Strength Made Perfect In Weakness

“How can I help you?” This was the question she always asked. Ma Belle's vision was gone, and she had difficulty hearing even with her hearing aids. Mom had suffered the effects of several mini strokes, leaving her weak and often unable to remember things that had just taken place. Still, she would ask “How can I help you?”

Several years ago when Ma Belle was struggling with the loss of her sight, and as a result the loss of her freedom, she told me what she had prayed. “I prayed and told the Lord I was willing to be weak if He could use my weakness to make my family the people He wanted them to be.” This was such a prayer of love; this was such a gift of grace. She humbly believed that if God allowed suffering into her life He would also be able to redeem that suffering. The gift she asked for as a result of that redeeming love was for her family, not for herself.

I have been both a recipient and an observer of how God answered her prayer. I have read in 2 Corinthians 12:9 “For my strength is made perfect in weakness,” but now I have observed it. Ma Belle became weaker and weaker until she could do nothing for herself. As I cared for her, I became more and more aware of the honor and privilege of caring for someone who was willing to sacrifice strength and dignity for the ones she loved. Spurgeon said, “A primary qualification for serving God with any amount of success, and for doing God's work well and triumphantly, is a sense of our own weakness.”

It is one thing to give your strength in service to the Lord, but it is another to give your weakness. What a beautiful picture of humility and faith to surrender your weakness, believing that God will use it to bless the people you love. She humbled herself and laid aside her dignity. She considered others more significant than herself. She didn't look to own interests but instead she looked to the interests of others. I watched as this brilliant woman followed her Lord and allowed herself to be made nothing. She, in her total weakness became a servant of the most high God.

Ma Belle died on a Sunday. Mom died quietly. It seemed as if she just slipped away from us, leaving us one of the most precious gifts that can be given. She showed us by example what self sacrificing love looks like. Now I have to close my eyes to see her but when I do I think of Psalm 45:13 “The king's daughter is all glorious within; Her clothing is interwoven with gold.” Thank you Mom for showing me what strength made perfect through weakness looks like.