Moses got help from a lot of women. So did I.
Within a few weeks, I will be turning 55 years of age. I can tell that I’m getting older as both the body and the mind fail me at times. Over the years God has blessed and surrounded me with great ladies who have made my life incredibly full and meaningful. I want to take this opportunity to say “thanks” to them and to God who gave them to me.
First, I must be thankful for my mother who adopted me when I was 18 days old. I do not know who my biological mother is but I am thankful to you that you carried me to term. My adopted mother taught me that being a parent requires serving and sacrificing for your children. My mother is a God-fearing lady and even to this day desires to serve the Lord. My parents took me to church, provided me with an education, and modeled Godly service throughout their lives. So much of who I am today is due to the effort and work my mother put into me during the formative years.
The second lady God brought into my life is my sister, whom my family adopted five years after adopting me. My sister and I are very different in so many ways but I am thankful that God brought her into my life. I truly believe God brought my sister into my life so I would learn to love people who are different from me and who I might not love otherwise. Over the last few years my sister and I have worked on our relationship and I hope that in the years to come we will have more time together.
Undoubtedly the most important woman in my life is my incredible wife. I have been blessed to have her in my life for over 30 years. I can’t calculate all the ways she has impacted my life for the good. At every turn my wife makes be a better man for being around her. My wife is a God-fearing woman and you can read about her in Proverbs 31:10 and following. I have been so blessed to have a wife that is also a great mother to our daughters and an amazing “nana” to our grandchildren. I can only hope that I am blessed to live out the rest of my life with my wife. I love my wife and am truly grateful for everything she brings into my life.
The Lord blessed me with two daughters and I love them more than words can capture. Both of my daughters have become amazing wives and mothers and I could not be more proud of them both. I marvel at how they both have grown into such intelligent and beautiful young ladies right before my eyes. I prayed early on that God would give me daughters to love and the Lord answered my prayer by giving me two incredible and vibrant daughters. My girls bring joy to my life and I stand amazed and blessed at the love they bring into my life. I have enjoyed the transition of being a parent to being a friend of my daughters.
Last and certainly not least, God has blessed me with two grand-daughters (and one grandson) and I can’t believe how much I love these little people. I can’t believe my babies and are having babies. My grand-daughters bring so much light and life into my life and I love being “papa”. Recently my oldest grand-daughter put her hand on my shoulder and said, “Papa, I love you” and I almost cried. The love I have for my grand-children is so bizarre but I love them like they were my own.
Thank you Lord for filling my life with my mom, my sister, my wife, my daughters and my grand-daughters. The women you have placed in my life have made me better and filled my life with joy and laughter for so many years. I am truly a blessed man to have such wonderful ladies in my life. At every phase of life I have been blessed to have God fearing women grace my life with their beauty, intelligence, wit and laughter. I am truly thankful that I have been given so many great ladies to love and cherish.
As I thought about all the wonderful ladies God has brought into my life I am reminded of the opening chapters of Exodus. In the first chapters we find that Moses survives due to many women that worked to save him. Moses’s mother, sister, Pharoah’s daughter and two midwives all work behind the scenes to insure that Moses lives. While the later narratives focus on Moses and the work he does (with God’s help) to deliver Israel from bondage, it only happened because many women worked to keep him alive. I suspect that lurking behind every man are a group of women that lift him up. It certainly did for both Moses and me!
Brent Emery leads Congregation Beit Tefillah of Gig Harbor. Reach him at torah4today@comcast.net
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 5:30 AM.