Eulogy for Dr. Mother Doris Board
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And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
To Eulogize is to commend someone, to reflect upon his or her life upon the death of said individual.
Reflections:
As we reflect on the life of Mother Board, I call to mind the viewing that we attended last night for Mother Board. One occuring theme that I heard redundantly was that Mother Board was a praiser. She praised God, I loved Mother Board because she wasn’t one that I had ask to give God praise. Praise was automatic with her, she came in the door praising God, but what many do not understand is that what she did was not a put on or a show. Her praise didn’t just start when she rolled through the doors of the church......no Mother Board worshipped and praised God in her home and wherever she may have been. I pray that this is one lesson that we learn from her today, matter fact I believe that was her last missionary lesson was that we need to learn how to live this thing outside of these four walls here. When you learn how to worship and praise God on the outside, no one will have to tell you to open your mouth and praise God! It comes automatically!
Mother Board was also a prayer warrior who believed in the power of prayer. She believed in praying until God moved, she believed in praying until she felt the power of God move. She was persistent in her prayers and had a determination that if God didn’t answer the first time, she wasn’t going to leave God alone until she got what she came to God for! I know for a fact she was a prayer warrior because one Sunday she bought me a bottle of oil to consecrate and she said “Pastor, I want you to consecrate this oil because I want a bottle that you’ve consecrated. Don’t you know I have a bottle of consecrated oil from each of my Pastors? I have one from Bishop Jones, one from Elder Ingram, one from Bishop Adkins, and I want one from you. To me that was a testament that she believed in the power of prayer. There were times she came to me, even as her assistant pastor and she would say “Pastor I want you to pray with me concerning this or that.” Notice she said “Pray with me” not “Pray for me”. Weeks later, I would see her come through that door giving God the glory. After church she would say.....”You know Pastor, remember what I asked you to pray for?” “God answered my prayer!” and then she would speak in tongues and glorified God!
Mother Board was a teacher! She was an educated and smart black woman. Her proudest achievement was one she received her Doctorates Degree from Bethlehem Bible College. She sought to better herself and to become more knowledgeable of the Lord Jesus Christ and I commend her for that. But even before she received her doctorates she was an awesome teacher that blessed our church. She would teach and the anointing would come over her and God used her to bless us. She taught outside the church too and she wasn’t limited to teaching the things of God. She was an artist who used her yard as a canvas. If you wanted to know anything about gardening or planting Mother Board was your go to person that could give you wisdom and insight on horticulture.
There are so many other things that I could say about Mother Board, but I would like to reflect on the closing moments of her life. When Mother Board went to the hospital, she got there and one of the first things she did was she wrote a list of people who she wanted to call and my name was 2nd on the list. I won’t lie, I was feeling some kind of way because I felt as her pastor I should’ve been first. Needless to say, I was one of the first that she called and she wanted me to pray for her. So we talked for a good minute or two and I prayed for her over the phone. I told her that I’d call in back later to check on her because there was a visitation restriction at the time. She said “when” and I said “tomorrow” she said “how about today”.....in that Mother Board tone. I said “yes maam”. I tried to reach her for a whole week and couldn’t reach her.
Then I received a text from Sis. Robin, she had been keeping me updated and we were expecting Mother Board to get released from the hospital and then go to the nursing home. But Mother Board took a turn for the worst, so I went to see her and she was sitting up in her bed. She said “Pastor......I’m tired” and I had to catch myself because I’m notorious for having certain reactions to things. But in my mind I was thinking “please don’t tell me that” because I knew what that meant. So I told her, lets pray about it. So I anointed her and prayed for her, the anointing was so heavy in the room that I thought I was going to have to call her back, I think if she could’ve she would’ve went to be with Jesus then, but I needed her to come back because I didn’t want to get put out of the hospital.
See Mother Board praised God all the way until she wasn’t able to praise God no more. She did what Isaiah wrote about in our text the 25th chapter of Isaiah verse 1:
O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
She was praising God for a particular reason, I thought that Mother Board was just being Mother Board, but she was giving God glory and when I read this text, I understood why she was praising God like she was.
When I prayed for her, my prayer was that God would give her strength and that God would touch and heal her. A week later, when I came to see her, she was unresponsive and she was breathing heavy. My prayer this time was that, God even in this state I know that you can bring Mother Board back, but nevertheless Your will be done.
It put me in the mind-frame of my mother, when you love someone enough, it is hard to see them suffer and I didn’t want to see her suffer anymore, I wanted her to be healed and set free.
Not even an hour later I received a call and when I saw the name on the screen of my phone I’d already knew that she was gone to be with the Lord.
I understand why she was praising God! I believe she was praising God because one day God is going to destroy the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations, that vail that separates us from God, that covering cast that prevents us from being with our love ones upon death.
Death hurts, it is a painful process that we will experience over and over again. But thank God, that God wrote us a prescription that will help us to cope with the pain that we may experience:
Isaiah said “He will swallow up death in victory; and the LORD God will wipe away tears off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it”.
One day Mother Board will be able to say:
“Lo this is our God; we have waited for him, and he “has saved” us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
Sometimes when you go to the doctor, the doctor may give you a second prescription to deal with the pain that you feel. Let me give you a second prescription:
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
You think Mother Board was praising God in this life? You just wait till she gets up again! You just wait till she gets her glorified body! She’s gonna really give it to God! You know when Jesus was resurrected, some of the disciples didn’t recognize Jesus at first. When Mother Board gets up again, you may not recognize her at first, but if I see someone walking down the streets of gold bent over, hands and arms shaking and saying “taht, taht, taht, taht” I’m going to know immediately who that is!
Let hope of these scriptures be a soothing anointment to the pain of losing your love one. Let the hope of these scriptures be a reminder to you that this death is not a permanent seperation from Mother Board. The hope of every believer is that because Jesus rose again from the dead, that God will also raise us up from the dead. Family, if Mother Board could tell you anything right now, she would tell you get saved, get to know the Lord. Matter of fact I’m almost certain she told you that before she departed. It’s time.....to give your life to God, it’s time to live for the LORD.