Her Father’s Faith Inspired This IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE Star’s Own
By Movieguide® Contributor
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE’s Donna Reed says her father’s strong faith in hard times inspired her own relationship with God.
“Back in Iowa during the terrible pressure of the Depression years we were quite poor,” she wrote in an essay for Guideposts about her youth. “One by one our neighbors deserted their farms and each time my father would say to us calmly but with undeniable vigor shored up by his faith: ‘It will not always be this way.’”
Reed continued, “I used to wonder how Dad could be so sure when so many others were not. And then, on Sundays, I’d get a glimpse of the answer. On Sundays Dad would pile Mom and the four kids into that old car we drove for 15 years and we’d rattle to the Methodist church in Denison.”
“You could get strength just from sitting next to Dad in church,” she wrote. “When the minister would read from the Bible, Dad would lean forward a little, as though this especially he had to hear. Watching his face, we children could see that the ancient words were food to his spirit, strength to get him through one more week.”
Even after leaving home for Los Angeles and seeing the end of the Great Depression, Reed still remembered her father’s faith in times of trouble.
“All of our ancestors in distant ages have known plague and destruction in one form or another. Yet, centuries before my children, even centuries before Christ, Isaiah spoke about God’s power extending beyond Israel to all other nations and unto all generations,” she explained. “Today represents new times, yes, new problems, new fears, but one basic and beautiful thing links us with the past and with the future. That thing is faith, our belief in God and His adequacy.”
Reed concluded, “Dad had that faith when he said about our poverty, ‘It will not always be this way.’ With Him we know that if we fail today, tomorrow offers its triumphs.”
READ MORE: HOW IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE’S DONNA REED FOUND HOPE IN GOD’S PROMISES
In an interview with Fox News, Reed’s daughter Mary Owen said her mother never forgot her humble beginnings.
“[My mother] had wealth and success and everything that could have gone to her head and make her disrespect her humble beginnings. But never for a second did she ever do that,” she shared. “Even when my mother took ill, she said she was using her great Iowa strength to get through it. She was always giving back. She never took her power and her success for granted.”
Reed is known for her role in the beloved Christmas classic IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, and Owen said her mother loved the movie just as much as audiences all over the world.
“She was quite happy when it came out,” she told Closer Weekly. “I mean, she passed away in ’86, but by the early ‘80s it was on [television] constantly, but we always watched at Christmas and she was so happy that it was so popular.”
READ MORE: IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE ALMOST WASN’T A CHRISTMAS CLASSIC
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