She, Herself & God: Eunice
Eunice’s Maternal and Eternal Example
“I remember your genuine faith, for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice. And I know that same faith continues strong in you.” (2 Timothy 1:5)
My first childhood dream was to become a mother because I was born in a Conservative Mennonite Church where the career path of women was either single-blessedness or marriage and motherhood. Of course, I wanted to get married and have my own children that was why I was always confident that marriage and motherhood was the path I would be treading when I grew up. Unfortunately, my childhood was ruined when our family left Mennonite for good when I was only eight years old. And because the outside world was different from the environment I grew up into, my dream eventually changed. I no longer wanted to get married and become a mother.
However, when I reached my Jesus year and had a chance to revisit the past and contemplate the future that I really wanted, I realized the beauty of marriage and motherhood again and the reason why I dreamed of taking that path when I was a child. Having my own family is actually an opportunity for me to glorify the Lord all the more by passing on the legacy of faith just like what Lois did to Eunice as well as what Eunice did to her son. As the apostle Paul wrote in his second epistle to Timothy, he remembered the latter’s genuine faith because he shared it with his grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice. Thus, Paul was confident that the same faith would continue strong in Timothy.
Can you imagine how God amazingly moves in our lives and in our own homes when we become a mother like Eunice? He gives us the privilege to not only pass on our characteristics, our intelligence, and our looks to our children. He also authorizes us to pass on the legacy of faith, which for me is the most important legacy we can leave as mothers to our children. By the grace of the Lord, the faith that first filled Lois, He had allowed it to fill Eunice too. And like a cycle that goes on and on, the same spiritual legacy was passed down to Timothy whom we have known as the fellow laborer of the apostle Paul. What a privilege it must be for Eunice to be the mother of a Godly son! But we have to take note that that privilege was hers because she was a Godly woman and a Godly mother in the first place.
As a woman of God, each of us should pursue Godliness in our lives not just because the church encourages us to and our fellow Christian ladies inspires us to but mainly because we desire to please the Lord. And while it is good to be encouraged and be inspired by others in our spiritual walk, we have to keep our eyes on the Prize, which is Christ and embrace our true characteristic as women of God, which is Godliness. Now if some of us are already blessed to be a mother like Eunice or a grandmother like Lois, we still have to be reminded that as Christian women, it is our duty to pass on the legacy of faith to our children and our children’s children. In this way, the Lord’s great faithfulness will not only be experienced by us but also by our next generation. And who knows? We might be producing our own Timothy as well for God’s greatest glory.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the example set by Eunice as a mother to Timothy. While some of us may not be a mother yet, we pray that in Your appointed time, we can also pass on the spiritual legacy to the children that You will bless us with. Or perhaps, it is not Your will that all women of God will get married in this life. Nevertheless, we still pray for opportunities to leave the legacy of faith to every Timothy of the next generation. We thank You more, Father God, for giving us Your only begotten Son; as He is the Author and Finisher of our faith and the ultimate Prize that we have kept our eyes on. We ask Your Holy Spirit to continually use us in Your vineyard whether we have trodden the path of single-blessedness or the path of marriage and motherhood. And just like Eunice and Lois, may we pursue Godliness in our lives so that we can exhibit the fruit of Your Spirit and build a legacy that lasts for eternity. All these we pray in Jesus’s mighty Name. Amen.
