Poem: “Her Day”
She cooked the breakfast first of all,
Washed the cups and plates,
Dressed the children and made sure
Stockings all were mates.
Combed their hair and made their beds,
Sent them out to play.
Gathered up their motley toys,
Put some books away.
Dusted chairs and mopped the stairs,
Ironed an hour or two,
Baked a jar of cookies and a pie,
Then made a stew.
The telephone rang constantly,
The doorbell did the same,
A youngster fell and stubbed his toe,
And then the laundry came.
She picked up blocks and mended socks,
And then she cleaned the stove.
And when her husband came at six
He said: “I envy you!
It must be nice to sit at home without a thing to do!”
(Husband since has disappeared) (Author unknown)
When God created man, God realized that if man was to be successful in life he would have to have a helper. With that thought in mind, God created woman. I thank Him for that. The next step was to populate the earth with offspring or children. Now man and woman could be called father and mother.
Today is Mother’s Day. I wish each of you a very happy Mother’s Day. Mothers are very special people. Mothers are more than human-beings used to populate the earth. They possess many God-given qualities. Our Scripture Reading states that Mothers are:
Priceless
Dependable
Seeks to do good deeds
Productive
Practical
Attentive
Hard worker
Caring
Loving
Godly
Each one of us made entrance into this world through the effort of an earthly mother. Hopefully you have fond memories of your mother and hopefully those of you who have had and raised children will be remembered by those children because the qualities God instilled in you were passed on to them.
I found some quotes from people of the past concerning their mother.
John Quincy Adams said: “All that I am my mother made me.”
Abraham Lincoln said: “All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”
Dwight L. Moody said, “All that I have ever accomplished in life, I owe to my mother.”
Napoleon said, “Let France have good mothers, and she will have good sons.”
Benjamin West said, “A kiss from my mother made me a painter.”
Henry Ward Beecher said, “The memory of my sainted mother is the brightest recollection of my early years.”
Garfield’s first act, after being inaugurated President of the United States, was to stoop and kiss his aged mother, who sat near him.
Julia Ward Howe, when ninety-one years of age, said, “We talk of forty horse-power. If we had forty mother-power it would be the most wonderful force in the world.”
I believe that each one of us could say something similar about our mother. Just because a woman is able to conceive and have children does not necessarily make her a good mother, but it does make her a mother. We have many children today who do not know their mother.
There are children in this day and age who know and respect the lady raising and teaching them as their mother. Thank God for the woman who has stepped into the life a child and has given that child the love and care that only a mother could provide.
The first mother mentioned in the Bible is Eve. Scripture does not give us much information concerning Eve, but we do know that she is the mother of all of us. The first child Eve gave birth to was named Cain.
Scripture doesn’t say, but I get the feeling Eve was very happy with this first birth and she loved the role of motherhood. Eve possessed at least one of the qualities of a good mother, that quality being she was Godly, because she said, “With the help of the LORD, I have brought forth a man” (Genesis 4:1).
Eve gave God credit for the miracle of birth. She gave God credit for bringing forth a man who would be able to carry on the family name. Eve was prepared to carry forth God’s plan to populate the earth with human-beings that He could communicate with. Scripture says, “Later she gave birth to his brother Abel” (Genesis 4:2).
Another Mother mentioned in the Bible was Hannah. Hannah was the wife of a man by the name Elkanah. Elkanah had two wives, which was not God’s original plan, but people like Abraham, Jacob, and David thought it was permissible. One wife was named Hannah and the other Peninnah. Both of these women wanted to bring forth children, but for some reason, Hannah was not able to conceive.
Hannah was a very Godly woman. She had abundant love for her God, but she also had overwhelming love for her husband. Hannah wanted a child that she could share her love with; raise in the ways of the LORD; provide material necessities for; teach the good life, and dedicate and give back to the LORD.
Hannah did not give up hope. She took her petition to the LORD through prayer. Scripture says, “In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD. And she made a vow, saying, ‘O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, than I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life…” (1 Samuel 1:10-11).
The words this Godly woman spoke came from her heart. Her husband thought she was drunk when she was praying, but then he noticed her mouth. Scripture says, “Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard” (1 Samuel 4:13).
