Elizabeth Newton knew she was dying. Tuberculosis was stealing her breath, and her son John was only a small boy. She didn't have years. So she poured everything she had into the time she did have.
A Mother's Investment Before Time Ran Out
Elizabeth taught young John the Westminster Catechism. She sang hymns with him. She read Scripture over him night after night, embedding the words deep into his memory before the disease took her. She died when John was seven years old.
Her death shattered the boy. Without his mother's influence, John's life unravelled spectacularly.
The Long Descent
John Newton became a sailor, then a slave trader. He was cruel, profane, and by his own account, one of the most vulgar men on the sea. He mocked religion. He mocked the very Scriptures his mother had taught him. He sank into a life that would horrify anyone who knew the gentle woman who'd raised him.
For twenty years, it looked like Elizabeth's investment had been completely wasted.
The Storm That Changed Everything
In 1748, Newton's ship hit a violent storm in the North Atlantic. The vessel was breaking apart. Facing death, something surfaced in Newton's mind — not his own thoughts, but his mother's. The catechism she'd taught him. The hymns she'd sung. The Scriptures she'd embedded in his seven-year-old brain.
He cried out to God in that storm. It wasn't instant — his transformation took years. But the seeds his mother planted at age five, six, seven, germinated during a storm at age twenty-three.
What This Means for You
John Newton eventually wrote "Amazing Grace" — arguably the most famous hymn in history. It was the fruit of a mother who only had seven years. You never know what's taking root. The words you speak over your children have a shelf life that outlasts your own.