I was reading one of Jacob’s books yesterday about one of his heroes, Sergeant Alvin C. York (who fought in WW1). York was born and raised in the mountains of Tennessee and only received a third grade education.
When I came to the chapter in which he writes about his Mother, I was inspired. I think you will understand what I mean if you are able to take the time to read this little story. I want to be this kind of mother.
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“Like most all boys, I think my mother was the best mother in all the world. I jes think so much of her that I don’t know how to say what I want to say. I guess sometimes you can feel things so deep you are sorter lost for words to express them.”
“Hit’s different talking about Mother, but I jes got to. Her story is jes sorter mixed up with mine and mine with hers, and I can’t jes tell where one ends and the other begins, and I can’t look into my own life nohow without finding her always mixed up with my affairs. And always for the better. I have generally taken her advice as being most helpful. When I have failed to do it, I have ‘most always got into a heap of trouble.”
“She went to school and larned to read and write and that was about all. She never read no other books but the Bible.”
“Father built the log house at the spring, and that’s where most all of us were borned and growed up. The children kept coming right smart until there were eleven of us. Mother had to work hard from sunup often until ten o’clock at night to keep us clothed and fed. Until we was old enough to help, Mother had to do ‘most everything around the house. She milked the cows, made the butter; she looked after the hogs and chickens. She made the soap and the tallow candles and fixed the grease for the lamps. She carded the wool and spun and wove the cloth and made all of our clothes. She was a good mother to us, and with Father she brought us all up, and we are living today. We’re all strong and healthy and well and she enjoyed every minute of it. She enjoyed life much more in those days, so she says, slaving and working for us, than she does today, jes quietly living with us with not much to do or to bother about.”
“She jes didn’t have time to worry or to be unhappy. Life tried to crowd in on her and bust her up right smart and she jes wouldn’t let it nohow. She knowed what she wanted-she wanted her home, her husband, and her own children, and she knowed she would have to pay for these things with work and sacrifice, so she was willing. That’s a mother for you! And that’s what she’s done for me.”
“And here I was running hog-wild around the country, keeping her up late nights and worrying the heart out of her.”
“All of this was making me feel kinder bad. I jes knowed I was wrong. I jes knowed there was no excuse for me, and I was beginning to make up my mind to cut it out, when she begun her praying for me. She prayed and prayed. So I made up my mind to finish it.”
“I sorter turned over in my mind all the sacrifices Mother had made for me. I ricollected that I had never asked her to do anything which she refused if it was right. I knowed she had given up ‘most all her life for me. I knowed how much she loved me. And now she was asking me to give up all of this wild life and bad companions and be a good boy again.”
“So I thought and struggled and prayed more and more. And then, jes as I was making up my mind and getting control of myself, a preacher-man came into the valley. He preached very close to the word of God as it is revealed in the Bible.”
“So I was saved! And that is the greatest victory I ever won. It’s much harder to whip yourself than to whip the other fellow, I’m a-telling you, and I ought to know because I done both. It was much harder for me to win the great victory over myself than to win it over those German machine guns in the Argonne Forest. And I was able to do it because my Mother’s love led me to God, and He showed me the light, and I done followed it.”
~From the book Sergeant York and the Great War
Good to be Home 
Oh WOW. I LOVE THIS!!!!! We love Sergeant York and his stories. Their WONDERFUL. Do you have the movie with Gary Cooper playing Alvin York? My son loves that movie. 🙂 I just love Sergeant Yorks unpretentious way of explaining his love for his mother. It made me cry. Thank you for taking the time to post this. 🙂
BTW- I have a feeling – that in your boys’ hearts Mother York doesn’t hold a candle to you. 🙂 ((hugs))
That is so cool. I think I forget sometimes what impact I will have on my kids. I pray that is something God will help me to remember all of the time. What I do, whether they see it or not, affects them.
What a sweet story ~ loved it. But Shanda, I did have to smile a little about the statement “She made the soap and the tallow candles and fixed the grease for the lamps. She carded the wool and spun and wove the cloth” ~ as I remembered you saying this was the kind of mother you wanted to be ~ I know what you meant, but I still smiled a bit! Blessings on your day ~ may it be full of wonderful times of being your littles’ cherished momma ~
What a great book! What a dedicated woman!
I can only aspire to be such an admired mother!
That’s the right kind of mother to be!
That’s awesome, I especially like the last paragraph. Thanks for sharing that.
It doesn’t take perfection to be a great mother. It only takes, but completely takes, the love that Christ gave you. “Train up a child in the way he should go and even when he is old he will not depart from it”.
Sounds like you’re doing great.
I can only hope my children feel the same about me when they’re grown. As an adult I feel so entwined with my own mother. I feel her within me in almost all that I do. I can’t deny it anymore (and I tried for many years) that my mother and I are very much alike. Something I used to resist, I now embrace and am proud of it.
Good Morning Shanda….Thank you for sharing this story. I pray that my older boys will eventually see what the young man in the story knows about his mother.
I love the last paragraph.
Thank you.
God Bless You.
What a great tribute to a mother. It has inspired me. I want my children to rise up and call me blessed. I have got to get that book.
That is so precious; thanks for sharing it! I have this book; now I’m inspired to pull it out again and read it. I know my husband feels every bit like this toward his mother, and she was also a very simple, loving, praying woman whose passion was (and is) simply to be a wife, mother, and homemaker. I hope I can be like her and Sergeant York’s mother!
That made me teary-eyed this morning. Thanks so much for sharing it Shanda.
Yeah, I knew what you meant ~ I share that desire to be remembered by my children for loving God and family. Just funning with you a little about the other ~
That’s the type of mother I want to be. the kind that delights in giving her life up for her children thus opening a way to God
How inspiring! Thank you for sharing this, Shanda. I have more thoughts on this to share with you, but we are taking off on a family adventure, so I will save them for a letter. Much love, Hannah
My greatest hope is that I can leave that legacy of a godly mother for my kids one day.
I REALLY LOVE THIS!!!!!! What a CHARGE we have as mothers…to be Godly examples and prayer warriors for our children and grandchildren. And, in the end, just like the Bible says, “They will rise up and call her BLESSED!”
I have had a very tough morning as a mom (whining children and my patience was thin). Thank you for posting this and reminding me that it’s all worth it!
One of my David’s books too! Thank you for sharing this. What a great reminder to be servant mothers and to pray!
Wow. That is the kind of mother I want my kids to remember me as for sure!
I have goose bumps all over from reading this! So excellent! What an inspiration!
“Her children rise up and call her blessed!” — What a wonderful tribute to his mother — thank you for sharing.
thanks for giving me something to work towards!! My spirit is willing but my flesh can be so weak!! Oh to be more willing to sacrifice. The eternal rewards far outweigh any temporary pleasure here on earth!!
I just re-read your post because I knew it was so good and something else popped out at me..”She jes didn’t have time to worry or to be unhappy. “Oh, if I could live like that. I am such a pessimist. my husband says that I enjoy being miserable… Praying for a change of heart. thanks again.