Sunday, May 13, 2012

Legacy

The past month has brought some of of the happiest moments of my life as well as some tremendous moments of loss. On April 21st, we celebrated the life of my grandmother Millie Bourne Cervera (NaNa). Two days later, Ashley and I found out that we would be welcoming a beautiful baby girl in September, Piper Helen Cunningham. God used these two life changing events to challenge me to think about legacy and how the women in my family have shaped the next generation by simply honoring the Lord in word , deed , and example. I am thankful for the legacy left by these women.

Helen Bourne ....



Great Grandmother Bourne (as we called her) was my NaNa's mother. I was only able to visit with her once when I was very young and would have loved to have known her better. She was a tremendous women. In her life, she had eight children, one boy and seven girls! She raised all of the children on a tobacco farm in Maryland where she worked daily. My favorite story about Great Grandmother Bourne is told by my Daddy Vince ( NaNa's lifelong mate).  When he was ready to ask for my grandmother's hand in marriage , he went up to the Maryland farm to talk to her father. After having a conversation with NaNa's father, he got his answer. "You will have to ask her mother." :). I have no idea what it would be like to raise eight children and work daily on a farm. One thing is for sure, she had tremendous strength and resolve. 

She dresses herself with strength, and makes her arms strong. - Proverbs 31: 17

Millie Bourne Cervera...


"Your grandmother was the most beautiful person I have ever known, inside and out." I heard this phrase several times during and after the celebration of my grandmother's life. My response was, "Yes, yes she was." NaNa truly was a strikingly beautiful women. I remember as a little girl sitting in her bathroom and watching her put "her face" on. I remember thinking that when I grew up I hoped to be half as lovely. As beautiful as she was, her most wonderful qualities were found within. She was a women of grace, dignity, and strength of character. I learned so many things from her during the twenty-six years that I knew her. She was a wonderful wife who honored my grandfather every day, never speaking ill of him. She was joyfully submissive, caring, and loving. A wonderful wife. She inspired her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren to be people of character and excellence. In her final days she often told me how proud she was of me. I wished that I would have told her, how proud I was of her. I wish I would have said what a tremendous honor it was to be her granddaughter. 



Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her. - Proverbs 31:28

Sandy Cervera Reid ...



NaNa and Daddy Vince had three daughters. My mother, Sandy Cervera Reid, was the middle girl. On this Mother's Day, words can not describe my affections for my mother. She is the most tremendous woman I have ever known. When I was a little girl my daddy used to say, "If you grow up to be half the woman your mama is, you will be doing good." Now, as an adult, I know that statement to be very true and unattainable. I can not imagine being even half the woman that my mother has proven to be. I believe that the greatest strength of my mother's legacy is her servants heart. I have heard it recently said that a serving spirit is the very essence of Christ's presence on this earth. I immediately thought of my mother. She considers every other person more important than herself. She goes out of her way to make wonderful things possible for those who she loves and those whom she has just met. She and her sisters cared for my grandmother everyday so that she could stay at home and live her last days with dignity. She has also told me about several instances where she has driven many miles to transport young adults to various testing centers so that they could take their GED and have a chance and a better life. These examples go on and on and span over the years of my life. I am so humbled to call her my mama. 

She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. - Proverbs 31:27.

So on this Mother's Day I think of the legacy of the great women in my family and reflect on the words of this familiar song ...

I want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love, enough to make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace,
who blessed Your name unapologetically.
I want to leave that kind of legacy. 

God, I pray that I will daily honor you with my life in word and deed so that I can leave a legacy. I want my baby girl to see, just as I have seen by these women, that it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

Sweet baby Piper...

Happy Mother's Day!







2 comments:

  1. Thank you Lisa for such a thoughtful tribute to Grandmother Bourne, mother, and me. I am both honored and humbled to be in such company on your blog. You are going to be a wonderful mother for Piper! We are all certainly blessed!

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  2. How special, I know that Piper will have a wonderful life and will learn from great woman how to be a woman of God.

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