Today we offer the final installment in our interview with Mary Mohler...
What are you currently studying in your times with the Lord? What is one aspect of God’s character you’ve learned about this past year?
I studied Hebrews this summer. What an amazing testimony this work is to God’s faithfulness. As I read it, I imagine what the Jewish people must have thought as they heard the case for Christ so convincingly made by the compelling style of the writer who wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. God’s faithfulness is one of his many attributes for which I am profoundly grateful. As I studied the “roll call of faith” in Hebrews 11, it was sobering to realize how God faithfully led His people through seemingly impossible circumstances according to His perfect plan. If we will just trust Him, He will do the same for us even when the path seems unclear. We already know the end of the story!
Many of our readers prayed for Al when he was in the hospital several months ago. How is he doing and how did God meet you in the midst of this trial?
Al is back on track, praise the Lord. He just finished his last dose of blood thinners a few weeks ago so it was a lingering journey. I get chills when I think back to the moment when one of the nurses looked at me with an eerie look and said “if he was my husband and he had thrown bilateral emboli, I would get him up to ICU!” The crisis unfolded so rapidly. I waited in the hallway while they prepared to transfer Al to ICU and used his cell phone to call his closest friends whose numbers were readily available on speed dial and asked them to pray. Before long, seemingly thousands of people were praying for him and God graciously answered our prayers. The outpouring of love and support that we received was absolutely amazing.
Just as He promises, the Lord gave us a clear sense of His presence through it all and made us both ever more dependent on Him for each day. The children were drawn closer to their dad in a whole new way and learned to pray as never before!
One very important question: As you mentioned earlier, you are a big sports fan (unlike your husband!). How did you come by your interest in sports, and what’s your favorite sport/team?
My precious father was the youngest of four sons raised on a farm in rural Nebraska. He was the first one in his family to go to college. He worked his way through and completed two undergraduate degrees at the University of Nebraska. When he was a student there, the football team was terrible. In fact, he and his fellow students used to leave the games with the optimistic statement, “well at least the band sounded great!” Years later, the Huskers began to rise to college football prominence. We were living in Michigan at the time, surrounded by many fanatical Wolverine fans. My brother joined my dad in being a loyal Nebraska fan before I was old enough to understand the game. However, I wasted no time in jumping on the bandwagon and have been a Husker fanatic ever since.
Given the fact that my husband has zero interest in sports, my kids have become third generation fans who are as committed as I am. This always amazed my dad, who took great joy in seeing his grandchildren donning Husker apparel every fall. Interestingly, the last time that our entire family joined together was to watch the televised broadcast of the Huskers in the post season Alamo Bowl. We had no idea that my dad would go home to be with the Lord a few weeks later after suffering a massive heart attack. We have some stirring memories from that night. And by the way, the Huskers won. We defeated the Michigan Wolverines!
We know you don’t have much spare time, but what is one extracurricular activity that you make time for at this stage of life?
I am passionate about the pro-life movement. I cannot understand how cavalier so many Americans are about “a woman’s right to choose” to kill her baby. It seems so clear to me that the time to choose came before she got into bed, except in the rare cases of pregnancy caused by rape or incest. The fact that murdering your newborn is certainly viewed by the vast majority as a heinous and punishable crime but “choosing” to kill your child who has yet to be born is acceptable and in fact legal and the right to do so is worth fighting for is a complete mystery to me. The advent of four dimensional ultrasounds makes the case for life crystal clear but the legislation remains.
I proudly serve as a member of the board of our local crisis pregnancy center, A Woman’s Choice. It is the very least that I can do to tangibly support prevention of abortion. I am glad to recruit seminary students, student wives and faculty wives to volunteer their time as well. All of the time and effort is worth it every time a mother changes her mind and spares her baby’s life.
When my children are grown and no longer at home, I will be able to devote more time to this endeavor but I pray that by then, abortion will no longer be legal.
What in your opinion, is the most urgent challenge that Evangelical Christian women face today?
We need to resolve to keep swimming upstream against the current of our sadly post-Christian society. We are portrayed as foolish women who hold to ancient truths and are simply out of touch with modern times. Nothing could be further from the truth. We must stay the course and not budge when it comes to the biblical mandates given to us so plainly. Scripture itself warns us about the very times in which we now find ourselves. We are told in II Timothy 4:3: "For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will accumulate teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new."
That time has clearly come! We also know from the Apostle Paul’s words in I Corinthians 1:18 that “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” It seems overwhelming at times when secular, godless women attempt to monopolize the media with their self proclaimed wisdom that leaves us looking like some form of inferior, backward failures. Since we are busy “watching well over the ways of our households,” as Scripture admonishes us to do, the vast majority of us have neither the time nor the interest to hit the lecture circuit and debate the feminist agenda. Nevertheless, we must be heartened by the fact our numbers are massive. Our primary calling to be happy helpmeets to our husbands and excellent mothers who teach our children about the Lord at every turn has not changed. In addition, we must take advantage of every opportunity to tell our stories; support women who dare to speak God’s truth plainly; rally behind politicians who share our perspective; passionately support life and oppose abortion; and seek to be used in the marketplaces where God has placed us to be salt and light to a frighteningly dark world. Those are no small tasks but God will use us to change lives one by one as we remain bold and faithful.
Finally, who is a modern day Christian woman that you would like to meet and why?
Carolyn Mahaney because she is a model wife and mother who inspires and encourages me through her writing of her devotion to Christ.
Thank you, Mary for your kind words! I likewise eagerly anticipate the opportunity to meet you in person. In the meantime, it has been a delight for me (and the girltalk readers) to get to know you a little better over the last five days. I am so grateful for your passion for the gospel as expressed first and foremost in your service to your husband and children, but also to many other women in the body of Christ. May God continue to make you fruitful in your ministry to others!
