Wonderful Mother--Wonderful Life

My mother, Margaret Lucille Rose Horn, was a wonderful Christian woman. She reflected Christ in her life in good times and in bad.

Mother accepted Christ as her Savior when she was in her teens, but she didn’t know how to live as a Christian because she didn’t receive any teaching and she didn’t have a Bible to read on her own. It wasn’t until after she married and had children that she began attending a small Baptist church and began to learn about the Lord.

One day my mother started attending church, and through the teaching she received there, the Lord started working in her life. She began to change. As she learned about the Christian walk and about what God wanted for her, she began to be concerned about witnessing to others about the truths of God’s Word and Christ’s claims as the Savior.

Right after Christmas in the late 1950’s my mother was reading aloud from God’s Word about the crucifixion of Christ, and I as a little girl was listening. I began to cry because I realized what Christ had done for me on the cross in taking my punishment and sin upon Himself. I trusted Christ as my personal Savior that day, and it was because my mother was reading her Bible.

One day after school when my brother, Keith, was in junior high school, he brought home a “friend” who waited outside while my brother went in the house to get some money to give to this boy. The “friend” was doing a little extorting and had threatened to beat Keith up if he didn’t give him some money. Well, I’m sure Keith was going to try to get the money secretly so he didn’t have to tell Mom what he was up to, but she found him out and went out to talk to the other boy. She started talking to him about right and wrong and about the Lord. This young boy suddenly was saying, “Yes, Ma’am” and “No, Ma’am,” and was apologetic and said he was going to start watching out for Keith at school, sort of be a protector. It was because my mother was serving God right where she was.

As my mother matured in the Lord, she had opportunities to take classes to learn how to teach Bible lessons, stories and classes to children. In our home every week after school she had a Bible Club. Neighborhood kids and my and my sister’s friends came to Bible Club to learn stories from the Bible and to hear the Gospel. Many of those children trusted Christ as their Savior. We also learned a Bible verse every week. Some of those verses are still in my head, verses like John 3:16, Matthew 1:21, John 1:12 and many others. Mom had great influence on those children’s lives and on my life.

Over the years my mom taught Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Junior Church and many other neighborhood Bible classes. Many, many children learned about God and His Word. Many, many children came to know Christ as their Savior because my mother was faithful in her service to the Lord. During those years, a couple of those children who had been in my mother’s Bible classes were killed in an accident or died of sickness, and the wonderful blessing was that Mom could look back in her records and see when those children had trusted Christ. This was a great comfort to the people who knew those children and especially to the parents.

I remember my mother sitting at her kitchen table in the mornings. She was reading her Bible and praying. I don’t remember what she prayed for specifically, but I know that she prayed for her kids. My sister and I always knew that when Mother prayed for us, whether it was for us to get to go to Bible camp or to a Christian college, those things were going to happen. The Lord blessed my mother and her prayers. She was faithful and God was faithful.

My mother was diagnosed with lupus when she was in her early forties and contended with this disease for thirty years of her life. She went through many difficulties because of this disease and because of the medication she was on. Through it all she continued serving God and living for Him.

Later in her life, my mom taught ladies Bible studies. One of the studies she taught had a book that went along with it. I now have that book, and I have taught a Bible study using that book myself. It is a blessing to me to have my mother’s notes written in the margins and to realize she was reading through those pages during her last months alive.

My mother claimed a certain Bible passage as her own. It was the verse in the book of Acts that says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved and your house.” After that, many of her family members came to know the Lord including my dad, her mother and father, three sisters, one brother, many in-laws, nieces and nephews, and cousins. Through the Lord’s blessing, Mom had an amazing influence in many people’s lives and was instrumental in leading many of these family members to the Lord herself.

Mom witnessed to one of her sisters when she herself was in the hospital the last time before she passed away. Our family was thrilled when my aunt trusted Christ.

My mother lived an amazing life. She had tremendous influence on her family and on hundreds of children and adults. God blessed her, not with many possessions and riches, but with spiritual blessings. She is in Heaven now and has been for over ten years. I wonder sometimes what she is doing there. I think she is still serving the Lord in worship and praise.