Celebration Service:
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- Updated: 17 January 2022
… and I dedicate this piece to my beloved mother who celebrates her 80th birthday today. She has been confused as my sister for most of my adult years, perhaps because I just look “old” but more likely because she looks so young. Like her mother before her, she has always taken very good care of herself… and me, well, I look old enough to be her brother.
Mom is a Christ follower. She has always loved God, but she and my dad, her first husband, really got fired up to serve Him after they moved to California in 1981. Learning from the Scriptures and serving in the church became something of a new way of life for them, and it coincided with God’s call on my life to become a pastor. Their service together was short-lived when my dad was diagnosed with and then died from leukemia in the Spring of 1986. Like her mother before her, she was a young widow.
Mom and her second husband, Ray Larson, took their faith in Christ to a new level when they created and led the LAF (Life After Fifty) group in the Carlsbad church they attended. That ministry took off and served hundreds of senior adults. She and Ray continued to minister to senior adults wherever they lived and worshiped. Her second husband died in July of 2020 and, like her mother before her, she was a widow for the second time.
Mom tells me she is very content living alone in Carlsbad where she continues to serve the Lord in her community and her church. Covid has challenged some of the activities that she has been a part of, but it has not curbed her devotion to Christ or her devotion to fitness. She walks every day, spending the time praying for her family, friends and whatever she and the Lord have to talk about, maintaining her “temple” with dignity and discipline… just like her mother before her!
Timothy, the young disciple who travelled and served with the apostle Paul, was said to be raised by women of sincere faith… his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. Like Timothy, I have been raised by women of sincere faith, my grandmother Maxine and my mother Sharon… and I am persuaded are foundational to my faith in Christ.
Happy Birthday Mom! Much love and respect to you!
For His glory,
Pastor Mike