personalized attacks being thrown in our direction. No, there’s
no need to fear, but we’d better be on our guard. And we’d
better not ever forget—like the grandmother in the picture says
—to keep praying with purpose and precision, the way she
prays for people like her granddaughter.
A granddaughter who just happens to be...Me.My name is written in that book of hers. Has been for
decades. She’s prayed for me since before I was born, asking
God to gird and strengthen, to guide and sustain.
That was back when she, like me, once wore a wedding ring
on one of those precious fingers, before her husband of more
than fifty years, my grandfather, went ahead of her into heaven.
But it occurs to me, as I look back at this photograph, that the
wedding ring on my hand—and the strong, happy, trial-tested
marriage it represents—is not attributable to my own abilities
and fine behavior as much as it’s a direct result of my name
being in her book and of her firm resolve to fight for me. For my
husband. For our family.