Mama's Bible

 Mama's Bible

"T & P," my niece wrote as a comment when I had referred to a scripture in a previous Facebook post. Her next line revealed what she meant. "That means "Tested and Proven," she explained.

"T & P." That's what Grandma always wrote in her Bible about certain verses," she said.

That brought back memories of Mama's Bible, so marked up by different colored pens that glancing through it on occasion, I could hardly read it. But Mama wasn't being disrespectful to the Word of God, she was only notating key scriptures that had special meaning for her. Even writing things like, "Preached by Brother So-and-So," on some long ago date, or "God did this for me," etc.

Mama's Bible was like a journal of her life. When her things were dispersed after her death, I received one of her Bibles, but it was a newer one she hadn't had very long, it's pages relatively unmarred--no, unfavored, by her comments. There is one special thing about it, though, on the leaflet in "Family Record."

Over the heading, "Births," she had written in her graceful, distinctive hand, "All My Children," (not the name of the soap opera, though I'm sure her large brood seemed like it sometimes).

All eleven of our births had been duly recorded, and sadly, one death--my brother, Roy, who had died as a child. Two more siblings have gone on since then, which means she wasn't saddened those times, but only happy to greet them.

I was reminded of the internet exchange when in church last night singing the old hymn, "Standing on the Promises." I hadn't sung it in years, the style of songs sung in churches today having changed in favor of contemporary worship choruses.

But this was Wednesday night, which tended to be a bit more traditional. I remembered it from the services at the little white frame church we attended when I was growing up, with my mother sitting beside me, jotting notes and underlining passages in her Bible, and I suppose, marking them with "T & P".