Ruth Bell Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham, was born at Qingjiang, Kiangsu, China, on June 10, 1920, as Ruth McCue Bell. She passed into the loving arms of Jesus on June 14, 2007. Today we share a reflection from her granddaughter, Cissie Graham Lynch, on Ruth’s wisdom and legacy.

For years my grandmother’s books of poetry have sat on my shelf, only being opened periodically to be quickly skimmed and then put back to collect dust.

However, I am in a time of my life where I long to see her face and sit around her large round kitchen table, eat Hӓagen-Dazs ice cream drizzled with her famous hot fudge and ask her advice about life.

I was too young and too self-absorbed to ask her the “life questions,” when I had the chance. And now that I am wife and a mom, I wish I could go to her and ask her about how to be a godly wife, a godly mom, and a godly friend.

I recently opened up Sitting Next to My Laughing Fire, a collection of her poems, only to read words my heart needed to hear, and they were her words.

I have never really enjoyed poetry, until I realized it is a way for me to dig into my grandmother’s heart and seek her wisdom. As I flipped from page to page, it was almost as each poem was speaking right to me from her pen to my heart.

I read these words and could feel a little tugging – a stirring – inside of myself, as if she were saying this poem should be my continuous prayer as a wife. Even after being married 8 years and hopefully 50 more to come, I will pray that I am all he ever dreamed.

I am beyond blessed to have my grandmother’s words to cherish, and share, and pass on to those who will never know her, but will know a little piece of the godly woman, wife, mother, and friend she was. A little of her lives on in each of her poems and in each life of which she was a part.

You can own your own copies of this and many other writings as several of my grandmother’s collections of poetry are available for sale in Ruth’s Attic Bookstore.

Cissie Lynch is the granddaughter of Billy Graham and daughter of Franklin Graham. Read more from Cissie at cissiegrahamlynch.com, or follow her on social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.