NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

April 6

This month’s devotionals were written in grateful collaboration with my mother-in-law, who passed away a little over a week ago.

Scripture focus: All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. Proverbs 14:23 NIV

I asked Marion to tell me her favorite memories and why they were the best. She had a lot of good memories, most of which I had heard and all of them I continued to enjoy hearing. Some of her memories don’t carry obvious life lessons, but there was a rhythm and pattern to the stories that was compelling and profound.

She did not recount one story of success or achievement. Not one. She didn’t delight in success or achievement on the part of her children or children’s children – although she was there for many such events. Precious memories for Marion often came in the form of bloopers and blunders, serendipitous moments, or just plain ordinary days.

She loved to talk about how when Gary was in graduate school, he’d come over to her office and she’d type his papers – as he wrote them. Evidently, McBeans work well under pressure. She always rolled her eyes and recounted the typing as harrowing and adrenalin producing but her smile told a different story. She loved typing those papers.

More eye rolling and sighing accompanied her stories about the boys playing basketball on the hoop in the backyard. Evidently, McBean boys are competitive. She had to institute a rule that said no basketball playing allowed unless she was available to sit in a lawn chair and supervise. In theory, this was supposed to reduce fighting. (Did I mention that all this supervision was required…when they were all adults?!?)

Once she went to Water Country with Mark’s family, somehow managed to fall off the raft or tube, and couldn’t get up! She allegedly was extremely embarrassed by this event, but she sure told it like it was a grand adventure.
When our kids were very young, the loved going to Nana’s for sleepovers. One afternoon during her last illness, she reminisced about ordering pizza, renting a movie, and fixing either waffles or biscuits for breakfast. It was a routine and tradition; it was simple and sweet. She watched The Ninja Turtles and Little Mermaid movies hundreds of times – always swearing it was better with each rerun.

Nana taught us that it isn’t what you plan or do, achieve or succeed that makes for a joyful life. It is having the good sense to know that the best and hardest work is what happens as you build your house one brick at a time by loving the people in your hut.


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