God answered Hannah’s prayer and she brought forth a son and named him Samuel. Scripture says, she named him Samuel, “Because I asked the LORD for him” (1 Samuel 1:20).
Hannah followed through with the promise she had made to God. With the sincere honesty, the quality of doing good, the characteristic of dependability, and the love toward the child and her love for God, she gave the boy back to the LORD.
God’s Word says, “After she had weaned him, she took him to Shiloh, taking along a three-year-old bull, a bushel of flour, and a leather bag full of wine. She took Samuel, young as he was, to the house of the LORD at Shiloh. She said to Eli, ‘I am dedicating him to the LORD. As long as he lives, he will belong to the LORD.’ Then they worshiped the LORD there” (1 Samuel 1:24, 28).
A Christian mother is Godly, honest, good, faithful, loving, and follows through on her promises to God and to other people. A Christian mother never loves us less, but she loves us more.
John Burke, Former Governor of North Dakota said this of his mother:
“To think of mother is to recall her unselfish devotion, her limitless, unfaltering love through good and evil report, never wavering, but growing stronger and stronger with the years; and to remember that she asks nothing in return for herself; she asks of us and for us that we be good men and women. If we fail, she does not love us less, but more. This is the wonderful, constant, miraculous mother’s love!”
Another mother, the mother of Moses, was a Godly woman who became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy. During this time, Pharaoh had issued an order stating that the midwives were to kill all Hebrew baby boys. The Egyptian Pharaoh did not want the Hebrew population to grow and become strong. These midwives were Godly women with love, compassion, understanding, courage, honesty, and obedience to serving God.
Moses’ mother loved him and could not bear to have him destroyed. She loved him, and cared for him for three months, but could not hide him any longer. Scripture says, “But when she could not hide him any longer, she took a basket made of reeds and covered it with tar to make it watertight. She put the baby in it and then placed it in the tall grass at the edge of the river. The baby’s sister stood some distance away to see what would happen to him.
The king’s daughter came down to the river to bathe, while her servants walked along the bank. Suddenly she noticed the basket in the tall grass and sent a slave girl to get it. The princess opened it and saw a baby boy. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. ‘This is one of the Hebrew babies,’ she said. Then the sister asked her, ‘Shall I go and call a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby for you?’ ‘Please do,’ she answered. So the girl went and brought the baby’s own mother” (Exodus 2:3-8).
God used qualities of motherhood He had placed in the heart of Moses’ mother. Moses mother was reunited with Moses because of the love, courage, honesty, determination, sacrifice and her obedience to God Himself.
Moses’ mother could have become frightened and thought it humanly impossible to save her child, but instead she listened to the still small voice of God and concentrated on His power to help an impossible situation become possible.
We run into situations today that seem impossible. We may be up against a mountain of some sort and there appears no way over, around, or through it. Each one of us needs to check out these qualities of a Christian mother and apply them to our situation.
The first of these great qualities is to stay focused on God; to obey Him, to trust Him, and to listen to Him as He speaks to our hearts, and to give Him praise.
Story: “Praise and Gratitude”
After one of the terrible battles of the Civil War, a dying Confederate soldier asked to see the chaplain. When the chaplain arrived, he supposed the young man would wish him to ask God for his recovery; but it was very different.
First the soldier asked him to cut off a lock of his hair for is mother, and then he asked him to kneel down and thank God.
“What for?” asked the surprised chaplain.
“For giving me such a mother. Thank God that I am a Christian. And thank God for giving me grace to die with. And thank God for the home He has promised me over there.”
And so the chaplain knelt down by the dying man, and in his prayer he had not a single petition to offer, but only praise and gratitude.
---Christian Herald
Another woman in Scripture by the name Ruth exhibited qualities of the Christian mother. Ruth married one of the sons of Naomi, thus becoming Naomi’s daughter-in-law. Ruth’s husband died before any children were conceived. Also, Naomi’s husband died as well as Naomi’s only other son.
Naomi’s other daughter-in-law returned to her people, but Ruth refused to leave Naomi. Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried” (Ruth 1:16-17).
Although Ruth did not have children at this point in her life, she possessed the motherly qualities instilled in her by God Himself. Ruth’s faithfulness to Naomi was guided by her love and loyalty from her heavenly Father.
A mother whose love comes from God and whose loyalty and trust is in God will project that same faithfulness to her children, her husband, and all other people she associates with.
