Lessons from Momsense: Love, Prayer, and Truth Change a Heart

By Audrey Marie Hessler

As a prodigal child travels a trail to come to know again a love that makes no sense, God’s love, this story of a mother’s love reflects an even greater love—God’s love for all.

These lessons enliven a faith in a sovereign Savior, Jesus Christ, who loves the world, and orchestrates life even when we can’t see His hand answering our prayers, sometimes responding to our petitions with a yes, other times saying, no, or not now, and often answering not how we think!

Lessons from Momsense tells a make-you-laugh, make-you-cry story of a Baby Boomer mother and her prodigal child and that youthful rebellious generation, reminding us though momsense is universal, moms and mothering come in many forms. These lessons also include a bit of old as dirt grandmother momsense, too. Sharing stories that demonstrate God’s transforming love, and the power of prayer, these narratives of hope encourage anyone of any generation to forgive, shun hate and come to know the love and truth that changes hearts and lives—forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 9, 2020
• ISBN: 9781973693628

Audrey Marie Hessler

Audrey Marie Hessler is a talk radio and podcast host, an inspirational speaker, teacher, author, biblical life coach, a wee bit poet, and artist. She has spent decades in the classroom, teaching and speaking in the inner city, the suburbs, and the countryside; she has ministered in jails, in nursing homes, in grief ministry, and volunteered with the persecuted church. Her writings include adult nonfiction, devotionals, poetry, and literature for children. For information about speaking engagements, and online Bible lessons, to listen to her podcast, AM Inspirations with Audrey Marie, and to find out more about the author, visit AudreyMarieHessler.com.

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Copyright © 2020 Audrey Marie Hessler.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-9363-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-9364-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-9362-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020910816

WestBow Press rev. date: 07/07/2020

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982

by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®

Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM.

Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,

2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

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Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 An Unwanted Pregnancy

Chapter 2 The Facts of Life

Chapter 3 What Is Momsense?

Chapter 4 A Time for Every Purpose

Chapter 5 Momsense Words

Chapter 6 Another Fact of Life

Chapter 7 Love Makes No Sense

Chapter 8 Moms in Many Forms

Chapter 9 Sand Dollar Souvenir

Chapter 10 A Question—What Is the Truth?

Chapter 11 An Answer—I Am

Chapter 12 The Godfather

Chapter 13 The Grandmother

Chapter 14 You’ll Laugh Someday

Chapter 15 The Old Deluder

Chapter 16 The Barren Woman: Counting Kids

Chapter 17 Light Overcomes

Chapter 18 The Legend of the Sand Dollar

Chapter 19 My Mom Said

Chapter 20 If God

Chapter 21 A Prayer and a Challenge

Chapter 22 A Conclusion: Peace Train

About the Author

For Mom

and for anyone with a smidge of momsense

Preface

To inspire you to a deeper faith and greater depth of hope, and to compel you to know an amazing grace and love that surpasses knowledge, this inspirational story is about a trio of things.

First, it is a message of transformation, the power of love, prayer, and truth to change a heart. It’s a story about a prodigal child’s return to faith that ignites when a mother prays for her wayward child. These events take place in a historical time-traveling capsule jetting back to the youth and coming-of-age years of the rebellious baby boomer generation.

Second, this story is about moms and mothers coming in many forms. It’s about that unique sense of a mom and the lessons we learn from what might be called Mom’s wisdom, momsense. There is a wee bit of grandmomsense too.

Third, and last but never least, this story is about things that don’t seem to make sense, like a mother’s love and God’s love.

As a classroom teacher for many years, I assigned a journalism project called Eyewitness to History. The students interviewed someone who witnessed an event in history. Then they relayed some key facts about the topic and how those historical hallmarks influenced that person’s life.

There was a 1950s TV series and a play titled I Remember Mama. It was based on the book Mama’s Bank Account a tender rendering of a daughter Katrin’s recollection of her loving mother while growing up in a Norwegian family in San Francisco in the early 1900s. It is a homespun, cozy account of family life living in simpler times and all its difficulties.

