She lived in England from the late 1600’s to the mid-1700’s. Over a 20-year period she and her husband had 19 children, ten of whom died. Though she home-schooled all her children, she did not fail to arise early every morning to spend two hours alone with the Lord. She developed a structured method of teaching the children not only their academics, but instructing them as well in the Lord. Eventually she wrote of these methods in order to help others who inquired of her success with her children both academically and spiritually. Even though he was a minister, her husband left her and the children to live in London for a while when he learned she did not agree with him on who should sit on the disputed throne of England. Sometime after his return, he was arrested and put in debtor’s prison for an extended period of time. Into Suzannah’s hands fell the sole responsibility of care for the children and their schooling, the household and farm animals, and of providing food for the children till, months later, money was provided to pay her husband’s debts and release him from prison. Over the years of their marriage their thatch-roofed home burned to the ground three times. The last time, all their children got safely out except for John, who was trapped on the second floor. When his father realized he could not re-enter the inferno to rescue his son, he dropped to his knees and said “Into Thy hands I commend my son.” Suddenly, John’s face appeared in the upper floor window. Spurred by their screams to jump, he landed in the arms of his father. Suzannah knew in that moment that the Lord must have something special in mind for this child and redoubled her efforts to instruct him in every way of the Lord. John became one of the great preachers of Europe, and when he started his church, he based it upon the methods his mother had used to teach him and his siblings of the Lord. The Methodist church became the most expansive force in the great spiritual awakening in Europe in the mid-1700’s. John Wesley and his brother, Charles, who became one of the greatest hymn writers in Christian history, impacted the world in ways only heaven will be able to tell us of. It is an immeasurable and eternal legacy of a mother whose devotion to God and to her children did not waver under the most horrific of circumstances.
