5th edition of the CARNIVAL of AFRICAN AMERICAN GENEALOGY:REBIRTH: It’s Time For Revival!

5th Edition of the Carnival of African American Genealogy (CoAGG): Rebirth: It’s Time for Revival !!!!

My Grandmother’s Living Legacy

My grandmother Mildred was a faithful member of the Allen Temple Baptist Church in Oakland California, but I was a baby when she passed away and my mother was practically a child herself when my grandmother had passed. So I did not hear the family stories of the baptismal or the homecomings. I did not see any pictures of Easter Sunday bests. Grandmother’s children attended Sunday school and they learn the Beatitudes and they attended the summer camps. They had to recite scriptures on “Watch Night” programs. They said their prayers before bed. But I sensed my grandmother was very spiritual inwardly, because I believe that she had passed it down to my mother. Meaning my mother did not preach the bible, but she made it alive through daily living. One example was when my mother was fixing breakfast and asked my brother Oliver and I, what did we want to eat for breakfast. I had wanted pancakes and he wanted waffles. Our mother was only going to make one choice, so we had to decide which one. I demanded pancakes and Oliver demanded waffles, it appeared that there was no compromising. My mother said “I guess I am not making either one”  I told my mother that she can make the waffles. My mother chose to make my choice the pancakes and then she explain why she had made that decision by telling us the story of the “Judgment of King Solomon”, where King Solomon ruled between two women who both claimed to be the mother of this one particular baby. That breakfast moment with my mother had birthed my spirituality quest. Pancakes was by no means a comparison to a baby, but I felt the love and compassion my mother was teaching in that story. My quest to learn about the love of God had begun. My mother did not realize she had birthed to me what her mother birthed to her. As I hope to have birthed to my sons. We did not passed on “Religion”, but the love of God. It will be our personal choice how we follow that path. My grandmother’s spirituality has rebirth in her daughter and her granddaughter.

 My first gospel song my mother taught my brother Oliver and I.

Amen

See the little baby, amen. Lyin’ in a manger, amen. On Christmas morning,                                Amen, amen,  amen

See him in the temple, amen. Talking with the elders, amen. Who marveled at his wisdom   Amen, amen, amen

See him by the seaside, amen.  Talking with the fishermen, amen. Makin’ ’em disciples,       Amen, amen, amen

Marchin’ to Jerusalem, amen. Wavin’ palm branches, amen. In pomp and splendor                Amen, amen, amen

See him in the garden, amen. Talkin’ with the father, amen. In deepest sorrow                         Amen, amen, amen

You can read more entries to the 5th edition of the Carnival of African American Genealogy by clicking this link  http://ourgeorgiaroots.com/5th-edition-carnival-of-african-american-genealogy-coaag-rebirth-its-time-for-revival/

 

Stephani 

(Image source: Graphics Press, Inc.)