John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, had a pretty awesome mom! She was the mother of 19 children. You read that correctly... 19! Unfortunately only 10 of those children survived to adulthood. This poor woman went through pregnancy and labor 17 times (Yes, I can count. She had 2 sets of twins.) and had to mourn the loss of 9 babies. (She earned the right to be a little crazy... in my humble opinion!) She home schooled 6 hours a day, cooked, cleaned, and, of course, took care of 10 kids!
Susannah also knew just how important it was to spend time with and know each child personally, so she spent one hour a week alone with each child. That doesn't sound like much until you figure that this is 10 hours a week, set aside just to stay connected with her children. This amazing mom also held services on Sunday evenings for her family, and eventually her community. Some of these meetings had upwards of 200 people.
If that wasn't enough, Mrs. Wesley was, for all intents and purposes, a
single mom. Her hubby was a traveling pastor, spent time in jail (back
in those days you could go to jail for not paying your bills. I am
going to go out on a limb here and say that a traveling pastor wouldn't
make too much. Oh, so add to the list of things above, managed a LARGE
household with little to no money. I digress.), and they separated once
because of a disagreement on politics. (A story which I find a little
humorous!)
Despite all of the chaos in Susannah's life, she fully understood the importance of spending time with God. Normally she would try to get to a room, without the children, to pray and listen for God. As you can imagine, this wasn't always possible. That didn't stop Susannah!
On the really crazy days, Susannah had a really interesting way of finding some alone time with God. She would plop her tush down at the table and throw her apron up over her head, effectively blocking out the chaos!
So, if you ever see me with an apron over my head... leave me alone! I am talking with God!
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