Priscilla Shirer: Building a Legacy in Motherhood

Priscilla Shirer shares a special Mother’s Day message about building a legacy in motherhood on TBN’s Mother’s Day Special.

Dear Lord,
Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week..

Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

I remember feeling like my mom was super human.
I mean, when I was little to me, she was an actual literal superhero.
I remember this one time that my brother Anthony and I, we were in the house probably with our siblings as well.
Um But I remember my mom had turned on the stove right before walking into the garage, which at the time that is where our washer and dryer was.
So she turned the stove on and got dinner going.
Then she just walked out and put a load of laundry in Anthony, locked the door behind her.
And I remember hearing her from the other side of the door trying to explain how to unlock the door, but we couldn’t figure it out that I remember walking around to the window and looking out of the window as I watched my mom run in what looked like to me, super human strength, leap over the fence line to run to the neighbor’s house to call 911 to get somebody to come unlock the door as smoke began to come out of the windows and fill the house.
I will never forget that picture.
She looked super human to me or that one time because, you know, all four of us were always getting in trouble that one time when we were running errands with our mom and we were in the car and she pulled up to a bookstore and went inside the bookstore, the whole front of the bookstore was all windows.
So she could see us and we could see her as she stood right there at the desk to buy what she was buying.
Um, but one of us kids decided that we would shift the gears on the car and she saw the car start slowly rolling backwards.
I watched my mom through that windshield, burst out of that store through the front door and run towards the car, reach inside the driver’s side and while the car was moving, she’s running along to put the car back in park.
I’m telling you my mom was a superhero.
But now in hindsight, now that I’m a little bit older, probably have a little bit more perspective and have Children of my own.
I realize that the things that made my mom superhuman were really these internal characteristics.
Things you can’t really put a finger on and you don’t notice them when you’re younger, but they come alive to you the older and older you get.
And now I also realize that it’s not because she was super human.
It was because she had the power of the Holy Spirit of God living on the inside of her.
You know, I’ve become more and more aware of and appreciative of those values, not just the older that I’ve gotten, but particularly in this past year.
You see, last year, this time my mom was diagnosed with a cancer that the doctors told us up front.
They didn’t think there was anything they could do to help it to be cured or resolved.
And even though many of them still prayed with us for a miracle, they told us medically, they couldn’t do anything to help her.
And we had so many people around the world throughout the past nine months that we’re praying fervently that God would do something to eradicate the cancer and to bring her back to full health.
And in the last three months of her life, as we sort of literally moved in to care for her and to care for my dad, we begin to notice there in November and December of 2019 that her health was rapidly declining.
We celebrated with her. We celebrated her 70th birthday on December 1st that she wanted so much to get to.
We celebrated her robustly and fully her grandkids surrounding her, reading her letters that each and every one of her grandkids and her two great grandchildren were able to read to her to celebrate her 70th birthday.
We even made it to Christmas, even though by then she could barely communicate with us. She was still there.
It was during those last weeks of her life that I saw those intangible qualities that I want so much for myself and that I appreciate her leaving that kind of a legacy for me.
It’s the intangible stuff like a piece that passes all.
Understanding anybody that can still have joy that can still have a smile on their face that has invested so well in family that all her family wants to do is surround her day and night to be near her.
Her grandchildren piled up on her bed. What a heritage. What a legacy on December 30th.
She went home to be with the Lord. She went to heaven.
And over that month before she took her last breath, I saw her slowly but surely loosening her grip on earth and looking forward to heaven in the end, she’s even taught me how to die.
You know, it reminds me of one of her favorite passages, Joshua chapter four in Joshua chapter four, the Children of Israel are headed towards the promised land.
They’ve just crossed over the Jordan river, but they turn around and they put stones of remembrance in place so that when future generations would ask, what do these stones mean?
They could be reminded about the faithfulness of God.
I’m so grateful because that’s what my mom did for me.
She’s left stones of remembrance and my kids are asking about integrity and consistency and character and faithfulness and all those intangible things.
And when they ask me about those stones, I can point to a woman who left them behind for us to see and pattern our lives according to, I want to encourage you to do the same.
Remember that those intangible qualities, those daily decisions to live well, they matter. Happy Mother’s Day.