Few things are more powerful to a child growing up than the example set forth by their mother and father. As parents, we have the ability to guide our children towards a path of contentment and true joy, or we can send them hurling into a life of despair and longing.
For musician John Wilds, how his mother stared down a looming eviction with powerful prayers made an impression that has lasted a lifetime. “I want to encourage you tonight because I learned faith from a praying mother,” he told the audience in the midst of singing “Way Maker.”
At the time, the family struggled to make ends meet and drifted in and out of homelessness. During one particularly tough stretch when the family was on the verge of being evicted from their home, Wilds vividly recalled one night waking up and hearing his mother crying.
Concerned, he thought he’d go check up on her.
“One night I was in my room. We were in the middle of a situation. We were about to be evicted. We’d been homeless before,” he explained.
“I heard my mom crying in the middle of the night. And I wondered what was up so I got out of my bed and went over to her room. I thought she was going through something, something was wrong. The door was cracked and I pushed it open just to see what was wrong with mom,” he explained.
To his surprise, she was not in any kind of physical distress. Instead, she was trusting God with all her might in the midst of a challenging trial. “The crying that I heard wasn’t the kind of crying I thought it was,” he told the captivated crowd.
“She was kneeling next to her bed, thanking God for His faithfulness. Even though she may not see the situation changing, she was declaring ‘God you’re still good and I thank you for what we do have! We may not have all that we’ve been asking for but we thank you that we have everything that we need because we have you Jesus!'” Wilds emphatically concluded.
The crowd began to erupt as Wilds summed things up: “And I declare that Jesus is all that you need tonight!”
The story comes at the 7:30 mark in the song. The moment he praises the Lord for His goodness is truly a chill-down-the-spine worthy moment. WATCH:
It’s a beautiful testimony. It’s easy to trust God in the good times. It’s right to do so, and sometimes we forget to thank Him, but it’s certainly it’s less challenging to thank God when things are falling in your favor than when you’re facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
Praise God for this mother, whose undying devotion to God left an indelible mark on her son’s soul that very obviously now has deep roots. Let it be a reminder to us as parents, we can give all the lessons, lectures, and words of wisdom we want — but when our littles see faith in action, that will not easily depart from them.
The event was Jesus ’19, a gathering organized by Jesus Image.