 | A Mother's Dreams For Her Son Robert Segovia, Toledo, OH - Friday, May 09, 2003
 Train a child in the way he should go
and when he is old he will not turn from it.
(Proverbs 22:6)
Before I tell you my favorite memory of my mother, let me introduce you to her. Bertha Segovia first became part of a discipling movement in Columbus, Ohio in the early 80's. I grew up in the Northland Church of Christ, and although I was a child, I clearly remember my mother's way of life. My mom was an evangelistic fireball! She was always inviting people to church, giving them cards with information about services. She met with women in the church often and was very devoted to the fellowship. She held family devotionals with my brother, sisters, and me often, praying and singing with us and reading the Bible to us. She taught us that when we pray we should always pray that our dad would become a Christian. The difference my father and her has always been very clear and obvious to me: she was focused on our spiritual success in life while my dad was focused on our worldly success. God was first in her life.
In 1989, we moved to Cincinnati when my dad got a job there. Around that time, my mom realized that when she had been baptized several years earlier, there were things in her heart that she never repented of. In October of 1989, she was baptized for real in the Cincinnati Church of Christ. Despite being diagnosed as bipolar she continued to put God and the kingdom first in her life. Her heart was for God, and this was evident to me as a child.
Besides her own spiritual ambitions, she has always had spiritual dreams for my brother, sisters, and me. Many parents want their children to do well in school, or play sports, or get a good job; my mom wants us to be evangelistic, to love God with all of our hearts, to devote our lives to him. When I was a teen, she always drove me to devotionals without complaining about it. When I moved into the dorms as a freshman she supported me so that I could be close to the campus ministry. When I moved to Toledo to be part of the mission team here, she was sad that I was moving away, but proud of me for being a man of God. This brings me to my favorite memory of her.
A few years ago, my brother, sisters, and I took my mom out to celebrate her birthday. Over dinner, she asked us to listen while she told us about her dreams for our lives. Her dream for me was that I could completely give my life to God; she envisions my going to foreign countries to preach the word, and ultimately dying as a martyr. That blew me away -- what a selfless dream! It's one thing to want your children to be spiritual and do well in life; it's another thing to want them to be ready to die for their Lord. Most parents dream about their children achieving worldly success; my mother dreams about my achieving the ultimate spiritual success. Maybe I will never move to another country; who knows if disciples in first world countries will be called to die for our Lord someday, but my mom has a vision for me -- to love God with everything I have, even my own life. I hold this close to my heart every single day. | |