A Mother’s Love
Proverbs 23:25 “Let your father and your mother be glad, and let her who bore you rejoice.”
Exodus 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”
Three sons, who were very successful, discussed the gifts they gave their elderly mother on Mother's day.
The first said, "I built a big house for our mother."
The second said," I sent her a Mercedes."
The third said, "I've got you, both beat. You know how Mom enjoys the Bible, and you know she can't see very well. I sent her a parrot that can recite the entire Bible. It took 20 monks in a monastery 12 years to teach him. I had to pledge to contribute $100,000.00 a year for 10 years, but it was worth it. Mom just has to name the chapter and verse, and the parrot will recite it."
Soon thereafter, Mom mailed her letters of thanks:
She wrote the first son, "Michael, the house you built is too large. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house."
She wrote the second son, "Marvin, I'm nearly blind so I can't drive. I stay home all the time, so I never use the Mercedes."
"Dearest Melvin," she wrote to her third son, "You were the only son to have the good sense to know what your mother likes. That chicken was delicious!"
Introduction: When God made Adam and Eve the Bible tells us that He made them both in His image. As we honor Mother’s today, the one thing that stands out to me as the most divine attribute that God bestowed in women is that of a mother’s love. A mother’s love is nurturing, comforting, sacrificial, and unending.
I. A mother’s love is nurturing
A. The natural nurturing of a mother contributes to the healthy growth of a baby
B. Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
C. The Arabic image is of a mother preparing date jam which is gently rubbed on the gums of a newborn baby, there by enhancing the infant's appetite for and ability to digest succulent condiments. - Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 6
D. There is the saying that the hand that rocks the cradle has the power to change the world.
E. Proverbs 14:1 “Every wise woman builds her house: but the foolish plucks it down with her hands.”
F. The Nurturing of a Mother Lasts a Lifetime.
G. Ezekiel 16:44 “As is the mother, so is her daughter.”
H. “To the precise degree that we care for and have faith in children, they will extend and spread their roots. And it is this that will give them the strength to survive and make their way successfully through life.” – Daisaku Ikeda
I. 2 Timothy 1:5 “I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.”
J. 2 Timothy 3:14-15 “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
K. I cannot tell how much I owe to the prayers of my good mother. I remember her once praying, "Now Lord, if my children go on in sin it will not be from ignorance that they perish, and my soul must bear swift witness against them at the day of judgment if they lay not hold on Christ and claim Him as their personal Savior." - Charles Spurgeon.
II. A mother’s love is comforting
A. God could find no better comparison to convey His love for His people then the comforting love of mother.
B. Isaiah 66:13 “As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”
C. Luke 13:34 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!”
D. Comfort involves compassion, encouragement and sympathy.
E. A mother comforts her infant child when it has fallen and hurt itself by takes it up in her arms, drawing it tight to her bosom, and speaking quietly comfortably and encouragingly to it. This tender touch from its mother is an affirmation of her presence assuring it that the child is loved and secure.
F. “A mother’s arms are more comforting than anyone else’s.” - Diana, Princess of Wales
G. Humanly speaking there is nothing like a Mother's touch nor a Mother's influence!
H. John 10:28 “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”
I. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 “Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”
III. A mother’s love is sacrificial
A. A mother's love is sacrificial. She will go hungry so that her child may eat. She will go without so that her child may have what he needs.
B. Out of the French Revolution came a story of a mother who wandered through the woods for three days with her two children, trying to survive on roots and leaves. On the third day, she heard some soldiers approaching and quickly hid herself and the children behind some bushes. The sergeant in charge noticed the movement, so he prodded the bushes to see what was stirring behind them. When he saw the starving woman and children, he had compassion on them, and immediately gave them a loaf of brown bread. The mother took the bread eagerly, broke it into two pieces and gave one piece to each of the two children. The sergeant noted, "She has kept none for herself." A soldier asked, "Is it because she is not hungry?" "No," the sergeant answered. "It is because she is a mother." - "Sermon Illustrations for Holidays and Special Occasions"
C. A mother's love is sacrificial even if it means giving up her child to another.
D. I Kings 3:16-27 “Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him. And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. And this woman's child died in the night; because she overlaid it. And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear. And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king. Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.
E. No cost is too great to pay for a mother who loves her children.
F. Years ago, a young mother was making her way across the hills of South Wales, carrying her tiny baby in her arms, when she was overtaken by a blinding blizzard. She never reached her destination and when the blizzard had subsided her body was found by searchers beneath a mound of snow. But they discovered that before her death, she had taken off all her outer clothing and wrapped it about her baby. When they unwrapped the child, to their great surprise and joy, they found he was alive and well. She had mounded her body over his and given her life for her child, proving the depths of her mother love. Years later that child, David Lloyd George, grown to manhood, became prime minister of Great Britain, and, without doubt, one of England’s greatest statesmen. – James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, Tyndale, 1972, p. 375.
G. John 3:16
IV. A mother’s love is eternal
A. A mother's love continues unceasingly no matter where her child is.
B. 1 Samuel 2:19 “Moreover his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.”
C. “The love of a mother is never exhausted. It never changes--it never tires--it endures through all; in good repute, in bad repute, in the face of the world's condemnation, a mother's love still lives on.” - Washington Irving.
D. Titus 2:4 “That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,”
E. Isaiah 49:15 “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”
F. Ken Trivette wrote “God will love us in spite of the length of our life, the depth of our sin, and the breadth of our misfortunes. There has never been a time when God did not love us. There will never be time when God will not love us. There was a time when others began to love us. But there never was a time when God began to love, for He has always loved us. There may be a time when others will cease to love us, but there will never be time when God will cease to love us.”
