Obituary of Betty Lou Jones

Betty Lou Jones In Israeli, the name Betty means- consecrated to god. In English, the name Betty is a diminutive of Elizabeth, meaning My God is plentiful. In the Jones family Betty means all this, plus much more. Betty means faithful. Betty lived her faith in Jehovah, the kind of faith that moves hearts. First all, she moved the hearts of her children. She was a faithful shepherd to her children protecting them from negative influences inside and outside the family. She stood as a pillar stabilizing their lives, always drawing them toward their spiritual center. At Ruth 2:12 Boaz prophesied a blessing on Ruth, “May Jehovah reward the way you act, and may there come to be a perfect wage for you from Jehovah the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.” Ruth’s “perfect wage” was the honor of having faithful King David and eventually Jesus Christ as descendents of hers. Betty had not only passed on the good qualities and heritage of her own upbringing in her own loving family but added a magnificent spiritual heritage to pass on. For this Betty’s “perfect wage” is being paid perpetually in the form of faithful, loving families of her descendents, spanning generations. For that we are always grateful. Betty, starting in the 1940s, built a spiritual heritage for her family from the ground up, a heritage that even Delwin, her husband, began to respond to near the close of his life. That heritage was built despite much difficulty. She always stayed active in her public ministry even auxilary pioneering 75 hours a month whenever possible. She conducted 11 bible studies and several more doorstep studies at one point. Many of these have built their own spiritual heritages to pass on. She made sure she and her children were regular at Christian meetings, stayed active and regular in their own public ministries, entertained circuit overseers and then there were the assemblies. It is hard now to imagine the effort it took to bring 4 children of a wide variety of ages to the long, hot, smoggy, 3 sessions a day, assemblies of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s in Los Angeles. Yet the encouragement from those conventions helped strengthen Betty to endure and have always been pleasant memories by her children. All this she managed under the atmosphere of passive opposition from her husband. This would be difficult enough for a healthy person. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “But God is faithful, and he will not let YOU be tempted beyond what YOU can bear, but along with the temptation he will also make the way out in order for YOU to be able to endure it”. Only Jehovah knew how much Betty could bear. The fact that He knew her faith could bear up under all this along with two major cancer operations that not only limited her activity but also robbed her of much of her beauty of her youth attests to the integrity and purity of her heart. Betty was firm when she needed to be but what stands out most is her generosity. She would drop everything and come to the aid of her family and friends. Even during times of limited resources she gave of herself to provide a pleasant quality of life for her family. Her gifts were bountiful Betty may have lived in North Carolina, California and Washington but her heart lived in the city having real foundations, the city where the words Faith and Beauty are not nouns but action verbs. What drew Boaz to Ruth are the same qualities that drew Jehovah to Betty and we can be confident He will apply the words at Ruth 3:11 to her, “And now, my daughter, do not be afraid. All that you say I shall do for you, for everyone in the gate of my people is aware that you are an excellent woman.” Reflect: are we building that kind of faithful heritage in ourselves and our families?