I know we don’t know each other yet, but welcome to this page and my blog!
If you are like me, you are wondering what this 70+ year old woman could possibly have to offer you.
I’l tell you. I have a life-time of experience…of raising children 3 daughters, along with my pastor husband. Now I have 3 sons-in-law and 7 grands including 2 grandsons. They are ages 6-15 now.
We lived in a variety of places in the United States, Florida, Texas, Illinois and now in retirement, Alabama. We also lived 7 years in Jamaica where 2 of our 3 daughters were born…in the 1970’s.
Living cross-culturally, was very helpful for life in ministry. How often do we need to enter someone else’s world that often feels foreign to us, for the sake of Christ? Or put aside our preferences for something more important, the unity of the gospel and the believers in His church…or simply being able to get along with our neighbors!
That is what I have to offer. I have been through the gamut of raising children. They are all in their 40’s now and have children of their own. Each did life a little differently than her sister. Each pursued something different career-wise. None did life the same as her sister.
We have also been through lots of change…moving, living overseas as well as in the U.S. At times, I worked outside the home as an RN, at others, I was home full-time. Sometimes, our girls were in Christian schools, at others, they were in public school. It depended on our options. I never home-schooled. I’m not sure that would have worked very well for our family. I’m not a teacher. Being fully responsible for all their education would have been more than I could have handled. My husband totally concurred. Most of the time, Ron was a pastor, but in Jamaica, he taught in a Bible college for students from the West Indies.
Despite many challenges, I came to love Christ’s Church. It is encouraging to realize it is His Church, not ours. When it is time for us to leave the particular local church where we are serving, we know that He is about something much larger than our personal goals and desires. It is a good thing.
Personally, I grew up in a home where my parents were professional Christians. At various times, they were missionaries. Bolivia, Costa Rica; Christian School founder/administrator and teacher/Librarian; and even Pastor, my dad. I had a younger brother and sister during most of the years I grew up, but when I was almost 20, my parents had a fourth child, my sister Kathy. I never lived at home with her, but she is my sister…and closer to my own children in age.
I met Ron Brady when he came to my home church in Plantation,FL fresh from seminary and a life in the Mid-West, as assistant pastor. I was heading to Philadelphia for nursing school at the same time. My grandparents’ hospitality had him feeling like part of the family long before we really knew each other, but by the time I graduated from nursing, we had met, written a couple of years and gotten to know each other on a mission trip that he chaperoned, to Costa Rica where my parents lived. We realized a lifetime together was for us and married a month after my graduation, in September 1968!
I’m taking a long time to tell you what I have to offer you. A lifetime of learning the glorious wonder of the grace of GOD and how it can bring hope to us when we are scared, overwhelmed or brokenhearted.
As a nurse, I learned to talk straight. People don’t understand all the beating around the bush talk that we Christians do sometimes. It can get confusing. But with all the changes and moves, ups and downs I have lived through, I think I can tell you the truth about the sufficiency of GOD…He is! The pain of loss…it IS painful… for Christians just like everyone else!
As Ron’s wife, I learned more about tact, kindness and the impact of my words on others. He understood how to speak kindly to people in ways I had no clue! I tended to hide little barbs in places I didn’t even notice. When I started having him edit writing and emails for me, he helped me learn why I had so much difficulty with relationships! Even now, he will ask me, “Do you want to say it that way, or do you want to keep your relationship?” What wise words!
The joy of having people who love us and whom we can love…there is nothing better! To say nothing of having a Church where we can worship together at the feet of Jesus! Priceless.
It is just a foretaste of heaven.
