This Little Pin Dot

I have always enjoyed hearing my older brother tell this story about my mother being called into the ministry. I especially enjoyed hearing my mom tell this story because it occurred while my mother was pregnant with me. I was the tenth child of the twelve
My mother’s Aunt Vada helped in mentoring and fostering my mom’s faith as well as her deep abiding love for Jesus at the tender age of eight. During this period of time, my grandmother, ‘Big Momma,’ met and married another gentleman. However, my mom did not talk much about her first stepfather. I only recalled her saying he was very nice and he too had died in a coalmine accident. Two years later, her mom would meet her third husband who was a tall, good-looking, red headed, blue-eyed soldier named George.
After staying with her Aunt for two years, my mother and her siblings returned home to their mother and their new stepfather.
My mom, being filled with the Holy Spirit zealously, reminded her mother and her stepfather that the drinking and the swearing they were doing was offensive to God and that they were sinning. Needless to say, my mom received many beatings.
My grandmother did not understand her daughter “speaking in tongues.” She was afraid that she was going mad or had some psychiatric disorder. Mom endured the ostracizing and misunderstandings for many years.
Later in life, my mom met and married my father. Dad worked on the railroad and eventually landed a job in the coalmines. My brother, Thurmond, being the oldest boy, felt it was necessary for him to watch over mom since Dad worked and Mom was pregnant and due to give birth at any time.
After seeing Dad off to work and ensuring that the kids were still asleep, Mom would go to the riverbank behind the house to talk with God. One day, my brother Thurmond got dressed and lay in bed until he heard Mom leave, at which point he followed quietly behind. Sitting on a rock nearby, he heard Mom’s conversation with God. She said to God, “No, not me, how can you use me? I have a house full of kids and my husband drinks and gambles. How can you use me?”