VOLUME I • ISSUE NO. 5
THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN'T LET
"OLD JEFFREY" UNDER HER APRON
Today is Tuesday, July 14th. But on the original Hebrew calendar given by God, today marks the very first day of the month of Av.
There is a beautiful meaning tucked inside the name of the month itself:
In Hebrew, Av literally means "Father."
The tribe traditionally associated with Av is Simeon, whose name comes from the Hebrew word shama, meaning "to hear." Leah gave him this name because she declared, "The Lord hath heard" (Genesis 29:33 KJV).
The Father's invitation during this season is not to become consumed with fixing every external problem, but to draw near enough to hear Him. It is a time to be comforted by the Father and to cultivate an unbreachable, private place of fellowship with Him.
But how do you hear the Father's voice when life feels like a whirlwind of noise, demands, and distractions?
To find out, we must travel back to an impoverished parsonage in Epworth, England, where a mother named Susanna Wesley was fighting that very battle.
Susanna's life was a masterclass in chaos. She gave birth to nineteen children, though heartbreakingly lost nine of them in infancy. Her husband was an eccentric clergyman with a gift for creating financial problems, and at one point he was thrown into debtor's prison, leaving Susanna to manage the household, oversee the farm, educate her children, and somehow keep everyone fed.
In the early 1700s, church life had largely become a matter of formality and religious routine. Susanna looked past the cold systems of her day and back to the simple, house-to-house model she found in the Book of Acts. Determined to steward her family well, she committed to spending one intentional hour each week with every child individually.
The problem, of course, was finding a quiet place of her own to talk with God.
There was no private study. No retreat center. No Pinterest-worthy prayer room.
So Susanna invented one.
Every afternoon, in the middle of her kitchen, she would settle into her wooden rocking chair, pull her apron over her head, and let it drape down around her face like a small fabric tent. Her children learned one simple rule: when Mother's apron was over her head, she was not to be disturbed unless the house was actually on fire.
Ironically, that wasn't an exaggeration. The family had lost their home to a fire only a few years earlier.
Beneath that ordinary piece of cloth, Susanna found something extraordinary. She built a sanctuary for her spirit. The chores were still waiting. The children were still loud. The pressures of life had not disappeared. Yet beneath her apron, she turned her attention away from the noise and toward the voice of her Heavenly Father.
Then, in the winter of 1716, the noise became impossible to ignore.
Shortly after a sermon was preached against local witchcraft, the Wesley family became convinced they were facing a retaliatory demonic presence. They eventually nicknamed the entity
"Old Jeffrey."
This was no subtle nuisance. According to the family's written accounts, loud knocks echoed through the house, heavy footsteps rattled the floors, furniture moved, and the children's beds were shaken. Most notably, the disturbances seemed to intensify whenever the family gathered to pray, creating a constant racket intended to disrupt and intimidate.
Yet Susanna Wesley refused to surrender her peace.
Because Susanna remained steady, her family followed her example. They acknowledged the noise without giving it authority. They refused to allow fear to set the atmosphere of their home. In time, what was meant to intimidate them became little more than a household joke.
And while Susanna sat beneath that apron, faithfully meeting with God day after day, she was unknowingly shaping history.
Her influence eventually extended far beyond her own children. While her husband was away, Susanna began hosting Scripture gatherings in her home that grew so popular they often drew larger crowds than the local church services. Long before women's ministries had a name, she was discipling souls around her kitchen table.
Out of that same fabric sanctuary came her sons John Wesley and Charles Wesley.
John would adopt his mother's house-to-house model of spiritual accountability and help spark one of the most influential revival movements in church history, eventually founding the Methodist movement that spread throughout Britain, America, and beyond. His brother Charles would go on to write thousands of hymns, including:
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.
Historians still remember Susanna as the Mother of Methodism, and years later John openly credited much of what God accomplished through his life to the prayers and influence of his mother and her apron.
Which brings us back to Av.
Most of us do not have an Old Jeffrey rattling the floorboards. But we do have plenty of noise.
The endless notifications. The troubling headlines. The self criticism, distractions, worries, and demands that constantly compete for our attention. Every age has its own racket, convincing us that urgency is more important than intimacy.
This month, follow Susanna's example.
Find your apron.
Don't let the Old Jeffreys of this world steal your peace, your joy, or your time with the Father.
Step into your chamber of peace, whatever it looks like, and listen.
He is still speaking.
"But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place..." Matthew 6:6
Until next Tuesday, may your blessings be double and your burdens be light.
Michelle Driscoll
VISIT THE BEULAH SHOPPE™ FOR THE FORGET-ME-NOT APRON™ →
