Practicing What You Preach. Vanessa Davis Griggs
He had seen her many nights mending an outfit just so she wouldn’t have to buy herself anything new to wear. He saw the day his mother dropped her head when T. J. came in excited, asking—begging—for her to buy him a pair of Michael Jordan tennis shoes because all of his friends owned a pair and he was the only one who still hadn’t gotten any. How she cried later that night after T. J. told her she was just being mean, how he was the laughingstock of his class because of how he dressed.
Marcus knew his mother couldn’t afford a two-hundred-dollar pair of shoes. She was taking her lunch to work every day just so she could give them money to buy their lunch. He knew all of this, not because she had burdened them with this information but because he had paid attention. He saw her when she prayed to God to provide the money to pay the light bill because their electricity was scheduled to be cut off.
Marcus saw her emptying her purse as she searched for whatever change she could find, then begin to count it, sometimes smiling and looking toward Heaven when she finished, with a nod of yes. Sometimes looking upward, still smiling, with a shake of no. He would see her later bring that money to one of his sisters or brothers for something they needed or wanted for school. No one else in his family seemed to notice how much money they received in change. No one except Marcus.
And that’s what motivated Marcus from a young age to do well in school. His mother was sacrificing too much for him to allow her sacrifice to be in vain. Marcus suspected his older brother knew how difficult things were. That’s one of the reasons Ronnie chose to enlist in the navy as soon as he graduated from high school instead of going off to college. The navy had promised him a chance to receive money for a higher education. Ronnie saw that as his pathway to rise up. After reenlisting that first time around, Ronnie decided to make a career with the navy.
Marcus’s older sisters, Tia and Brianna, went off to college after they graduated from high school. They both took out student loans, but college was difficult because they still needed money for so many things besides tuition. Books certainly weren’t cheap, even the used ones. Ronnie sent money home to help out when he could, but once he was married and had two children, he had his own responsibilities.
Tia met a guy in college who was a senior when she was a freshman. They fell in love and decided to get married after her first year with every intention for her to continue her education. She got pregnant in her first year of marriage and hadn’t gone back to finish college yet.
Brianna went wild the first few months of college, despite her mother’s warnings. She got pregnant, then married the guy after the baby was born. She also dropped out of college and never went back.
Marcus was determined not only to go to college and graduate with honors but to win scholarships that would pay for everything, including his books. Marcus was on a mission. He talked to the school counselor when he first arrived at high school to find out what was available to him and what he needed to do in order to get it. He wasn’t going to wait until his junior or senior year to get it together. He knew that everything he did from the ninth grade on up would have an effect on his well-thought-out plans. He was going to make something of himself, then give his mother something so she could stop working so hard and take a much-needed and well-deserved rest, if she chose to.
When he first told her of his plans while he was in middle school, she smiled. “You know what, Marcus? I believe you’ll do just that.” She hugged him. “I believe in you.”
Marcus was amazed at the power and impact of those four words: “I believe in you.” That’s what his mother had given him. A vision of what was possible if one would only believe and work hard for it. And whatever you do in life, to always put God first.
“Marcus, if you don’t remember anything else I tell you, just know that with God all things are possible,” she had said. “God has a calling on your life. There’s something different about you. Yes, my dear Marcus, like all of us, God has a purpose and a plan for your life. There’s something truly special about you. And I’m not just saying that because you’re my child.” She nodded and smiled. “You’re destined for great things. I just know it.”
That was the other thing Sharon Peeples had given her children: the knowledge of who God was in their lives and the power that is available to those who have the wisdom and the desire to connect and hook up with Jesus. There is grace, favor, and guidance to those who allow Jesus to be the Lord of their life and not just their Savior. Marcus knew what prayer could do. He had seen the effects of prayer, time after time, again and again, in his mother’s life.
“Earth to Marcus, earth to Marcus,” Sasha said, before she finally yelled, “Marcus Peeples! Are you planning on making me stand out here all night or what?!”
Marcus looked up from his tennis shoes. He hadn’t realized his mind had wandered so far from the present as he had wrestled with what he should do about Sasha showing up at his house early. Sasha did say her mother was going to pay him for tutoring her. That was money he could either give to his mother or use to buy something he needed so she wouldn’t have to worry about it. High school kids, especially juniors and seniors, had lots of expenses, so every little bit of cash he could make would help.
Besides, he was seventeen, turning eighteen in a few months. His mother had married when she was eighteen, so he should be allowed to have someone in the house and be trusted to be responsible. It wasn’t that much time before she would be home. Sasha appeared harmless enough. Definitely not one of the thugs his mother was concerned would steal something out of their house. And they wouldn’t be doing anything except studying.
“Come on in,” Marcus said after his brief deliberation. “Did you bring your algebra book?”
“Yep, it’s in my bag,” she said, turning so he could see her oversized backpack.
“We can go in the den and work in there,” Marcus said. “Unless you would prefer the dining room table?”
“Where’s your computer?” Sasha asked. “Don’t you need a computer to teach me?”
“Nah. Not yet, anyway.”
“But you do have a computer, right?” Sasha asked. “Just in case we find we need one, you do have one, right?”
“Yes, I do have one. It’s in my room. But for now, we don’t need one. I’m going to show you how to do things the good old-fashioned way.” He led her to the den and motioned for her to have a seat on the couch. He gathered the magazines spread out on the coffee table and placed them in a stack. Thus began their journey of variables and equations and expressions.
“I still don’t get if a equals b and b equals c how a can equal c,” Sasha said. “It just doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t understand variables and expressions and equations. I don’t get why we need to use alphabets instead of just inserting the numbers and be through with it. Algebra is just crazy! Why would anyone go to so much trouble to make something easy so complicated?” She fell back against the couch and folded her arms. “And tell me, when will I ever, in the real world anyway, ever have a need, or for that matter, a reason to have to add using alphabets? When?”
Marcus loved watching her being so passionate about how she felt, even if she was complaining about and bashing something he absolutely loved.
“Okay, think of algebra as a way to say something without having to keep repeating certain information.” Marcus racked his brain to try and think of some way to bring this to life and turn it into something that Sasha might be interested in and therefore get.
He looked down at her shoes. Despite the fact that she had come from cheerleading practice, she had arrived wearing high heels with red painted on the bottom.
“Take a pair of shoes, for instance,” Marcus said. “Okay, let’s say that a represents one pair of shoes and b represents a second pair, and c represents a third pair of shoes. Let’s say you were trying to tell Mercedes or one of your other friends something about each pair. And you tell them that a equals b, and b equals c, then what would you be left to conclude about shoes a and c?”
Sasha