Testimony: God Changed an Elderly Abusive Mother

I became a Christian in 2011. After I prayed for my mother for more than three years, she converted to Christianity in 2014. During the following six years her life has has changed completely.

Most people claim that elderly people are hard to change, but my mother's life testimony proves that there is nothing too hard for the Lord as long as you believe in him. 

I encourage my Christian friends to present our best gift - the gospel - to our parents.

My mother is diligent, kindhearted, and firm. She loves life and sports. My sisters and I are grateful for how she raised us, but she is the most difficult member to get along with in our family. 

Born in a village, my mother suffered much when she was young. She was one of eleven children, often lectured to by her father, (who was orphaned a as a boy), scolded and beaten. 

As the eldest female in a countryside home in which a preference for boys over girls was deeply rooted, she labored hard in a hilly area without receiving any education. 

She inherited her father's bad temper and his poor manner of parenting. 

Her anger brought us children continued pain - we had to endure her coldness, reproach, and abuse. 

She quarreled constantly with my father in their decades-long marriage. 

Particularly during a five year period of time, we suffered from insomnia because of how she yelled at us and our father. When she finished yelling, she fell asleep, but we could not sleep any more. 

There was also tension with her colleagues and neighbors; she was always cursing them and expressing jealousy. 

Despite that she had a good relationship with her brothers and sisters. My aunt said that it was hard for her to stay five minutes with her after my father passed away. 

After becoming single again, my mother married a man but broke up with him several times...

However, miracles can occur, even with such a person...

Although I shared the gospel with my mother for three years, she refused to listen. She believed in superstition and occasionally worshiped the Buddha in temples.  

In 2014, severe sickness struck her and she needed corrective surgery for her ankles. Scared of death, she asked me where people went when they died. 

I answered that Christians would be resurrected and have eternal life in heaven. 

I explained it patiently. The moment I asked if she would follow Jesus to have eternal life, she shouted, yes! I led her in the prayer to accept Jesus. 

Afterwards, she and her Christian husband joined a local fellowship. They still had conflicts, but my mother became mild-mannered after other Christians mediated between them. 

Once there was a technical glitch with the television; the machine was fixed after her prayer. God favored her little request.

While walking with me in the countryside, she told me that as Christians we should not pick other peoples’ vegetables. 

Her temper has improved by sixty to seventy per cent during the past years. She never speaks to us like before, but now the cold mother often calls us to show that she cares. The hot-tempered mother has quit abusing people verbally and seldom loses her temper; her relations with her husband, relatives, and neighbors have become more friendly. There are no quarrels and fights...