The Day my Mam said "Yes"

Because it's Mother's Day, I wanted to write a post for my Mammy :-)

During church on Sunday's, we have been doing interviews with different people, just to kind of get to know them better. One thing they are usually asked is, "what would be an event that was a turning point in your life?" I think this is mine:

I have no idea how old I was at the time (under ten), but one day I was sick and my mam took me to the doctor. For my non-Irish readers, do not picture a "practice" like in the US. At home, doctors will often set up in the neighborhood in one of the houses. So one room will be the waiting room and then the back of the house is usually changed to be the doctor's office. You just go during the times he is there and wait your turn. Usually no secretaries or nurses or multiple offices. You wait your turn, he comes out and calls next, and then you go in for your visit and pay him cash when it's over.

So, there we were in the doctors office, waiting our turn. Our doctor at the time was a man from India - he was a good doc but not super friendly or warm and inviting. After our visit, he turned to my mam and said, "I'm not going to charge you for this visit, and actually, I think I have the medicine you will need right here so you can just have it and not have to go to the chemist (pharmacy).

That. Was. Weird.

That had never happened before and it never happened again. Just that once.

One the way home, my mam told me that the night before, she had been in church. There was a missionary visiting and she felt like God wanted her to give money to the collection for him. All she had in her purse was (I think) a ten pound note and that was all the money she had left for the week. But she gave it anyway.

When I got sick and had to see the doctor, she had no idea what she was going to do. She thought she would go and ask him if they could work something out for the payment. And she sat in that doctor's office praying and praying for God to work something out. And then the doctor told her no charge. She didn't tell him anything - she hadn't even brought it up yet! And THEN he GAVE us the medicine!

I think that day, I saw that when we trust God and obey Him, He will provide in ways we could never imagine or expect. I don't think I ever looked back since that day. My mam's saying yes to God and watching Him work for her was all that it took for me to see that I could say yes to whatever He asked, knowing He could be trusted. And not once has He ever let me down in the over 20 years since!

On this Mother's Day, I want to thank my Mother for her "yes" that day. It changed my life.