Do you remember your first store-bought clothes? When I was about 12, when school started, a church lady told Mama she wanted to buy my younger sister and me a couple of dresses. One of my dresses was a light yellow shirt-waist dress, with short sleeves. I felt like a princess in it.
We were already well-dressed children. Our mother was a good seamstress and made most of our clothes, and besides that we had pretty hand-me-downs too. I look back at my school pictures and recognize some of those nice hand-made dresses and hand-me-downs, but it was so exciting to get a new store-bought dress.
When I took home economics in junior high school and later in high school, Mama came up with the money somehow to buy material and patterns. We had already learned the basics from Mama, sewing aprons on her electric sewing machine, so it didn’t take much to encourage us girls to sew, which all three of us still do.
Mother used to say, “We aren’t poor, we just don’t have much money.” We had what we needed—food on the table, electricity, gas heat, and running water in the paid-for home Granddad and Daddy built—but I’ve often wondered how many things Mama did without herself. All her faith was placed in God to provide for us, but she also worked hard.
Paul sent a letter to Timothy in which he complimented his mother and grandmother. “….When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice.” II Timothy 1:5 NKJV.
Timothy was taught his faith by his mother and grandmother. He saw their actions, their every-day lives, and witnessed the results of their faith. We children watched our mother every day as children always do, and we witnessed her life of faith, following the Lord, and depending on God to provide.
We learned how to sew from her, yes, but we learned so much more and now the genuine faith that dwelt first in our mother Eunice dwells in each of us.