Living Example

    We received an email yesterday reminding my husband that it was his grandmother's birthday. His cousin shared photos and memories. We wrote back with other stories, and another cousin emailed the group today with a favorite anecdote regarding Grandma Lydia's life. Lydia lived to almost 113 years old. She was at one time the 20th oldest person in the world and even had a full page photo and article about her in the National Geographic magazine. 

    Most of the memories are about her calm demeanor and strong faith. She rode shotgun in the days of buckboards from the silver mine to the bank with her husband. She noted spryly, "And we never got robbed!" She moved twice in one day, due to her initial house burning down as they were moving in, but she said she was grateful they saved the kids and a bag of beans. One time in her hundreds, she noted not sleeping well at night and I asked her what she did about it. She noted, "I pray for other peoples' sins incase they don't pray for them themselves." 

    This woman didn't have an easy life. Her husband died of an aneurism in his early 50's due to an appliance he was moving slamming back onto his chest. She lived the rest of her life with her daughter and son-in-law, never remarrying. The one thing most people that knew her would say about her was, "She never had a bad word to say about anyone." I've heard this over and over from any number of family and friends. Grandma Lydia was a Colossians 4:6 speaker, "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person."

    Wouldn't we all do well, to speak well of others. Proverbs 13:3 reminds us, "Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin." Grandma Lydia's life was preserved for more years than most, possibly due to the fact that God knew she still had much to say just by the way she lived. She epitomized the "Golden Rule" of Luke 6:31, "And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them."

    Lydia welcomed everyone and judged no one. In a world where we say we don't believe in judging others, this scripture would be a good one to memorize, "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you" (Matthew 7:1-2 ESV). Lydia knew there was power in her words (Proverbs 18:21) and that God keeps track of them (Matthew 12:36 ESV). She did a lot of listening and when she spoke, her words informed and uplifted others. 

    Thank you, Grandma Lydia, for being a living example to all of us of how to live a godly life, even in the midst of trials and tribulations. 

Matthew 12:36 (NIV) But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.