"Make a Believer Out of ‘Em" At the time, he was telling us to be strong with our discipline and deep with our faith-walk. I cannot remember the infraction of which I was asking, but, it could not have been much, for they were smallish children, not very old. But, I do remember Daddy clearly saying,
"make a believer out of em"
I realized then and still do now that he meant that on several levels…
Make a believer out of them in the sense of literally sharing your faith so that they will grow into their own.
And
Make a believer out of them in the sense of disciplining them so that they will grow into their own.
I grew up in such a home.
When I was little, I LOVED going to church because I loved learning about Jesus. I loved reading about David and Paul and Moses. Miriam, Moses’ sister was my hero and I always wanted to be a sister like her. I loved learning about Mary and Mary and the Woman at the Well, Daniel in the Lion’s Den and Lazarus. I went with my parents to church not because they told me to but because they "showed" me to. Their own faith-walk instilled in me a love and passion very early on for all things Godly.
That passion stayed with me even into teenage-hood and young adult-hood. On those very few occasions where I would have preferred to stay at home and sleep in, I didn’t have to wonder if that would be a possibility or not. I knew that if you were a Millstead….you were in Bible class and worship on Sunday morning, you went to evening worship on Sunday evening and every Wednesday night you were front- row- center. It was not so much that they "made" us kids go….it was that you knew that you had to be with them on Sunday/Wednesday and you knew where they would be and what they would be doing.
You knew that Daddy would likely be preaching a sermon, brothers would be waiting on the table, Daddy would teach a class, lead singing and possibly even give out the announcements. Mama would have several little ones sitting with her in the pew and would then walk those same children to the class she would then teach, much of this after she had prepared communion and folded the bulletins. My parents were joined by our church family in "making us believers".
I was thinking the other day that my parents could be called "holistic" in their approach to their faith. "Church" was not something our family just attended on Sundays and Wednesdays, it was the way we lived our lives on all of the other days preparing for Sundays and Wednesdays.
I can remember Daddy and my brothers going over to the church building to cut the grass and ready the building for Sunday’s service. My mother and other ladies of the church would snap beans and prepare Sunday lessons and church bulletins while I babysat the younger children in my parent’s back yard. If I close my eyes, I can still hear the laughter of those sweet women mingling with the silly giggles of their little children.
I remember the "men folk" pulling up in the yard in their truck all grimy and sweaty from mowing the significant yard of our church building, back-slapping and laughing and smiling big.
Oh yes, I am the child of parents who "made a believer of out me", and I think my siblings would share that same heartfelt thought.
And, I am eternally grateful.
But, Mama and Daddy did not stop there. They also "made believers" out of us in the way they disciplined us. I sincerely don’t remember but a few times in my life where strong discipline was given to me by either of my parents. I do remember getting disciplined for cutting Missy B’s bangs when I was about five. For some reason, Mrs. Janie didn’t appreciate the way they were cut and my Mama didn’t appreciate that I didn’t confess "directly" that I was the scissor-welding hairdresser. I remember not coming home from play in time for dinner and coming in late once from a date. I am sure there were many more..All of those times, my parents set me down to discuss their expectations on my future behavior so that I was clear on what to do. Sometimes, they told me what future consequences were going to be but mostly they just told me to believe them…if I disobeyed, I would be punished. Frankly, for me, that was all it took.
I believed them.
I knew even as a very young girl that my parents loved me…they loved me enough that if I was going to make a bad decision, they were going to step up and "make a believer" out of me so that I did not make that same bad decision the next time.
One of my greatest regrets in my life is not staying in their line of vision all of my life. Because, the more I was in their "sights", the stronger was my clarity on how to live my life. Those times I ventured out on my own and on their teachings, it cost me. Dearly.
Those times I chose to remember the ways they had trained me and returned to those roots, the better and wiser my choices.
I see now that God gives us our parents as a guiding light for a reason. They are not there just to guide us to adult-hood, they are there to guide us through a lifetime. That is why there is such great loss for those whose parents are absent through death, through poor choices through failure to understand the responsibility God gives parents.
My siblings and I were and are blessed. We had and have parents who made believers out of us in both ways .
They grew in our hearts a belief that we were to obey them because they obeyed HIM and, they grew in our hearts a belief that we were to follow them in faith because they knew that if we followed them in our faith walk that we would be following HIM in our faith walk.
I am not my parents. I have not been so disciplined and faithful. But, I am my parent’s daughter and one thing they also taught me is that when you lose your way, AND you will, you draw a line in the sand of your life and mark it. That is your past. Walk in your future as one who was taught to "be a believer"…
So, I did and I do.
Blessings,
Lesa
