Faithful

Since the recent passing of my mother in law, I have been thinking a lot on being faithful.

Steve reminded me of the verse in Rev 2:10 “Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life”. And Cheri posted this on Facebook; "Who do we admire & applaud? The extraordinary gifted or the extraordinary faithful?" At Ruby's funeral we sang her favourite hymn - "Great is Thy faithfulness" And so it got me thinking on the whole idea of being faithful.

Here's some verses I checked out;

Psalm 31:23 Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints! For the Lord preserves the faithful....

Prov 20: 6 Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man?

I think these verses help explain what it means to be faithful;

Heb 3:6 Hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

Heb 3:14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.

And of course there is the hall of faith in Heb 11 which uses these words to describe what the faithful did;

__________ was righteous

pleased God

obeyed

believed the promises

chose to suffer with the people of God

endured

were assured of and embraced the promises

confessed they were strangers & pilgrims on the earth

It is so great to KNOW that because Ruby was faithful to the end- she is now celebrating eternal life! I first met Ruby almost 11 years ago exactly, at her and Roy’s 50^th wedding anniversary party. I had only known Steve a short while, and it was here I suddenly walked into a room full of his family and relatives all at once. Ruby was very unassuming and just quietly accepting and welcoming at the same time.

Down the track, Steve and I visited them out at Tara where they lived the Christmas just after we were married. I still remember the surprise of having Ruby bring in a cup of tea and “piece- y” (piece of toast) to Steve in bed in the morning, as I found out, was her custom whenever he came home. Maybe she wasn’t used to her baby being married yet, but it amused me.

I'm thankful that she was faithful to pass on her faith to her children, and bring them up to love God. This blessing has in turn passed onto me in having a husband with a wonderful Christian heritage to draw from and pass on also.

Some other memories:

· Steve and I lived in Maryborough when we were married and shortly after his parents moved there to live too. I worked part time and recall the time that I stopped at their place for a visit on my own during the day. Both Roy and Ruby stopped and prayed with me that we would all find some new friends there in our new town. Always caring but more so- faithful to take it to the Lord in prayer.

· I remember her coming over to help with household jobs when I was sick and Tim was still a newborn. She just quietly helped, never presumptuous or in the way, but always supportive.

· she was always respectful of our choices and didn't interfere. Those mother-in-law jokes certainly don't apply here! There was once she was concerned about something, but she politely and gently put it in a letter to us.

· I am thankful for the opportunity to go with her to Bible Study Fellowship at Maryborough for a while, which she invited me to. I reckon she enjoyed it too and got to see baby Tim each week there also :)

· Ruby also came to stay with us after we moved to Brisbane to be there before Caleb was born. I remember her getting worried for me when I didn't get back from a walk down the street as soon as she expected. I think she came looking for me if I remember right!

· When Sarah was a baby she would just bawl when other people tried to cuddle her. I felt sorry for Ruby, because she just really wanted to hold her, but she kept persisting anyway

· Ruby remembered the kid’s birthdays and sent them handmade cards and maybe stickers or balloons. She also wrote the kids individual letters and took turns writing to each of them

· She wrote letters to all the family, which kept us all up to date with the various happenings, and helped you feel like part of the family

· when we visited with the kids- she always made them feel welcome. She put together a basket of toys for them to play with and even indulged the boys' interests to buy some Lego for them to use at her place. On other times she would make jelly, knowing that's what the kids liked.

· my last memory of her was only about a month before she died. I stopped in with the kids for a visit on our drive home from Sarina. Though we hadn't planned it, and she was surprised, she welcomed us all in just the same. It was just a usual sort of visit- sharing lunch together and talking about what we were up to, her being hospitable and encouraging.

· I wasn't there at her bedside in hospital those last hours, but when Steve told me about the children singing hymns together there, I think that just suited her

· I can clearly picture her sitting in church and in her quiet but confident way singing with raised hand, particularly the hymns. A fond, but bittersweet memory during the singing of the hymns at her funeral.

I’m pretty sure Ruby would never put herself on a pedestal or want anyone else to. In some ways she was ordinary, but, as the verse earlier said- “who can find a faithful man/(woman)?” Yet, she was faithful, and faithful to the end. An encouragement to us is, that’s all it takes, you don’t need to be extraordinarily gifted, but faithful.

Heb 12:2 Run with endurance the race set before us. So that we also will hear "Well done, good and faithful servant".