has 3 adorable little girls and tries to do everything on her own. I remember a couple of years ago, one of her girls was in the hospital. While she visited her, she had one little one in daycare and the other in elementary school, and at that time her husband had left her. (praise the Lord, they are back together). When someone would call her and ask her if they could help her out by bringing a meal or watching the girls for her, she would reply that she had everything under control. Never would Maria ask for help or receive help.

If you have thought you had never met a Super Mom, well you just did. Maria the Super Mom!!!

One day when Maria was working at the local bank, one of the sweet quiet ladies of our church invited her to go to a service with her. Maria came as Sylvia’s visitor that next Sunday morning. Knowing Sylvia, I knew that she had either shared the Gospel with Maria before she ever attended church or did so after the worship service was over that morning. Maria did not want to receive Christ that morning. Later that night as people were arriving for the evening service, Maria walked in the door of the church. She visited again  3 days later for the Wednesday night service and attended Bible study. The following Sunday morning, Maria showed up again for Bible Fellowship. One of the church staff  men witnessed to her that day, but Maria did not receive Christ.

The following weeks, Maria became more faithful to the church services than most of the members did. I had found out that our Pastor had even visited Maria and witnessed to her and asked her if she would like to be a Christian, but she said that she was not ready. In addition to attending all of the services whenever the church doors were open, I invited this precious mom to our mom’s group which we held twice a month on Mon. nights. She came and got connected with several community moms. She was as faithful to those mom’s meetings as she was to going to church. I spent time with Maria, witnessing to her a few times but to no avail. Maria was the type of mom that felt she could handle her life without the help of Christ. After all she was Super Mom!

After Maria had been attending church and the mom’s group for over a year, I asked Maria if we could go out to dinner sometime. I told her that I wanted to make it a 3 some so I invited Sandy, our Pampered Chef mom (Click here for her story) to go to dinner with us. Well, it was no surprise to my friends and family where we were going to go eat and enjoy a good home cooked meal, but to Cracker Barrel. We ordered our meal, and then started chatting about everything: work, family, weather, children in daycare and school. Just a lot of small talk. Then I shared with Maria that Sandy had been saved a couple of years previous. Sandy then proceeded to share with Maria that she had not been raised in church and she started attending the mom’s group on Monday nights. She then shared how I had ordered a loaf pan from Pampered Chef and then how she asked me about becoming a Christian. Sandy told Maria that early in her life before she met her husband of today, that she was a single mom, raising her son on her own and how life was pretty rough, but she made it on her own. Sandy made some comments then that started to unlock the key to Maria’s soul. She said that she had always tried to live life on her own and that she could handle everything by her self. She did not need God. She did not need the help of anyone. But, she went on to say, that God was working on her heart and she realized that there was no way in the world she could go on in life without God’s help. She told Maria that it just was not going to work for her either. “Believe me,” she said, “you can’t do it on your own! You cannot do it alone.”

We could literally see that Maria’s countenance was changing before our eyes and could sense that her stone heart was beginning to dissolve. During the rest of the meal, Maria started asking Sandy questions. I then, asked if when we finish our meal and when we get back to the car, if I could share some verses in the Bible with her on how she could receive Christ. I do believe that we all started eating our meal as fast as we could so we could leave the restaurant and get to the car. When we did, and I started sharing the verses and explaining each verse with Maria, it was like Maria was hurrying us by saying, “I understand, I understand!” I asked her if she wanted to pray and receive Christ as her personal Savior and with tears in her eyes, Maria bowed her head and asked Christ to come into her life.  Sandy was crying, and I joined in with these ladies, crying and then we all started laughing for joy about how great God is and how God brings the right people at the right time, saying the right things and then, Wow, it happens. A person gets saved.!!!!!

Oh, yes, many plant, some water, but God always gets the increase.

I asked Maria what was different from Sylvia, a staff member, pastor and myself witnessing to her, than Sandy’s testimony of what Christ did for her? She said that Sandy had been where she was now in her life and she said it was Sandy’s comment, “Believe me, you can’t do it on your own”! Maria said, that she had come to the point that she knew she could no longer do it on her own: perfect church attendance, caring for her girls alone, working, striving to be Super Mom and then, knowing in her heart, Christ is what she needed!!!! :):)

Today Maria is still a busy mom and wife; but she no longer tries to do things on her own because Christ is in her life helping her day by day!

What a Super God!!