A Tribute to My Family

No words can adequately express my gratefulness to God for the privilege of having been born into a Seventh-day Adventist Christian family. It is a precious heritage which has shaped my life and outlook. Some think it is a disadvantage to have been brought up in the Adventist faith. They say that one who has not grown up in the Seventh-day Adventist Church can better appreciate the joy of our Christian beliefs and the fellowship of believers in the Church. I disagree.

The commandments of God were respected as pointing out sin and showing a way of life which would bring nobility of character and joy of fellowship with our Lord. They trusted God's Word and often quoted Scripture to give reasons for their actions and for their decisions. They accepted God's messages without reservations or argumentation and they truly held communion with the Lord.

GRANDFATHER: A MISSIONARY DOCTOR

Grandfather was a missionary doctor. Yet he knew that his medical skills were not enough to confront the many diseases he treated. He depended on God for his success and wherever he was, he communicated with his heavenly Father. He trusted God to take care of him in the perils of mission life. Sometimes he went on foot to take the gospel to the unentered northern provinces of Argentina or into Paraguay. I thrilled to hear his stories of baptizing whole families after having held several days of cottage meetings with them. Several times God protected him from tigers and snakes. During the time when he was beginning the sanitarium which is now River Plate Sanitarium, two men tried to shoot him as he passed by on the road. He found the bullet later embedded next to the windshield of his car. God had intervened.

Grandfather loved to praise God through music. Sometimes he would ask me to stand behind him and hold his harmonica so that he could play it and the piano at the same time. He loved to gather his family around him at the piano and lead them in singing. I can hear him yet singing:

A Personal Connection to Ellen White

My grandparents knew Ellen White personally. They recognized her messages as from the Lord. They sought her for counsel when they were insisting that their son (later my father) remain in the U.S.A. to continue his education while they returned to Argentina. He was sixteen at the time. His friends were all in Argentina and he wanted to return. Ellen White told my grandparents to "Take him back with you and make a good missionary out of him." They did. He became a teacher at the River Plate College and was also serving as dean of men when I was born.

MY MOTHER: A WOMAN OF FAITH AND SACRIFICE

My mother had prepared herself as a teacher and taught in the early grades until my sister, Hilda, was born. Then Mother dedicated herself to her family and to rearing her children. When I was four, my grandparents brought us all with them to the U.S.A.

My family treasured the counsel from God through Ellen White, incorporating into their lives her instruction and insights on the way children should be trained. Speaking of the prophet Samuel, Ellen White wrote that during the first three years of his life:

It was true for me. I was seven when my father died. My grandfather died six months later. But by this time, I already knew that God could be trusted and that He knows what is best for us. He has promised to be with us "alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matt 28:20). And I knew by that age that God was my heavenly Father.

A Mother's Priority: Her Children

I never heard either my mother or my grandmother complain of the difficulties which filled their lives. My grandmother's sister came to make her home with us. She helped Mother with the home responsibilities. She was a part of our family until her death after I had graduated from college and was already teaching. Grandmother and our two uncles and their families often visited us and we visited them. We felt a part of this extended family.

Though Mother had graduated from the teacher training course at Emmanuel Missionary College and had been offered a teaching position, she chose to stay close to her children in the home. My three brothers were still preschoolers. Mother knew Ellen White's counsel that the mother's first responsibility is with her children:

Again, Ellen White counsels:

Building a Family Work Ethic

As we grew, Mother developed her family into a working unit. She did her best to make the family self-supporting. She took in laundry, cleaned offices and homes, raised vegetables for sale, sold milk from the family cows, and during the summers she took us all out in the fields to pick vegetables and fruit on the neighboring farms. My brothers had a pony, and with their cart they were able to earn money from time to time. Mother encouraged them in a number of their business ventures.

When we entered academy and college, we found work at the college which helped pay for our Christian education. Mother helped us set goals for ourselves and often reminded us that there is no limit to what we might become should we dedicate our lives to God and unite our efforts with His power to develop a character which would honor Him.

God blessed my mother with ninety-one years of useful service for mankind. After we children were grown, Mother joined my sister as her physician's assistant and worked with Hilda in her medical practice until three months before her death. She was respected and loved by her church, holding many offices, and by the medical community of Jackson, Michigan, where she served for forty-four years.

I am most grateful that she practiced what she knew to be the counsel of the Lord and instilled in each of her children right principles, integrity of character, and respect for God, His Word, and His prophets. What greater gift could a child receive than that of godly parents who sense the importance of the early training of their children and treasure and pass on to them the inner security and peace that comes from knowing and loving our heavenly Father?

THE FAMILY OF GOD

So you see, the family and the Church have been very intimately associated in my mind probably for a number of reasons. The name of God was ever reverenced in our home. God has always been the One to Whom we have looked for direction and guidance in our lives. And God has given the Seventh-day Adventist Church a prophet in Ellen G. White, whose God-given messages have been for direction and correction to the Church, and have blessed all those who have followed them.

I have heard first-hand many experiences where God has directly intervened in the lives of those who have consecrated themselves to Him and have worked unselfishly and unreservedly for Him. And I can testify that God has indeed directed my life and the lives of members of my family in many miraculous ways. In our family, and especially after my father's death, God has truly been our heavenly Father.

Surely, in this troubled world of violence, sickness and death, we may find security and comfort in knowing that God controls the future. We are not promised an easy life in this world, but we are promised eternal life when we commit our lives to God and become members of His family. I was born into a wonderful family. Yet none of us may choose our parents or our grandparents. But it is our privilege to choose to belong to the family of God.

When we submit our lives to God, we become sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. We become heirs to the heavenly kingdom and members of the family of God. We have the promise of eternal life with our Creator. We shall have the privilege of developing all our capacities which circumstances, time and resources have not permitted us to develop in this life.