Forgiving Mother Part 2

To Sabbath School teachers: This story is for Sabbath, March 19.

By Charmaine Ku

From last week: After Charmaine surrendered her life to Christ in Malaysia, she realized that she needed to honor her mother as instructed by the Fifth Commandment. But how?

I

prayed fervently for two long years about this sin of mine, and sometimes I even questioned God.

“O Lord, how are you going to change me?” I prayed. “Please do something!”

My two younger siblings returned home to Malaysia for a big family reunion in late 2018. My sister and her husband arrived from the United States, and my little brother came from Thailand. It was a rare occasion to have the whole family together because we lived so far apart.

My brother, Luther, who is 11 years younger than me, noticed my conflict with Mother. On the day that he flew back to Thailand, he left a letter for me in my morning devotional book. I found the letter the next morning. Luther wrote:

It is with a heavy heart that I am writing this letter. I give thanks and praise to God that you have learned many truths and that have brought a positive change to your life. It is indeed a joy to see my sister walking in the path of ministry, something that I am proud of and look up to when I look at you. Glory and praise to Him!

After praying and contemplating in my sinful and imperfect state, I managed to muster up some courage to write to you from my heart regarding your dealings and relationship with our mother.

I understand that our mother is imperfect. She can be unreasonable at times, and she gets on our nerves. Yet, she is the mother that our perfect God has given to us, to love, to treat with respect, and to obey. I know it well that our mother has her flaws, but her intent is always as a mother toward a child whom she cares for. Perhaps we may never have the privilege of understanding fully why she does what she does. I fear that you do not realize that you have an impulsive attitude toward our mother that can be unreasonable and show fruits of impatience, ego, and pride. I fear also that this could be a potential stumbling block for people around you when they see how you treat and speak of our mother.

Again, I write this with a heavy heart, and with the intention of reprimanding my sister whom I love and care for. I may not have delivered this well, but I trust and pray that the Holy Spirit will personally speak to your heart and give you the spirit of reconciliation. Take care.

Much love and prayer,

Your baby brother.

After reading the letter, I wept for more than an hour, pleading with God for forgiveness and at the same time praising Him for speaking to me through my brother. While my carnal self still wants to dishonor my mother, I have not been able to raise my voice at Mother since that day. God answered my prayers! As He promised, “Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19, NKJV).

My broken relationship with Mother was restored through the power of the Holy Spirit. I praise God for mending our relationship before I left home. Just six days after receiving my brother’s letter, I flew to western Malaysia to attend a church-organized Bible training school. Mother took me to the airport, and I gave her a big good-bye hug. It was the first hug that I had given her in more than 10 years. Six months later, I moved to Thailand and started working as a kindergarten teacher at the Adventist International Mission School in the city of Korat.

No one probably would have blamed me if I had left home without resolving the conflict with Mother. But God did not allow my cherished sin to prevail. God, in His perfect time, worked a miracle in my life and allowed this sin to be completely cleansed from me before I moved to Thailand. ⎭

Thank you for your Thirteenth Sabbath Offering three years ago that helped Charmaine’s fast-expanding school, Adventist International Mission School, expand into a high school and to construct a complex of classrooms and other buildings at a new site in Korat. Thank you for your prayers for the schoolchildren and for Charmaine and the other teachers.