(In 2005 I wrote this letter to my mother for Mother’s Day)
Thank you for all you have done for so many years for all of us and for Dad. You have put music in our lives every day. You have put bread on the table.
Above all, thank you for treasuring Christ since you were in the third grade every day. People search musty books and travel to remote places to sit at the feet of sages to discover evidence of God or form arguments for the existence of God. I never had to do that. All I had to do was look in the next room and I could always see Him in you.
Thank you for doing all the things you had to do to make our home a fine, Christian home. God has rewarded you with 31 grandchildren so far. Imagine the far-reaching impact of your quiet faithfulness in small things. It will touch the lives of thousands if Jesus’ return is not soon.
I hope you know this morning that I love you and appreciate you and cherish you. Thank you for your song. Thank you for your constant instruction and conviction about the things of Christ. Thank you for maintaining high standards all your life that clearly flowed from a heart of love for Christ. Thank you for making me clothes, meals, even making my bed. (I still feel guilty about that one).
I was traveling with the boys the other day on the way to a speaking assignment and quizzing them on basic Bible knowledge. I found myself praying that I could instruct my children in the Bible and theology as well as you did us. Thank you so much for all those JOY Clubs and Good News Clubs and Five Day Clubs and after school teachings. I have such a love for stories and for singing and for the Bible. I know that you are largely responsible for that.
I remember doing the funeral of an elderly woman one day. At the close standing at the head of the casket her son was the last one to say goodbye before the casket was closed. He stood and wept and then, suddenly, without warning grabbed his mother’s body and began to pull it up and cried out over and over again in a pitiful voice, “O mother, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me mother, I’m sorry.”
His pitiful cries rang in my ears for a long time. I don’t want to come to the end of my life and leave the important things unsaid. If any good comes from my life, I owe it to you and Dad. Not just because I came into this world through you but because of your clear, continual, Christian testimony that flowed out of the fountain of love for Christ within you.
I wish I could buy you expensive gifts today and be with you and take you to a fine restaurant. I wish I could afford to take you to some lovely place that you would enjoy and remember for the rest of your life. I will tell you this, Mom. I want you to know that I am going to do my best with all my heart to see that your grandchildren carry the same temperature of faith that is in you to their children, your great-grandchildren. One day we will have riches that are beyond the scope of our finite imagination. One day we will travel to a place so beautiful and wonderful beyond human description and we will be together forever there with all the rough edges taken off, all the pain and sadness of sin lifted forever, and to think in the presence of the One whom we have loved without seeing for so long.
Thank you most of all for making Him real to my heart. I love you, Mom.
Ken (Mother’s Day – May 8, 2005)
Well, there you go. Now you have almost a week to write your mom a letter or find her a nice gift, or plan a visit to make her Mother’s Day special.
Ken Pierpont
Granville Cottage
Riverview, Michigan
May 5, 2008
MOM
TO MY PRECIOUS SON,
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT SWEET NOTE… I REMEMBER IT AND ONCE AGAIN IT BROUGHT TEARS TO MY EYES…
IN THE FLESH I CANNOT HELP BUT BE PROUD.
SO MANY PEOPLE SAY TO ME, ” MY YOU MUST BE SO PROUD”, WHEN THEY SEE OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN AND THE MINISTRIES IN WHICH GOD HAS PLACED THEM.
I CANNOT TAKE CREDIT AT ALL.
I CAN NOT PRAISE THE LORD ENOUGH FOR CHOOSING MW AND FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE.
I REALIZE THAT IN SPITE OF THIS BEAUTIFUL, THOUGHTFUL NOTE, I MUST NOT ALLOW MYSELF TO BE PROUD. I MUST FALL ON MY FACE BEFORE MY PRECIOUS LORD AND THANK HIM FOR ALL HE HAS DONE IN SPITE OF ME.
HE KNEW MY GREAT DESIRE TO HONOR HIM WITH MY LIFE AND MY GREAT DESIRE THAT ALL OF OUR EIGHT CHILDREN (FOUR NATURAL AND THEIR SPOUSES), GRANDCHILDREN AND NOW NINE GREAT-GRANDCHILDREN, WOULD ALL GROW TO LOVE THE SAVIOUR WITH ALL OF THEIR HEARTS ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE.
I STILL PRAY FOR THIS WITHOUT CEASING FOR THAT IS STILL MY GREATEST DESIRE.
MY LIFE MOTTO IS –
“SINGING HIS PRAISE!
AND AS I APPROACH MOTHER’S DAY THIS YEAR I CAN TRULY SING….
“I’M OVERSHADOWED BY HIS MIGHTY LOVE”
“I’D RATHER HAVE JESUS THAN ANYTHING”
“THERE IS NO GREATER LOVE”
“DEEPER AND DEEPER”
I COULD GO ON…..
THANK YOU AGAIN KEN
(JUST THOUGHT SINCE YOU MADE YOUR LETTER PUBLIC THAT I SHOULD RESPOND.
I LOVE YOU, DEARLY
Dave Nyquist
That was so nice Ken. My precious Mom has been gone 11 years now and it seems a lifetime ago that I heard her sweet voice. And yet I can hear her voice so clearly when I most need to. Take advantage of every moment that you have to be with your Mom, and to let her know how much you do love her. You have a wonderful son.
GRANDMA
My children and grandies are bringing me more JOY than you can imagine… and as I have said many times when the children ask what I want or need for a special day I truthfully have to say. “My greatest JOY is for them to serve God and be in the very center of His will everyday”.
They always interpreted that as “Be Good”.
I pray for all of them every day and though I would love to have them all closer geographically, I would rather have them close to God and faithful to HIM. This is my JOY.
Some might interpret that as being a preacher or a missionary.or in full-time Christian service, but I mean being close to God everyday… There is no such thing as a “part time child of God”. It must be all or nothing.
Thank you again, Ken, You are precious to me.