My parents gave me this Bible this weekend. It was my grandmother's (my dad's mom). When I was 5 years old we were visiting her in Mississippi one weekend. She lived next door to the church so on Sundays when we would visit, we'd walk to church together. That particular Sunday I sat in her lap in the choir loft of that tiny little country church. She was singing hymns and I was just enjoying being with her. During one of the songs she got up and said she needed to get a drink of water. That was the last time I ever got to see her. She walked next door to her house, sat on the couch, and passed away. I remember my uncle, who had still been at her house getting ready, bursting through the church doors and saying, "Something's wrong with Ione!" The ambulances came and it was a weird time for a 5 year old who remembers taking walks with her grandmother, picking flowers, and sewing quilts. Even though I was only 5 I feel like I remember so many details about her and her life lived for God. Years later, when I was in college, I opened up one of her Bibles that my uncle keeps at his house (the one she was using when she passed away) and there was a prayer list inside, and I was on the top of that prayer list. I can't remember the exact wording, but it was something like, that God would be with me all the days of my life. Cue the tears. I've always felt like God has been so near to me, and that His favor has always been over my life for no particular reason, other than just pure grace. I can only imagine it was her prayers that started that lifelong relationship between God and me. Prayers matter. It seems to me especially ones of mothers and grandmothers. ❤❤

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