I Love Number 32's Mom!!

In the past few months God has used the lives of others to make a major impact on my life.  I love to hear the life stories of others especially when one has allowed God to be the center point.  Over the next few weeks, I want to high light a few people that I think are hero's in the faith! 

If you live anywhere near North Paulding High School you have probably heard of number 32 on the Wolfpack football team. The name of this senior is Chris Conley. Last year before leaving for Burkina, my three boys fell in love with NPHS as well as cheering on their cousins Bo and Joel who are on this team. Our family has regular prayer time and I remember hearing my boys pray for their cousins and the name Chris Conley would find the way into our prayer time also.

I finally asked my sister about who this kid is. My boys would say that he is one of the players on the NPHS team and he is real good. They would also say, “And he’s a Christian too.” My sister began to explain that this kid started playing football in 9th grade. His mom desired that her children know and have God first in their lives above all other things. After that she desired that they be committed to their education. If those things were in check… then they could play sports.

I am all about peewee sports and even my own children have played baseball, basketball, and soccer. This is not in any way a judgment or a bash about young kids being in sports. This is simply something God used to touch my heart as I connected with hers in longing for our children to be rock solid in the Lord. I must admit that when my sister shared with me the testimony of this mother who had such great wisdom that she put what seemed to be a joy to her children on hold for the sake of what she knew held a much greater importance…. My thoughts were….”Lord, may I as well live with that kind of wisdom.” I already desire these things but never would I have made the concentrated point to hold off sports and other things so that my children have a foundation built solid on the Word of God and their relationship with Him. I must add that this could mean them never playing sports. I cannot choose Jesus for them- I can only love, live, and direct them in the way of truth and pray that they choose a life that is submitted and committed to the Lord.

I am sure that Christina Conley over the years was talked about for not allowing her children to play sports. I bet her children possibly asked her more than one time why she felt this way or even assured their mom that they were ready before 9th grade.

Her first son has graduated and is in Tennessee on a track scholarship. Chris will graduate early and is heading to UGA on a full scholarship. WOW! She also has a daughter that is excelling in track as well.

I know that faithfulness does not always bring a reward such as this on this side of eternity; however, I know that faithfulness and surrender does indeed bring blessing and honor to God and the reward will come. Christina Conley, you are a courageous woman and example of a mother who loves truth and the Heavenly Father more than the temporary happiness of your children. I love to see your strength in the Lord and I love to see how God is blessing the lives of your children. I also love that Chris has become a huge role model in our family. My boys see the God factor in Chris’s success. Know he is prayed for and looked to as a hero by us all the way over here in Burkina Faso. Go Dawgs!

P.S. To make sure I had my facts straight, I emailed Christina and allowed her to read this blog entry before I posted it. I am going to paste just some of the words in her response…. It only goes to more affirm the woman of God that she is and that she is living a life committed to him!

Response from Christina: I know the compassion of our Savior and how He knows the mess of human flesh that I was before I came to know Him as Savior and then miraculously, blood covered mess that I still am as I grow daily by His grace.

I love reading the wisdom of Catherine Marshall and Elizabeth Elliot, and I believe it was Catherine Marshall who when asked if she would talk about being a mother likened her acceptance of such an invitation at that point to someone negotiating a trip across a stream on horseback and yielding midstream to discuss how it's done well before the completion of the journey. I believe myself to be midstream with much more ground to traverse long before being the subject of one of your blogs.

Our Lord is so incredibly awesome in the LOVE that He has shown all of us, particularly me. If I could share anything with someone right now, it would not be about me, it would be that we truly cannot be separated from God's love and that He (GOD) is incredibly merciful and will forgive us our sins if we call upon His name. I am proof of that.