Each week, she’d stand at the door, shooing us in to take our seat. Her name was Anna Mae and I loved her.
After hearing an album sung by children, an idea sparked in her giving heart. What if I used the empty choir room during Sunday School to gather children and create a choir? And she did. I was one of these blessed children who arrived every Sunday morning, excited to join new friends, enthusiastic to learn my part, and eager to be loved by Anna Mae.
40 years later, I can still sing those songs at the top of my lungs (the sound is different but the joy is the same!) I am a promise! I am a possibility! I am a great, big bundle of potentiality!
Some in the church wondered why children missed Sunday School to simply learn songs. But they missed what was truly happening in that upstairs room. Anna Mae was pouring the love of Jesus into our hearts week after week. My mind soaked in those powerful words from God’s word and my heart began to believe that this 10-year-old girl was in fact filled by God with potential. I began to believe I had purpose and I could truly be anything God wanted me to be.
Additional songs taught me to follow God’s ways to find His best for my life. God spoke to the Israelites, telling them that obedience put His blessings into motion: “The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 30: 9 – 10 (ESV)
The young girl me believed God’s word, began to listen for and obey His voice. Just as His word says, my life has not been perfect, but it has been fruitful. Today, I am blessed to be an Anna Mae of sorts to many little girls, as I write of the truth of God’s love for them.
Anna Mae had no training whatsoever in music. She was simply a woman who loved God and loved kids. I am the woman I am today partly because of her simple love offering.
What gift do you have to offer to God, even a gift you could invest in children? It doesn’t take a platform or even a position to give a small gift to another. You just never know how God might multiply your own small and turn it into big.
Guest Writer Bio: Lynn Cowell, a member of the Proverbs 31 Ministries’ speaker and writing teams, is an the author of several books, written for women of all ages. Her newest book, with co-author, Professional Counselor Michelle Nietert, is: Loved & Cherished: 100 Devotionals for Girls. Lynn calls home North Carolina, where she and her husband, Greg and the occasional backyard deer are adjusting to life as “just us”. Learn how you can get a copy of Loved & Cherished for your girl, or even begin a small group for a group of girls at https://lovedandcherished.me/
