A Tribute to Ma

• My Great-Grandmother whom our family lovingly called "Ma" passed away in September 2008. Her birthday was February 12 so I thought I would post what I wrote about her for her funeral to honor her. She was such a dear woman and great grandmother. She held to the faith and was strong. I cannot wait til the day we are reunited in Heaven.

They say, when an elderly person passes away a whole library goes with them--this was certainly true for Ma.

 I don't know if you have a person in your life that this may remind you of but if they are still alive~ give them a phone call. Give them a hug. Let them know they are loved and cherished. Take your children to them, children grow and flourish under an elderly person's company.

Memories of Ma

In a lifetime of memories of Ma....there is no way I could ever express how special of a lady she was to me. I could write fifteen pages and not even come close to sharing with everyone how much I love her and how much she impacted my life over the years.

Some of the earliest memories of Ma start in the kitchen. Her baking was the best and she specialized in everything! She always baked for others and frequently delievered tins of cookies and scrumptious pies. She made one of the best rhubarb pies I have ever tasted. I still remember the tins she would bring by....layers of different cookies so delicately arranged and lovingly prepared. She knew all our favorites and never forgot to keep us supplied! I remember one holiday when my family ate at her house and she fixed up my plate with everything she had fixed and then sat it in front of me. "Eat up!" She told me. I never had a plate so loaded with food! I had no idea how I was going to get it all in, but somehow I managed! :)

Ma had a strong love in her heart for her family. Anytime one needed advice, she was there to listen. She wasn't one to beat around the bush and she often told you the way it was. And so often that was exactly what I needed to hear. She lovingly took time when I would visit with her to take an interest in my life, asking me about this or that...really, truly caring. And she did that with all of us, I know we could all name a time or two when Ma sat....and listened and asked....and we knew Ma really cared. It was a wonderful feeling.

Ma also had a great faith in her Lord and Savior. How often did I hear, I am praying for you? How many times did I hear her recite a verse from the Bible? But it wasn't just that. Her actions....her love for family and people spoke volumes of her relationship with Christ. She was generous, making sure people always had enough and always helping. She was a great woman of faith. When talking to Ma about the Bible or anything for that matter, she made stories and history come alive. She was so full of information. She was witty and smart and never stopped being that way, even to the end of her life.

I am so proud to have known Ma. Where would I be without her? She has influenced my life in so many wonderful ways. I strive to be more like her and to pass on the lessons she has taught me to my own children. I hope to always honor her memory by remembering her and not forgetting a single detail about her. I will always hear her laughter in my heart.

I cannot wait to see you again, Ma. I know  you have many heavenly riches because of how you lived down here.

I love you!

The Hidden Message of the Lost Pearl

**This is taken from the Duggar Family's book: 20 and counting!**

The Hidden Message of the Lost Pearl



When I was eleven years old, my family took a vacation in Florida. One morning my brother and I went swimming. The shallow water revealed an oyster bed. We began digging up oysters. It was great fun. During the morning we accumulated quite a collection.




Our greatest finds were not the live oysters, but dead oysters which still had both halves of the shell joined together. Many were closed shut, and we didn’t know until we had pried them open whether they were alive or not.



The live ones we threw back. The empty ones usually did not reclose, but remained partly open. These we set aside as our most prized treasures.



Toward the end of the morning, I dug up a very nice, complete oyster shell which was in perfect condition. It was obviously dead because it was already open about an eighth of an inch and seemed empty. it was definitely one that I wanted to keep, except for one flaw-it had some kind of object trapped inside that rattled. I thought it detracted from the quality of my shell.



The halves of the shell were still very tight and were hard to budge with just my fingers. It took all of five minutes to remove this rather large, round, perfectly smooth object. Having successfully removed it, and being pleased with my now empty and unblemished shell, I threw the object toward the end of the pier.



At about the midpoint of its flight, a horrifying light dawned in my mind. I was old enough to have known, but young enough to overlooked the value of what I had just thrown away. I had treasured what was secondary and had lost what was real. My focus had been wrong.



I visually marked the location of the splash. with great care I slowly approached the spot, trying not to disturb the bottom. For the next half hour I searched diligently.



Finally, when it was time to leave, I told my parents what I had done. Then we all looked for it. Our efforts were useless and our time up. Our schedule demanded that we leave.



When I was twenty-five years old, I got married. For some undefined reason, I rejected for seven years the suggestion that we have children. I thought I had valid reasons, but no counsel or teaching from either family, friends, or church. No one seemed to consider it to be a critical issue. In addition, the world had all kinds of new medical methods for preventing pregnancy.



As I look back, I don’t remember hearing one dissenting voice. Down deep I always knew that I wanted children someday. So, after seven years of some very difficult decision-making, we had our first child- a girl.



To my great amazement, I found that I actually liked having children. In fact, having a child is one of the greatest things that has happened in our lives.



The fears which had prevented conception for so long proved to be mostly imaginary. This new member of our family changed our lives. We discovered a multitude of rewards that we had not known we were missing.



My wife and I have just been told that it now looks medically impossible for us to have any more children! Suddenly, all of our newly established family dreams have been erased. All of the excitement and anticipation of a newly discovered future have vanished. It seems as tough there is a void in our lives – like four of our five children have just been killed.



What makes the burden so heavy is that we had the treasure within our grasp and we threw it away. We saw the outer shell and mistakenly overlooked the treasure within. With our hands we plucked it out and cast it away. We tried to take God’s timing into our own hands.


Psalm 127: 3-5 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.