GOOD MOTHERS NEVER YELL (AND OTHER MYTHS)
INTRODUCTION
A. WONDERFUL OCCASION – MOTHER’S DAY
1. Is Scriptural: Exodus 20:12; “Honor your father AND YOUR MOTHER, that your days may be long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”
2. Rom. 13:7; “Give honor to whom honor is due…”
B. HUMOR: Mom’s Dictionary (unique perspective on life)
1. AIRPLANE: What Mom impersonates to get a 1-yr.-old to eat peas.
2. ALIEN: What Mom would suspect had invaded her house if she spotted a child-sized creature cleaning up after itself.
3. BECAUSE: Mom's reason for having kids do things which can't be explained logically.
4. CAR POOL: Complicated system of transportation where Mom always winds up going the furthest with the biggest bunch of kids who have had the most sugar.
5. EAT: What kids do between meals, but not at them.
6. GENIUSES: Amazingly, all of Mom's kids.
7. HANDI-WIPES: Pants, shirt-sleeves, drapes, etc.
8. HINDSIGHT: What Mom sees when she changes too many diapers.
9. JACKPOT: When all the kids stay at friends' homes for the night.
10. KISS: Mom medicine.
11. PENITENTIARY: Where children who don’t eat their vegetables or clean their rooms eventually end up, according to mom.
12. QUIET: What a home has before the first child is born and after the last child has left for college.
13. SCREAMING: Home Public Address system.
14. SPIT: All-purpose cleaning fluid especially good on kid’s faces.
15. SPOILED ROTTEN: What the kids become after as little as 15 minutes with Grandma.
16. WHEN YOUR FATHER GETS HOME: Standard measurement of time between crime and punishment.
C. VIDEO “A World Without Moms”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D6s36W1Ngk
D. MEANING BEHIND TITLE
1. There is a mythology afoot today which has caused mothers to set standards for themselves so high that no real, normal human mother could ever reach it!
a. PREVAILING THEORY OF PSYCHOLOGY, “If a person is messed up in any way, it’s because of faulty parental influence.” Thus, if your children turn out well, you’re a “good mom.” If not, you’ve done something wrong.
b. AMERICAN HUSBAND EXPECTATIONS: Modern mothers are expected to Wash the clothes, Clean the House, wipe the noses, cook the meals, taxi everyone everywhere, figure the bills and taxes – AND, DO ALL THAT AFTER WORKING ALL DAY ON THE JOB!
2. Christian Moms are also supposed to be the epitome of Virtue and produce perfect kids who all turn out to be spiritual giants! This can lead to a lot of…
E. UNNECESSARY GUILT: See article, “Study Shows Moms Feel Their Mom Was Better Parent.”
1. In the article, Saundra Watson, an accounting manager, says, “We’re doing a worse job than our mothers did.”
2. 56% of the women surveyed think their mothers were better parents than they are.
3. Pressures cited by mothers: include trying to be in three places at once, making sure they get everything done without being stressed out, and that disciplining children is a problem that all mothers face.
4. The title of this message is “Good Mothers Never Yell (and other myths). We’re going to look at THREE MYTHS OF MOTHERHOOD. The first myth is…
I. MOTHERING IS EASY
A. HARDEST JOB ON EARTH
1. Because there are so many mothers, you might assume that it’s easy, but being a good wife or mother is the most demanding job in the world.
2. If you’re looking for the easy life, try…
a. Teaching tennis,
b. Cutting diamonds
c. Joining a roller-derby team – but NOT mothering!
B. ILLUSTRATION
1. During the French Revolution, some soldiers came upon a starving woman and her two children hiding in the woods.
2. Out of compassion, the sergeant gave her a loaf of bread. The woman took it, broke it into two pieces and gave one piece to each of her two children.
3. The sergeant noted, “She has kept none of it for herself.” A soldier asked, Is it because she is not hungry?” The sergeant answered, “No, it is because she is a mother!”
C. MOTHER’S INFLUENCE
1. Who was greater, Thomas A. Edison or his mother? When he was a boy his teacher sent him home with a note which said, 'Your child is dumb. We can't do anything for him.'
2. Mrs. Edison wrote back, 'You do not understand my boy. I will teach him myself'. And she did, with results that are well known. [Morning Glory, January 8, 1994]
3. Paul told of the godly influence that made Timothy a key figure in the early church. “To Timothy, my dear son….I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also” 2 Tim. 1:2,5.
4. Mothers, you have more power than you know. It’s mothers who shape the leaders of the next generation. May it be Christian mothers who do the best job and turn out those who will influence the next generation!
