Hannah And Susannah, Two Saintly Moms

guidance of the Church until he by the power of God shall accept for himself the gift of salvation, and be confirmed as a full and responsible member of Christ’s holy Church!”

[--“The Order for the Administration of the Sacrament of Baptism for Children.”

The Book of Worship for Church and Home with Orders of Worship, Services for the Administration of Sacraments, and Aids to Worship According to the Usages of The United Methodist Church. (Nashville: The Methodist Publishing House, 1965), p. 8]

Hannah faithfully kept her promise to God, and her son Samuel became the last Judge and the first Prophet of Israel. How might our world today be better and different if we as Christian parents followed in her steps?

Some 2700 to 2800 years after Hannah another godly Mother came on the scene in eighteenth century England. She was Susannah Wesley, the Mother of John and Charles Wesley, founders of the worldwide Methodist Movement. Susannah and her husband Samuel became the parents of nineteen children, but ten of them died before the age of two, and one surviving daughter was handicapped. Susannah, like Hannah, experienced suffering and sorrow, yet she testified in her diary that all her hardships and misfortunes helped “promote my spiritual and eternal good. Glory be to Thee, O Lord [--http://www.familyofdestiny.com/article_Swesley_compromise.htm].”

Susannah home-schooled her children six hours a day and gave each one an additional one-on-one personal session each week. She loved the Lord with “all her heart, soul, strength, and mind.” Her deepest desire was to “help others know Christ rather than just perform the outward appearance of religion” because she truly “loved her neighbor as herself [--http://www.of-worth.com/ea/alife.htm].”

Nineteenth century American poet William Ross Wallace has well said:

For the hand that rocks the cradle

Is the hand that rules the world.

The life and ministry of Susannah Wesley prove that axiom true.

Mum Wesley may well have been the original home school Mother-Teacher. From early childhood her personal prayer had always been, “Dear God, guide me. Help me do Thy will. Make my life count,” but the Holy Spirit would continually answer her in one word, “Wait [--http://www.of-worth.com/ea/alife.htm].” Susannah came to realize that she would best serve the Lord in the training and education of her children. She would spend six hours a day teaching her nine living children the Bible, theology, literature, science, language, and logic. Home schooling began at age five. John, whom she affectionately called “Jacky,” learned the alphabet in one day. Susannah taught spelling from Genesis, chapter one, and reading from the entire Bible. After three months under the guidance of his Mother five year old Jacky could read as well as many educated adults [--Frank Bateman Stanger, Spiritual Formation in the Local Church (Grand Rapids: Francis Asbury Press of Zondervan Publishing House, 1989), pp. 23-4].

Susannah Wesley’s prayer, “Help me do Thy will; make my life count” was truly fulfilled in the lives of her children, especially in the lives and ministries of her sons Jacky and Charlie whom the Lord mightily used in igniting the flames of the 18th Century Wesleyan Revival. Perhaps the personal testimony about Susannah by her husband Samuel sums up her effectiveness and ministry as a Mother for Christ and His kingdom, “Some of the truly great people are the ones who were faithful in doing the simple things [--http://www.of-worth.com/ea/alife.htm].” This was Susannah Wesley—faithful Christian disciple, wife, mother, teacher.