A Christian mother is a kind person willing to reach out and help those in need. Ruth showed kindness to her mother-in-law Naomi by staying with her and providing for her by picking up the left over grain in the fields. Boaz, who owned the fields of grain, showed kindness to Ruth by having the workers leave extra amounts of grain for Ruth to pick and share with Naomi.
Boaz said to his workers, “Pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her” (Ruth 2:16). Boaz went the second mile to show kindness and to provide for the needy.
A Christian mother will do the same for her family. Her kindness will be unlimited when it comes to caring for the needs of her family. Her generosity will spring forth because of her faithfulness to God. God will provide her with a willing heart, a desire to do good deeds, a dependable nature, an attentive attitude, and a priceless measure of His redeeming love.
Every mother will have tough times. Naomi lost her husband and her two sons. Ruth lost her husband, but neither Naomi nor Ruth turned their backs to God. They did not blame God for what happened. God brought each a blessing and He will do the same for us today.
The last mother I want to mention is Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary was a very young girl from a very poor family. She was engaged to marry a man by the name of Joseph when an angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:30-33).
Mary placed her motherly faith and trust in God and said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38). God had instilled in Mary the qualities of a Christian mother.
Mary was ready and willing to listen to the voice of God as spoken through the angel Gabriel. She believed that although this conception was humanly impossible, everything is possible with God.
Motherhood is certainly a privilege, but at times it can be a very painful privilege. Motherhood is priceless. No amount of money in the world can be placed upon the cost of motherhood. Mary had a very unique experience in that she was the only human being to witness His birth as well as His death.
At his birth, she expressed her tender loving care by wrapping him in cloths and placing him in a manger. She shared the joy and happiness of Jesus’ birth with the shepherds who came in from the fields to celebrate the event.
The shepherds told Mary and Joseph how the angel appeared to them and told them the good news. “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you; You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:11-12).
And then the shepherds went on to say, “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: ‘Glory to god in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!’” (Luke 2:13-14).
Mary was excited about what the shepherds told her and Scripture says, “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). Mary knew her baby was special because of all the events that had transpired.
Like any mother, Mary was no doubt concerned about raising her child. We don’t know much about Jesus’ young years, but he most likely enjoyed life like all the other children. We do know that when he was 12 years of age, and the family was in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of the Passover, he failed to join the parents on their return trip home.
Scriptures says, “After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it” (Luke 2:43). Little boys do some strange things. One would not think this of Jesus, but then on the other hand, the reason was valid. Mary and Joseph found him after three day of searching, sitting in the temple.
Just to show you His mother’s concern, listen to what Mary asked. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you” (Luke 2:48). Joseph didn’t say anything, but Mary certainly did. Mothers are very protective of their children. They are not only protective, but they show a lot of love and concern for the well-being for their children.
When Jesus responded to Mary with the question, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49), I believe Mary’s eyes were opened to the fact this was God’s Son, the Messiah. She probably wondered if she had done enough of the right things in raising this boy and that these things would be favorable in the sight of God.
It is impossible to imagine the pain and agony that went through Mary’s heart when she saw Jesus arrested, beaten, spit upon and nailed to the Cross. I believe Mary had a feeling of satisfaction as a mother when she heard Jesus say, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34). This could have been God’s way of letting Mary know that she had been a good mother and she had taught according to His will.
No Christian mother wants to see her children suffer. A Christian mother will pass on all her good qualities to her children. She will teach children right from wrong. She will care for the well-being of her children. She will teach her children to depend upon Almighty God.
She will teach them to do good deeds. She will instill honesty in them. She will teach her children to work hard and be productive. She will respect her children and teach them to respect her as well as everyone else.
Conclusion:
A Christian mother is a priceless jewel. Her family can depend on her for care, consideration, loyalty, attention, and Godly love. She pays attention to their needs before her needs. She can make a meal out of almost nothing and she can put life back into old clothes.
She stays awake that others might sleep. Her aches and pains are never mentioned to family members who are suffering or hurting. She uses her wisdom and knowledge in a practical manner so as to be productive in doing the work of Almighty God.
Thank you, Father, for the mothers who endeavor to reach out and fulfill the role of motherhood according to your Word.
Amen.
