"Babcia"

It was 20 years ago today that my dear Babcia (Polish for "Grandmother") died.

I have MANY memories of her, but one stands out above all.

The year was 1986, I was scheduled to give my first-ever speech at a carpet cleaners' Convention (I had my own carpet cleaning business at the time.) I was nervous NOT ONLY because it was my first-ever speech, but it was to be in front of hundreds of my peers from around the nation and I'd be speaking AFTER Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, considered by many to be one of the greatest motivational speakers of our day.

To "prep" myself, I had a manuscript written out and asked family members to attend my "practice session." I TOLD THEM TO BOO ME, HECKLE ME, DISTRACT ME, INTERRUPT ME AND EVEN WALK OUT ON ME because I figured if I could get through my speech in THAT setting, I'd be a SMASH at the Convention where my audience would be receptive and attentive.  (After all, the Convention-goers were PAYING to hear me, Dr. Peale, and the several other speakers!!)

EVERYONE in my family who was gathered there gladly....heartily...did as I asked, except for one....Babcia.

Babci was uncharacteristically QUIET during my whole 20 minutes as I pushed through my speech, while everyone else HAPPILY and very LOUDLY complied with my wishes.  (You would have thought I paid THEM to razz me, Lol!!)

When my practice was over, all Babcia said was "Be yourself, my dear grandson.  Be yourself and you'll do fine."

See, she was different than the OTHERS who were there.  She was herself.

That was Babcia in a nutshell....she couldn't and wouldn't do anything to ever hurt me....even when I ASKED her to.

Well, God blessed me and I did VERY well in my first-ever speech, by all accounts.

And I'm not kidding, about 2 minutes into my speech when I saw the crowd hanging on every word I said, feeling that electrical current of excitement passing through my veins as I spoke, I heard Babcia's voice inside of me saying "Be yourself. Be yourself."

Yes, I needed the others to heckle me to PREP me to do well, but I needed my down-to-earth, no nonsense Babcia to GROUND me when it was obvious that, with God's help I was doing very well.

I realized that day that God had given me a gift to speak publicly and I've spoken, and preached, many times since then.

And thanks to the BABCIA God had given me for the first 44 years of my life, I learned to "be myself," for which I'm thankful.