Moms, Who Slay Dragons

Rubber boots on and lunch pail in hand, my son left for work. After a goodbye kiss he trotted toward his tricycle. My four-year-old son Russell pretended to go to work, like his daddy. I went back inside my home, but within ten seconds the back door flew open, and Russell's ashen face appeared.

     “A snake, a snake!” he shouted. Following his point, I saw a water moccasin coiled by our whitewashed gate. I had a shovel handy and slew the reptile, but my son’s fear of snakes intensified that day.

     Several years later when Russell was eleven, he gave me a handmade card. The front declared “HAPPY MAMA’S DAY.” He penned this message inside: “Dear Mom, Thank You For Killing The Snake When I Was Four Years Old! Happy Mother’s Day.” In the lower left corner he drew a huge star and labeled me a “GOLD STAR SPORT.”

     Even though my children are adults, I keep dogging their Enemy, “that ancient serpent called the devil” or the “great dragon” (Revelation 12:9). Praying for children remains a mother’s lifetime calling, a privileged humble activity. When mine were toddlers, I got up in the middle of cold nights and tiptoed into their rooms to pray and make blanket checks. During the teenage years, I quietly went into their rooms to pray as they slept. Often, when they were away from home, elementary school to college, I went into their rooms, sat on their beds and prayed for my son and daughter.

     Blanketing these adult children with prayer is now a priority. Even if I’m miles away physically or in our relationship, I can still touch their worlds and influence the chapters in their new families. Petitions from moms, dads, and grandparents prompt God to move obstacles, draw road maps, or instill peace.

     On my grandmother’s very last visit to my mom’s house, their physical roles reversed. One evening, Mom helped Grandma put on her nightclothes. Then Dad lifted my wheelchair-bound grandmother onto the bed. Afterward Mom fussed over her, smoothed the bedding and kissed her good night.

     A little later when Mom walked through the dark hallway, she heard Grandmother speaking softly. Mom peeked in to see if she was okay and found Grandmother wasn't talking to herself. She was speaking to her Father, praying for her adult children by name. Feeble in body, but strong with a mother’s spirit, she was slaying dragons.

Hunger for humility (19): “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray” (Revelation 12:9).