A Picture of Mother
Proverbs 31:10-31
Intro
The nineteenth-century artist James Abbot McNeil Whistler was most famous for the oil painting of his mother. Many art critics consider Whistler’s painting of his mother to be one of the world’s masterpieces.
An inspired writer from Israel gave a majestic word picture of a mother. It is recorded in Proverbs 31:10-31, and it ranks as a literary masterpiece. This portrait, like Whistler’s, is old fashioned in some respects, but although fashions and lifestyles change, the beautiful inner qualities of godly women will be admired generation after generation.
Let us study this picture in Proverbs. It will help us honor our mothers and will inspire them to imitate the biblical portrait.
READ TEXT
I. Mothers should possess the quality of companionship
a. The more you read through the writer’s literary picture of a mother here in Proverbs the more you see the idea of companionship showing up in the picture.
b. The woman has camaraderie with her husband.
i. In the writer’s day, wives shared in domestic responsibilities with their husbands.
ii. Men worked the fields and tended the flocks
iii. Women provided clothing and food.
iv. Teamwork in all areas of life was vital to marital stability.
v. It was not a 50/50 relationship, it was a 100/100 relationship.
c. The woman has a companionship with her children
i. There is more to motherhood than just giving birth to children.
ii. God made women to be there for their children
II. Mothers should possess the quality of nurture
a. Do you see the idea of nurture emerging in the text?
b. Mother could be a synonym for nurture.
c. To nurture means the mothers attends to the needs of both her husband and children.
d. Biological capability to reproduce does not make a woman a nurturing mother.
i. Motherhood is not basically a biological act or a physical relationship.
ii. Many women give birth to a child or to children but never become real mothers.
iii. Some regard children as a personal accomplishment or a biological accident.
iv. Others treat children as objects – toys to be played with, dolls to be dressed, tools for manipulating a spouse, or a means to gain benefits.
e. Nurturing a child means accepting responsibility.
i. Motherhood means commitment.
ii. It means assuming responsibility to help develop the life of a child.
iii. It means getting involved with children – hurting, laughing, and crying with them, and experiencing good and bad times together.
Johnny, age four, appeared one day at the door of his father’s study with a forlorn looking chick that had apparently strayed from a neighborhood brood. The father said sternly, “John take that chicken right back to its mother.”
“It has no mother,” Johnny replied.
The father insisted, “Well take it back to its father then.”
But Johnny protested, “It has no father either. It has nothing but an old lamp.”
An electrical lamp will serve the needs of a chick. It will hatch the egg and preserve the chick until it is old enough to face life, but that is about all. Mothers can give warm beds, nutritious meals, and adequate clothing but still fail to nurture.
III. Mothers should possess the quality of godliness (v. 30)
a. Many people speak of motherhood as a qualification for sainthood, but the fact is, many mothers are far from that.
i. In 2 Tim. 3:6-7 Paul speaks about women who were carried away by many kinds of false doctrines.
ii. In 1 Tim 5:11-13 and Titus 2:2-5 Paul describes women who travel from house to house spending their time in gossip and slander.
1. Probably many, if not most, of these women were mothers, but they were not good women.
iii. One of the saddest words written about a mother was written concerning Ahaziah, king of Judah.
2 Chron. 22:3
“He too walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother encouraged him in doing wrong.”
b. Good mothers come as a result of a relationship with the Lord.
i. Verse 30, “But a woman that fears the Lord, she shall be praised.”
ii. The biblical writer used the word “Lord,” the name used to describe a covenant relationship.
iii. The only way to become good is by a relationship with the Lord.
iv. Godly mothers have had good influence.
1. Augustine, the great 14th century preacher and theologian, was influended by his mother, Monica.
2. He admitted that his mother’s principles and actions affected him.
3. She prayed fervently for Augustine’s conversion.
Closing
Look again at the biblical portrait of a mother. She is not just a nice woman. Instead, she is a companion for he husband and children. A biblical mother gives her children more than life: she nurtures by deed and demonstration. A mother can fulfill her role only through the power of the Lord in her life.
Do you resemble the mother in the biblical picture?
