Monday, August 12, 2013

My Mother's Bible

I was looking through a drawer the other day and found my mother's Bible.  I took it out and gently turned the pages.  I had not done this since she passed away in Sept. 2011.  Oh, what memories I held within my hands!  I want to share some pictures of her Bible with you. 

Here it is, and you can see that my mother was a faithful reader of the Word, because it is well worn.
 
 
Many years ago, my parents asked each of us children what we wanted of their things when they were gone.  Carl got to choose first, being the oldest, then me, then my sister.  These requests were then put in their will.  My first choice was Mom's Bible.  You can see that she then wrote that in one of the front pages.


I don't know how many times Mom had this Bible recovered - far too many for me to keep track of.  In those days, when the cover fell off, you didn't just go out and buy another Bible.  The one you had was far too valuable to you to do that.  She would take it to the Christian Supply store in Hutchinson, KS, about 30 miles south of where they lived in Little River.  I don't think they recovered them there, but probably sent it off.  She always got a nice leather cover.  In this picture, you can see after the last time it began to fall apart, she just took it upon herself to fix it.
 
 
Tucked within the pages, I found this article.  Click on the picture to read this beautiful poem.
 
 
As Mom read her Bible she unlined, and oh, boy, did she underline!  I don't think there is a page in the whole Bible that doesn't have some underlining or a note she jotted down.  The other thing she did on a regular basis was to write the date, passage, and preacher's name beside the passage from which that sermon was preached.  There are lots and lots of pastors and evangelists names on these pages!!
 
 
I had to turn to this page, because I knew it would be highlighted.  This was Mom's all time favorite verse in the Bible - Romans 8:28.  I think it was the 2nd verse I memorized, right after John 3:16.
 
 
Just another picture of one of the well-worn pages she patched with tape.
 
Here at the bottom of the last page of Revelation, you can see how many times she read her Bible completely through and the dates.

 
In the back of her Bible were several fly leaves - more than the usual Bible, because every time they recovered it, they would add more pages.  She often took notes from the sermons on these pages. You can see she and Dad believed in tithing.  (Me, too)  They always said (and I say it, too) that 9 tenths goes farther than 10 tenths.  I cannot explain that, except to say that it just works that way when you pay your tithe faithfully.
 

Here you can see that she recorded when her parents passed away.  I believe her parents were older when Mom was born.  As I do the math here, I think her mom was 40 when my mom was born.  So I was fairly young when they died - 8 when Grandma Carter died, and 10 when PopPa, as we called him, died.
 
 
I particularly like this little poem: Now I get me up to wake; I pray the Lord my soul to shake, but if the devil comes about, I pray the Lord to knock him out, until the victory I can shout.  (Rev. Brannon)
 
 
"Worry is like a rocking chair.  It gives you something to do, but gets you no where."  (Rev Lester Unruh, 1/26/64)  Rev. Unruh was our pastor in the Nazarene church in Lyons, KS, the church where I grew up.  I remember him so well, because he was there during my junior high school years and would some times officiate our girls' basketball games. 


 
I had to chuckle when I read this one!  :)
 
 
Here is her Romans 8:28 again, and she recorded at least two of the names who preached from that passage - Chuck Millhuff  - a dear and favorite evangelist friend of our whole family, and Bro. Pollard, whose daughter I'm friends with today on Facebook.
 
 
Here are some notes from Rev. Glen Dayton, dated 1966.  This was our pastor in Lyons while I was in high school and college and after Guy and I married.  I lived with them for a short time when Guy went to Viet Nam.  Guy and I were living out in the country on the farm when he was drafted into the Army.  After he left for Viet Nam, I was working 3-11 at the Lyons hospital, and the Daytons said it was just too dangerous for me to be going home late at night, down a long dark driveway, to an empty dark house, and insisted that I stay with them - dear caring people, they were!  Today, I'm friends on FB with their children. 
 
 
I just thought this was a cute saying Mom picked up in one of the revivals along the way.  :)
 
 
Tucked among the pages of her Bible were also a few pieces of paper that were meaningful to her.
 
 
After I graduated from college, Dad sold the grocery store in Little River and went into selling insurance full time. He won many awards for his sales. 
 
 
He won many trips for his sales also - twice to Hawaii and many times to Cancun.
 
 
Also tucked among the pages was a drawing from our son, Mark, when he was in grade school.  This was Charlie Brown, a beagle we had that got run over by the school bus one morning after stopping to pick up Mark.  As a child, Mark would often sit in church and draw pictures.  His favorite thing to draw was 18-wheelers. (And he was very good at it!)
 
 
Through the years, I've purchased many Bibles, trying to find just the right translation - study Bibles, parallel Bibles, the newest translation, etc.  I'm kind of disappointed that I don't have one-well-worn-Bible of my own to pass on to my children, because I will always cherish my Mom's Bible.
 
 
 
 

 
 

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