Written by: Erica Sawyer (Shute)
September 8, 2018
My grandmother grew up in Nazi Germany, under Hitler’s control from when she was born in 1927, until 1950, when she came to America after meeting my grandfather during the war. She lived a hard life. But she survived.
My grandmother survived on grit. Mental toughness. Prayer.
Her mother was a woman of God. She read her Bible and according to my grandmother, she knew it well. During thunderstorms, she would wake everyone in the house, making them come to the table to pray. She was in it for real.
Living through a war builds character for sure. And lots of faith.
I cannot imagine washing clothes in a mixture of water and ashes, because that’s all you had. I cannot imagine adding sawdust to the mashed potatoes, in order to make them last longer.
I cannot imagine watching French pilots take out their revenge on the German civilians, your neighbors, shooting them dead in front of you as they run for their lives. I cannot imagine being a 13-year-old-girl, looking down the gun-barrel of a German soldiers’ Luger, because you couldn’t remain silent. I cannot imagine having to run for your own life when bombs were cascading down around you. My grandmother had figured out which bunkers were the best ones to run to. All the while learning to march on command in Hitler’s Youth Programs.
“We marched!! And we worked!!” My grandmother would always say to me, growing up. She still says it to this day. She will be 92 in October. She still works, in her garden, on the hydroelectric dam she and my grandfather build, or you may find her drywalling areas of the house needing improvement.
She never gave up working. She never left survival mode.
My grandmother and her mother would earn American cigarettes—not to smoke, but to sell— by washing and pressing the American soldiers clothes and uniforms. American cigarettes were far superior to the Russian ones and soldiers would pay a premium for such a vice.
I always thought of my grandmother as a rough person; jagged around the edges, but a diamond to be found in the midst of the coal.
She chopped the head off the goose we hand raised, for crying out loud, because it bit her one day and “pissed her off!!”
We regretted buying her that ax for Christmas.
But I always admired her toughness and her wisdom.
I will never forget one day, my brother, my cousins and I, were at my grandparent’s house. It was in the morning, because I remember my gram cooking breakfast. We were all sitting around the bar/island that faces the kitchen.
As tweens, I’m sure we were arguing about something or finding humor in the fact my grandmother was ignorant to much of American sexual innuendo. We played that string far too often with her; but we got quite the chuckle out of it. I’ll probably be answering to the Lord someday for those laughs.
Meanwhile, My grandfather was probably yelling about something as he often was. My grandfather was a World War II Army veteran with severe PTSD, which ruled the Shute home mostly. A demon unable to be tamed. Coupled with the trauma my grandmother suffered from being a child during a war, there was always chaos amidst the place.
But in one second, in perhaps even quicker than that, it all came to a screeching halt….
A mouse had scurried across the floor of the kitchen. My grandmother had her back to us as she was flipping the bacon she was frying on the stove. That mouse came from behind her. Without so much as skipping a beat, as she was flipping that bacon, she spun around spatula still in her hand, and with her foot, squashed that mouse all over that kitchen floor, with one stomp!!
It was a gruesome scene for any one, but MOST IMPRESSIVE!!
All of a sudden, as the mouse’s entrails lay on the linoleum of my grandparents’ newly built home, the chaos stopped.
But my grandmother didn’t; she just went back to cooking. “God-damn mice.” She sputtered under her breath with her thick German/American accent lingering to each syllable.
My grandmother HATES mice.
That story makes me laugh so hard, thinking about what the looks on all of our faces must have been. I hope God shows us those pictures one day.
It also reminds me of how, in life, when we are going about our business, mice try to sneak up on us… robbing us of our happiness, joy, peace, patience, kindness. They’re sneaky too. They come in hot and fast most of the time, in a scurry.
1 Peter 5:8 tells us the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. As Christians, we have to be constantly on guard for such lions and rodents—ready to squash them before they even get a chance to reach us.
Our thoughts should be taken captive when they are not in line with God’s thoughts. We should surrender them to the Lord, in prayer, by faith. He will help change your thoughts to something encouraging. If we entertain the evil thought for one second, it will take a foothold in the space in our minds, creating a bigger and bigger beachhead, until it becomes a full-blown takeover.
How do we know what God’s thoughts are?? We ask Him. We go to His Word. We pray. We listen. We respond. We cannot know, let alone trust someone we do not know. If you do not spend time with Him, how are you going to know Him??
Take the time. Set it aside. He waits for you everyday. Meet with him; then you will be able to see those fiery arrows coming over the horizon, then be able to extinguish them with the mighty Word of God before they ever land near your kingdom. Protect it. It’s worth keeping safe.
But squash the rodents. And do it with one stomp.
Ephesians 6:10-28 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the ruler, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes for the gospel of peace. In addition to this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for the Lords’ people….”
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