ON MY MIND


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LANCE COLKMIRE EDITOR


Lessons From a Praying Mom


THE NEXT EVENING, MY MOM CALLED


FROM FLORIDA AND IMMEDIATELY


ASKED, “ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?”


THE DAY BEFORE, WHEN THE LORD HAD BURDENED


HER TO INTERCEDE FOR US, SHE HAD OBEYED, AND THE


LORD PROTECTED US FROM A WRECK THAT SHOULD


HAVE HAPPENED. I


DID SOME SERIOUS praying at my bedroom window when I was a little boy. Frightened by sermons and songs about the Rapture, I remember look- ing at the stars and worrying the Lord might return at any moment. I prayed, “Jesus, please don’t come back tonight,” for I was certain I would be left behind if He did. One Sunday night when I was 10, sitting with my parents at the Buffalo Avenue Church of God (now the Riverhills Church) in Tampa, I asked my mom to go with me to the altar. There I asked Jesus to become my Savior, and an awesome joy engulfed me. As we walked to our car after church, I told my parents, “I feel like a bird that has just been let out of a cage!” At bedtime that night, I did not have to offer a please-don’t-come-back-now prayer to the Lord.


Covered by Prayer


My decision to become a follower of Christ did not come out of thin air. Both of my grandmothers were prayer warriors, and I also had praying parents—especially my mother.


When I went to the altar to receive Christ, Mom was there to pray with me. When I experienced the ups and downs of the teen years, Mom was always praying that I would make the right choices. As the Lord called me into a ministry of teaching and writing, Mom was praying and cheer- ing me on, even though it meant leaving Florida and moving to Tennessee.


A Prayer Burden


You may contact the editor by writing to him at


lance_colkmire@pathwaypress.org or by calling 423-478-7592.


One snowy afternoon, my wife, Sharon, and I were trying to get home with our baby daughter, April, who was in her car seat. I could not see the road markings,


and my right front tire slipped off the shoulder. When I brought the car back on the road, we slid across the ongoing lane of traffic through the only gap in a long line of cars, stopping safely in a grocery- store parking lot.


The next evening, my mom called from Florida and immediately asked, “Are you all right?” The day before, when the Lord had burdened her to intercede for us, she had obeyed, and the Lord protected us from a wreck that should have happened.


A Prayer Ministry


On April 15, 2003, when she was 75, Mom started keeping a journal, opening it with these words: “I really don’t know how to begin this book. I am not a tal- ented writer like my son Lance.” She kept up the writing for only 10 more days, and then decided journaling was not for her. However, she had her own ministry of writing, undergirded by praying. She faithfully prayed for dozens of relatives and friends, and often sent cards and letters of encouragement. A few days before Mom unexpect- edly passed away in May of this year, she mailed me a note, wishing Sharon and me a happy anniversary and saying she was proud of me, as she always did. If I could respond with one last note to my mother, here is what I would write:


The Lord called you to a ministry of intercession, you were faithful to that calling, and your obedience changed lives for eternity. As I told you many times, the most valuable inheritance a person can have is the prayers of a Christian parent. Your prayers are a significant part of any fruit the Lord has given me as a minister of the gospel. I am proud to be your son.


EVANGEL | October 2010 3


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