A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

I love black and white photos. Especially ones from long ago. It’s as if you can look into their eyes and see what they were trying to tell you, a story of who they were and where they came from. A story that held laughter, joys, hurts and sorrows all rolled into one.

The picture above is one of my mom and her three sisters taken in Kansas during the 1930’s. From left to right there is my Aunt Betty, Aunt Helen, Aunt Ruby and the little blond one in front, with the great big smile is my mother. My mom is smiling because she was the youngest, and was pretty tickled because she was holding a purse in the picture. Was it her purse, no, it was my Aunt Betty’s, henceforth…. she is wearing the frown.

This picture always makes me smile. It makes me want to step back in time and see what life was really like for them so long ago. I wonder what their house was like, how they lived, and what they talked about. Oh, the questions I would ask the grandmother and grandfather I never met. Most of all, I would want to see what their relationship with the Lord was like. How they practiced their faith. I would love to listen in on their times of reading the Bible that sat on the family coffee table, to hear their prayers to the Lord. I would hope to glean from their steadfast faith, as farmers, living in the dust bowl era. I would want to learn how they trusted and relied on the Lord to carry them through the Great Depression.

As I look at their pictures from the past, I wonder what my grandchildren and great grandchildren will say about pictures of me, years from now. What type of person will they say I was, what will they think of first when my name comes to mind? The sum of all these things adds  up to the heritage and legacy that I want to leave for my family. I want them to know that in word and deed I followed the Lord with all my heart. That I was a wife and a mother who didn’t claim to be perfect, but who always sought the Lord’s will.

Take a moment to think about what your picture will say…is it one that you will be happy for your loved ones to see? If not, ask the Lord to show you where He wants you to change, so you can become more in His image and have your picture speak a thousand words that would glorify His name.

“Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.”

Titus 2:4-5

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