May 6, 2008

• More Mothers of Influence

   Susan Wright might have been a computer engineer or a designer of new toys or appliances, in today's world.  In the 19th Century she was unusual, a woman with mechanical aptitude who spent hours in the shop of her carriage-maker father on their Indiana farm.  It was only natural that her sons Orville and Wilbur would inherit some of her skills.  Susan and her husband, Milton both loved the Lord and encouraged their children to read and learn.  Milton was the theologian and philosopher.  Susan was the mechanical one.  She had been the top student in her mathematics class in college and she had studied science as well as literature.  "We were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests.  To investigate whatever aroused curiosity.  In a different kind of environment, our curiosity might have been nipped long before it could have borne fruit."  Orville Wright once said.  Without their mother's help and encouragement throughout their childhood, the Wright brothers may never have taken wing on that gusty, frigid morning on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  A Mother of Influence inspires a love of learning.

  

  Susannah Wesley taught her sons the power of prayer.  A woman of strong opinions and convictions, she would kneel, her Bible in hand, and pull her large apron over her head.  Unlike the old woman in the shoe, Susannah knew exactly how she wanted to raise her nineteen children.  She once wrote, "I insist upon conquering the child's will early on.  Self-will is the root of all sin and misery, so whatever cherishes this in children ensures their after-wretchedness.  Whatever checks and mortifies it, promotes their future happiness and piety.  When we consider that religion is doing the will of God and not our own, the one grand impediment to our temporal and eternal happiness is this self-will.  Thus, no indulgence of it can be trivial, no denial unprofitable."  "Heaven or hell depends on this alone; so that the parent who studies to subdue self-will in his child, works together with God in the renewing and saving of a soul.  The parent who indulges the child's self-will does the devil's work, makes religion impracticable, salvation unattainable and does all that in him lies to damn his child, soul and body, forever."  Susannah wanted her life to count for God.  As a child, she prayed that He would use her to light a spiritual fire in England that would spread around the world.  He did, but not in the way she imagined.  Her son, John started a spiritual awakening and launched the Methodist movement.  And her son Charles, gave the church more that 9,000 hymns.  Her husband use to say that "some of the truly great people are the ones who were faithful in doing little things."  There is no doubt.  A Mother of Influence teaches her children to pray.

  

  (left to right, Husband Samuel, Susannah, Son John, Son Charles)

  Lord, may I be a mother of influence to the four you have bestowed.  May I lead them closer to you. 

  

   

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