You Always Were Mom's Favorite

You Always Were Mom’s Favorite

2 Tim. 1:3-5

3I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5I have been 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.

I was the oldest of 4 children. Anytime mom would do something special for one of the other kids we’d all look at that one and say, “You always were mom’s favorite. She always loved you best.”

I don’t know if you can relate to that or not?

Did you ever feel like one of your siblings was always mom’s favorite? I took that as my text today, because I really believe that we all are mom’s favorite.

I read to you the passage from 2 Timothy because it speaks of the Godly influence that his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice had on him.

I love to preach Mother’s Day messages. There’s just something special about bragging on mom that makes us all feel good.

This morning I’ll be rambling about many different things regarding our moms and their influence on our life. The first thing I want to make you aware of is that Motherhood is a ministry.

Mom’s you probably didn’t realize that when you gave birth to that child, but when you brought that baby into the world, you were ordained to minister to that child in a way only a mom could do. Now I imagine that it wasn’t a very pleasant ordination, but it’s really been a blessing since then. Moms, you are a minister in many respects. You are called to serve and minister to the needs of your children. Motherhood is truly a ministry. It’s work! And all the moms said? Amen!

It’s work! Moms are the hardest working, most underpaid professionals I know of. As I work with clients on their finances, I review often times with husbands about how much they would pay someone else to do the work their wife does around the house. It works out to around $36-40,000/yr.

That’s how much you would have to pay someone to do the laundry, cooking, cleaning, nanny work, chauffeuring and everything else that a mom does everyday. Now ladies, I don’t want you to go home and fill out a time card and submit it to your husbands for payment. Trust me, we know we are blessed that you are there with all your talents and energy. Once a year we give you flowers and take you out to eat so you don’t have to cook. At least I hope you’re planning on doing something like that men. Motherhood is work.

Motherhood also takes sacrifice. Moms are givers. Guys, we cannot appreciate the sacrifice that moms give. It is tremendous. Children aren’t plug and play, like some hardware or software item that you install on your computer. You don’t just give them birth and they turn out OK. It takes nurturing. Somebody has to help them along the way. Moms are what God gave us to do that. When a mother lets go of her love for the sake of their child, (and guys, we can’t appreciate that by the way), … moms, you know exactly what I’m talking about, the way a mom lets go of her love for her child. When a mom does that she is reminded of the depth, height and breadth of God’s love for her when He let go of His love for us by sacrificially giving His Son for our redemption. It’s a beautiful picture. Guys, moms give what we can never give – that sacrificial motherly love that only they possess for that child. Men, that’s not to say we don’t love our children – it is that there is a special way that love is given and received from a mother to a child.

The Bible is filled with many examples of motherly devotion and maternal attributes of Godly mothers and I want to share a few of them with you this morning. Some of you may recall the story of Hagar. She was the handmaid of Sarah and she was sent in to Abraham so that he might have an heir before he died. Hagar conceived and gave birth to a son, named Ishmael. Later God fulfilled His promise and Sarah conceived and brought forth a son named Isaac. She became so jealous of Hagar and Ishmael, that she wanted them to go away. So, Abraham took them to the edge of their camp, gave them some water and sent them out into the desert. It wasn’t long before the water was gone and they were overcome with thirst. In Genesis 21 it speaks of Hagar taking the boy and putting him under the shade of some bushes and leaving him there. It then says she walked about a bowshot away, because she could not bear to hear her son crying and did not want to see him die. There she fell down herself so overcome with emotion that she began to weep.