MYTH No. 2:
II. MOTHERING IS NATURAL
A. IT’S FREQUENTLY UNNATURAL
1. Most of us are by nature self-centered.
2. But Mothering is self-effacing because it requires constantly take care of others before yourself.
a. Staying up all night. b. Change diapers.
c. Cleaning up vomit. d. Restrain anger.
e. Suffering over your kid’s heartbreaks.
f. Laboring over your school assignments.
g. Doing without so your kids can have things.
B. PURIFIES CHARACTER (a by-product of sacrifice)
1. Part of the struggle of being a good mom is to overcome some natural, even sinful inclinations.
2. This process stretches, enlarges, and to a degree purges selfish, sinful tendencies of moms.
3. ILLUS. G. Campbell Morgan, a famous minister, had 4 sons who were all preachers. Someone asked his son Howard (the best preacher) which of all the Morgans was the best preacher? Howard glanced at his father, then back to the questioner, and said without hesitation, “Mother!” [Why? Because she was the biggest influence to her husbands and sons! She preached with her life.]
4. HUMOR.
a. A Dad and son were talking. The Dad asked the son what he wanted for his birthday. He said, “A baby brother.” His birthday wish came true – he got a baby brother.
b. Prior to his next birthday, the father asked the son again “What would you like for your birthday?” The boy hesitantly said, “What I’d really like is a pony, but I’m afraid that would be too hard on Mom!”
MYTH No. 3:
III. A MOTHER IS REPAID FOR ALL SHE DOES
A. REPAID? NO…
1. How often are mothers “let down” by kids who don’t appreciate their sacrifices!
2. You work night and day to “do for your kids” and then ask for one favor - “Wash dishes?” and they reply, “No way!”
3. There’s a dangerous world out there and Moms do their utmost to prepare our kids for it. Like Moses’ mother, today’s Moms must pour their hearts into their kids, then place them in a basket boat in the Nile River and have faith in God to keep them safe!
4. The truth is: Moms will never be fully repaid for the thousands of hours and years of work and sacrifice.
5. ILLUS. A woman was visiting a friend when her children entered. The kids were so cute that her friend commented, “Oh, I’d give my life to have such children!” To which the mother answered, “That’s exactly what it costs!”
B. BUT THERE ARE REWARDS [intangibles]
1. The DEPTH OF RELATIONSHIP experienced by a family is rarely or never attained elsewhere. With only a few people in your life will you be so close.
2. SATISFACTION comes from having a lasting positive impact on the lives of others. Nobody on earth even comes
close to a mother for having the potential for that kind of influence.
3. ENDURING INFLUENCE
a. “Mom you must have been terribly bored staying at home when I was a child,” I said. “Bored?” she said. “Housework is boring but you were never boring!”
b. I didn’t believe her so I pressed. “Surely children are not as stimulating as a career.”
c. “A career is stimulating,” she said. “I’m glad I had one. But a career is like an open balloon; it remains inflated only as long as you keep pumping. A child is a Seed. You water it. You care for it the best you can. And then it grows all by itself into a beautiful flower, that lives on even after we pass, to bless the world.”
CONCLUSION
A. PRAISE IS DUE
1. I want you mothers to know you’re doing the most important job in the world. (The home is the foundation of the nation.)
2. Don’t underestimate your role in life. Who knows what your kids and grandkids will be? I want all you mothers to stand.
3. Let’s show these ladies how much we appreciate them. APPLAUD.
4. There are bad situations around many mothers:
a. Many need wisdom to raise their kids.
b. Some of you – your kids have hurt you. The situation looks hopeless.
c. I encourage you to follow the example of mothers in the Bible who held onto God’s promises and to see them saved. Prayer.
B. ALTAR CALL (true story)
1. An old woman tripped and fell down a stone stairway in Boston as she was coming out of the police station. Broken and hemorrhaging, they carried her to the hospital. The doctors said she wouldn’t live more than a day.
2. A nurse spoke to her to find out if she had family. The old woman told how she had traveled from San Francisco to Boston, stopping at every major town, to find her son.
3. “I always check the police stations and the hospitals for him. Nurse, if you ever see my son, will you tell him that there are two who never gave up on him?”
4. Hoping she would tell a name, the nurse asked, “Who are the two who never gave up on him?”
5. With trembling lips and eyes overflowing with tears, the old woman said, “Tell him that the two who never gave up on him were God and his mother!” And with words she died.
[Paul Tan, 7,700 Illus., No. 3656]
6. I don’t care who you are or how low you’ve sunk, there are two who have never given up on you – who’ve whispered 10,000 prayers for you. Won’t you come home to the God who loves you?
7. Altar Call for repentance and salvation.
[I wrote this many years ago. It’s inspiration was from an article of the same name published in Focus on the Family newsletter.]
