My Mom: The Greatest Christian I Have Ever Known

To all my family, friends and brothers and sisters in the Lord,

My mother, Bertha Mae Lingerfelt, left Thursday morning, May 17, at 3am CDT. Jesus came and picked her up and took her home with Him. She was 86 years old and a great wife and mother. But most of all, she was a true blood washed, born again believer in our sovereign Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and a chosen child of God, having been chosen in Him before the foundations of the world, Ephesians 1:4-5.

My Mother wasn't perfect (except to her husband and children) but she was truly forgiven having been granted repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ as a young girl, and then showed that it was true by living it the rest of her life. I must
tell you that I am the man I am today because of my Mother's God fearing, Christ exalting ways. When we were as poor as poor can be, my Mother would still get us to church somehow. Others made fun of her for taking a stand to dress modest, not indulge in worldliness, and live for the Lord. I saw my Mother in pants only a few times in my life that I can recall and that was to pick blackberries when I was a boy. After 3 heart attacks and a host of blood thinners that left her feeling cold all the time, I tried to get her to wear a set of warm up clothes, which were a pants and sweat shirt. She put them on maybe once or
twice, then went right back to her dresses. She prayed and read her Bible everyday, loved preachers and preaching, Gospel music and the old hymns of the faith.

Mom was also precise, specific and sometimes downright vain about her looks. She had her hair done every Friday and had continually touched it up with #50 chestnut brown for as long as I can remember. Hardly anyone knew she was 86 around here. And when they did ask her age, she would jokingly turn the numbers around and say "I'm 68!" I would tease her and
say, "if that's the case, then just last year you were 58 and the year before that 48! I suppose next year you will only be 78!" She would say, "well, what's wrong with that?" She could also tell great stories about her life that I wish now I had recorded. And details...my Mom could give you all of them...and sometimes to a fault.

She loved her husband even when he acted terribly. She endured and refused to take the easy way out. Her children could do no wrong, yet she was a strong disciplinarian who dealt out her discipline with a loving hand. She knew no strangers and had a multitude of friends. She forgot no one and made sure to stay in contact with family and friends at great cost in phone bills. She loved unconditionally and was as quick to say "I am sorry" if she felt she had wronged anyone as I have ever seen.

My family and I will sorely miss her. But we will see her again. Today she is in Heaven's happy home having a reunion with my Dad and folks she hasn't seen in a long time. Most of all she is getting to see her Lord and Savior, the One who purchased her pardon with His own blood. Face to face she is seeing Him in all His Glory...and that for eternity. One of my Mom's favorite songs that we sang as a family was "When Life for Me Is Ended." Here are the words to the first verse and chorus.

When life for me on this earth has ended
And I am facing death's chilling tide,
I'll bid fair well tomy friends and loved ones
Til we shall meet on the other side.

Chorus
On the horizon, beyond the sunset,
I see a city with streets of gold.
Soon I'll be going to that fair city
To see my Savior where none grow old.
And in that city I'll have a mansion
A golden harp and a jeweled crown
Oh hallelujah I'll be with Jesus
When I reach Heaven and settle down.

Oh well here's the second verse too!

But most of all I'll be with Jesus
The great Redeemer and matchless King.
And there forever with friends and loved ones
His wondrous praises we then shall sing.

For all your prayers, kind words and love, thank you one and all. Pray for us as we place her house of clay in the ground Saturday, May 19th.