Here I sit, mere days after the burial of my mother in law.  I'm still in shock that she's gone.  Her last time with us was very precious to me.  I was blessed to be among the priviledged who was able to help care for her at home as the cancer cruelly took over her liver and lungs.  Her spirit was strong till the end, but the cancer was stronger than her body. 

I can't help but think of all the things I had learned from her over the past 20 years of knowing her.  She was indeed one of the wisest women I have ever known.  As a tribute to her, I thought I'd list some of what I've learned from her.  Perhaps noone will ever read this.  That's okay.  I've often commented that my time on the computer is more for me than others...it's my therapy, lol.  So in memory of Marty...

1.)  Marty taught me that family and kids are more important than housework.  She was never a woman with a clean home.  No, she was much too sentimental, frugal and busy helping other's for that.  She always had someone in her home after church feeding them or taking a meal to some sick soul.  At Thanksgiving, she would often volunteer for Meals-On-Wheels, thereby causing us to have to plan our Thanksgiving meal later to accomodate her.  When I complained once about my sister in law keeping such a messy home, she sweetly reminded me that housekeeping was not everyone's forte. Her house was full of knick-knack's that people gave her...and she loved them everyone.  She might not dust them, but she loved them.  When the grandkids came over, she was always quick to say, "Let's go play ball in the yard." or "Do you want to walk to the park?"  Her lack of housekeeping was not due to laziness.  No, she was always working at something that God would have been proud of.  She was much too busy to clean.

2. Real faith shows up when the going get's tough.  When my mother in love was young, her husband left her for another woman.  For years, he went back and forth between the two women.  My mother in love got saved during this time, and it was truly life changing.  She loved her husband and truly was a Proverbs 31 woman.  She put her faith in God during those hard times and never quit believing in His provendential care.  Often when I'd worry out loud to her about something, she'd turn to me and say, "Boy, you don't leave anything to God to worry about, do you?"  When she was first diagnosed with breast cancer, she opted to have the lumpectomy rather than the mastectomy.  Imagine our surprise when the doctor came in and we realized that he had removed the entire breast!  She never even told him he'd made a mistake.  She simply said, "I prayed that God would guide the doctor's hand, so I trust this is what God wanted for me."  The woman in the bed next to her was listening into the conversation and said with awe, "I can't believe how well you're taking this."  Little did we know that Marty was going to be in that very rare 6% that would have the recurring mastisized (sp?) breast cancer.  If the doctor had done just the lumpectomy, she would probably not have survived as long as she did.  She was a woman of faith.

3.  The law of kindness was on her tongue.  I don't think I ever heard her say a truly unkind thing about anyone.  Even about her husband or the woman whom he had an affair with.  If everyone around her was complaining about someone, she would ask, "Have you prayed about that?"  Never did she join in, even if she was hurt by the person also.  She was a woman with great discernment.

This is all the time I have today, but I'll blog more later.  Marty was a Proverbs 31 AND Titus 2 woman in every sense of the scripture.  If you are an older Christian woman, I would like to encourage you to be these things to women in your life.  Reach out to the younger women around you.  Invite them to dinner or to deliver meals with you.  They need older women to teach them.

If you'd like to read Marty's Obituary, go to www.poseyfuneralhome.com and click on "visitations" on the left.  Scroll down to "previous visitation's" and click on Marty Manders Schultz.  Her life is our legacy.