This is not that story.

This eyewitness to history narrative is about a mother, and like Katrin’s story, it tells of the powerful influence of a mother’s love. But this story does not take place in simpler times. President John F. Kennedy, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., and Senator Robert Kennedy were assassinated during these years. They were killed for all to watch in black and white on their television sets. It was the change-the-world 1960s and 1970s, with shouts of, End the war! The war was the Vietnam War, and most of those protesting the war were called baby boomers. They were the children born between 1946 and 1964, after World War II ended and times were hopeful. It was also a time that saw a boom in the number of baby births.

But another war began. And if you are going to San Francisco now, it is not how Katrin described her life there. It’s the time of the wild ride called the sixties, and the craziness repeats in the turmoil of the seventies with violent protests for peace until a president resigns and the war ends.

A prodigal child is transformed by love and truth and comes back to faith and a mom’s prayer and baby boomer momsense and some other things that don’t make sense lead one on a roller-coaster journey to know again a love that makes no sense, God’s love. These are those lessons, and this is that story.

1

An Unwanted Pregnancy

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God can transform pain to gain, and we can come to realize that tremendous good can be mined from bad.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.

—Jeremiah 1:5a (NKJV)

Long before I was a hip, fun wife, mother, teacher, speaker, and a happy grandmother, I boomed onto the world’s stage as my mother’s only daughter and my grandparents’ first cooing, cuddly, chubby-cheeked baby granddaughter.

I was also an unwanted pregnancy.

Mom said she wanted the soon-to-be little bundle of joy, but Dad did not. For many years after my birth, he repeatedly blurted out, If only you had never been born.

My dad had already been inconvenienced by a child. Actually, there were two other children. I was the third inconvenience.

My mom was tossed back and forth between her divorced parents during her teen years. She married young and had a baby boy. That marriage ended early in divorce.

When my parents realized another baby was on the way, Mom gave her first son to his biological father to be raised. She never saw her firstborn again. Mom did this to assuage my father, her second husband. My next older brother, who shared the same father with me, was the reason for my parents’ shotgun marriage. Dad was forced to marry Mom. Now another child was coming into the world.

As a teenager, I found out about my sibling who was given away at the time of my birth. This memory, buried in my psyche but later made known, was part of the scenario that spun me out of control and led to me to pack my bags and leave my home.This event that surrounded my birth I found out about accidentally. It brought an acute awareness that there is a hidden world affecting our lives; part of that hidden sphere is the world of people’s secrets. Many things are cloistered, hidden behind the scenes in the physical world, and yet clearly seen in the spiritual world. Not of the realm of the five senses; the spiritual world daily affects our lives in both good and bad ways. It’s the most powerful dimension. You don’t see it, yet you observe its effects. It’s the invisible reality described in the Old Testament story of Job when God is having a dialogue with the evil one who is going to and fro on the earth, seeking to destroy all that God loves.

And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. (Job 1:8 KJV)

The devil roams about. The results are evident, but the schemes are concealed.

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (1 Pet. 5:8 NIV)

Perplexed and pained, I saw the effects, not the hidden schemes. I wondered, How could Mom give up a child?

I fiercely questioned the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac as a youngster. How could God ask Abraham to give up his child on an altar of sacrifice?

Years later, I came to understand more about the depth of the circumstance of God and His child—and Mom and hers. Both share a sacrifice. And both are not what they appear to be on the surface of the matter. God did not require Abraham to give up his son. The Father God would give up His child. God would sacrifice His only begotten Son for all. Mom gave up one of her children, I came to find out, because it helped my father accept the birth of another child. It was one less child to deal with for him. A brother was given away so I could come into the world.

But still, How could Mom do that?

Seasons of life passed. I matured. And I collected one more insight into how my mother reasoned and persevered through the giving away of a child.

An elderly lady