Share a story about someone who had a positive impact on your life.

The women who made the greatest impact in my life were my grandmother and my mother.

My grandmother was a divorced single mother of four, but if you asked anyone who knew her, they would tell you she was one of the strongest women they’d ever met. She believed deeply in family, love, education, and self-worth. She wanted her children to have opportunities she never had, so she worked hard to make sure each of them received an education and a chance at a better life.

She also cared for her elderly mother, her handicapped brother, and her children all at once. Sacrifice was simply part of who she was.

I remember my mother once telling me how my grandmother had worn a hole through the bottom of her work shoes from walking so much. Instead of complaining, she placed a Sunbeam bread bag inside the shoe until she could afford another pair. That story stayed with me my entire life because it taught me what resilience truly looks like.

She walked to work.
She walked to church every Sunday to usher and serve.
And I still remember her walking me to kindergarten as a little girl.

She loved books because she believed books could take you anywhere in the world and open your mind to new possibilities. But more than anything, her life was rooted in Christ. Her faith became the foundation our family stood on.

Then there’s my mother.

She had me at sixteen years old, yet she refused to let her circumstances define her future. She left home and joined Job Corps so she could build a life for me. Later, after she and my father divorced, I watched her continue carrying our family with quiet strength.

One moment I’ll never forget was when my brother was preparing for college and she had no idea how she was going to afford it. She said we got into our big blue station wagon and drove to Atlanta anyway. Later she told me she prayed and asked God, “How am I going to send my baby to college?”

And she said she heard a loud audible voice say:
“On My Word.”

That moment became part of her testimony.

As my mother’s memories slowly begin to fade now, what remains clear to me is her love, her sacrifice, and the example both she and my grandmother set before me.

The women in my family taught me some of life’s greatest lessons:
how to love deeply,
how to endure faithfully,
how to sacrifice quietly,
and how to keep going even when life feels heavy.

And perhaps the greatest lesson of all is this:

It’s not always what you have in life…
it’s who you have as your foundation.