Smart Mom

Pastor Mark Fontecchio

Stories from the Church

My mom passed away this past year. To understand this story is to understand a little bit about my mom.

Before my salvation in Christ, I was the person that you didn’t want your children to hang out with. When my life was radically transformed by the Gospel of Christ at age 21, I was presented with a remarkable truth that I did not know about beforehand. My mom had been praying for my salvation every day of her life for 21 years. The Gospel of Christ taking root in my life was the answered prayer my mom had been waiting for.

My mom was a strong believer in Jesus Christ, and as my relationship with Christ grew so did my relationship with my mother. She became my close friend. We would stay up late at night talking about Scripture. She played the piano in every church I pastored. She was my constant support for my ministry. I will always miss her until I see her again in glory. Because she was such a good friend, my mother was also the target of my humor.

With the rise of technology many things today are labeled smart. This includes watches, appliances, phones, etc. But I had one of a kind in my mother. Her full maiden name was Barbara Jean Smart. This led me to declare often that I had a Smart mom.

To be sure, my mom was not dumb. Ditzy sometimes, yes, but not dumb. She was also one of the most loving and caring people you could ever meet. Nevertheless, her momentary lapses into perplexed confusion led me to take our shared humor further. Often, I would tell her, “Mom, you can’t just name yourself Smart and expect it to be true.” Or at other times, I would remind her again and again, “Hey, not everyone has a Smart mom!”

*Stories from the Church are true accounts from decades of ministry and life in the Church.