Rachel, A Winning Mother Series

The problem with cliches is that we forget they are true and relevant because we have

heard them so many times they have lost their cutting edge. "The hand that rocks the

cradle rules the world," is a good example. It is so trite and trivial that it does not even

invoke the response of a sigh or a yawn. We need to be jolted back into an awareness of

the truth of this cliche if we to restore in our minds the place of motherhood in history.

Motherhood has been greatly devalued in our day, and many mothers do not feel a great

sense of self-esteem in being merely mothers.

We need to be reminded again of just how great a role mothers play in history.

Confucius warned about the danger of letting women become equal with men. Women

were put through foot binding in China to make them practical cripples in order to keep

them inferior and submissive. They were given no education, and so they knew no better.

But there was one Chinese mother who rejected this nonsense and refused to put her

daughter through this torture. She was Mrs. Charlie Soong of Shanghi. She and her

husband were Methodists, and long before women's equality was ever an issue in the

minds of millions, they trained their girls to believe it.

The first daughter Elaing became the first girl from China to study in the United

States. When she was a senior, her two sisters Chingling 16, and Mayling 11 came to the

United States. Mayling, the youngest, became the first woman in unofficial capacity to

address the congress of the United States. These three sisters became three of the most

powerful women in history. Elaing married a wealthy man and pioneered the way for

women in China to have the right to accumulate wealth and own property in their own

name. Her husband, H.A. King, started a college, and she became a professor in it. She

gave her life to the service of the poor, and to victims of tragedy.

When Dr. Sun Yat Sen over through the government of China, and became the

founder of the Republic of China in 1912, he asked Eling to be his secretary. Chingling

the number 2 daughter became his second secretary, and they fell in love and were

married. She became the most beloved woman in China. Mayling the number 3

daughter graduated with highest honors, and she went back to China to serve her people

in Christian labor. She worked with the YMCA and the Child Labor Commission. Then

she met the military leader Chaing Kai Shek. He courted her for 5 years, and she finally

consented to marry him. She became the commander of China's air force, and became

the first woman in history to order 20 million dollars worth of planes and parts. Some

called her the greatest woman in the world.

Eling and Mayling were two of the richest women in China, and they used their riches

to build a hospital and staff it to care for thousands of orphans and widows. Chingling

became the vice-premier of the People's Republic of China, and Mayling became the first

lady of China. The three sisters became the key ambassadors that got America to stand

with China with her war with Japan.

The point of all this about one family in the history of China is that it brings to life the

cliche, "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." These three sisters did not get

the chance to play such a role in history because they were beautiful and talented. They

got it because they had a mother who said my daughters are going to get an education so

they can play a role in life equal to men. She did it, and they did it. Had she not done it,

they could not have done it. The point is, mothers often determine the potential of their

children by the opportunities they give their children. Mothers need to dream big for

their children.

Joseph was one of the biggest dreamers in the Bible. There are more references to his

and Daniel's dreams than all the rest of Bible characters put together. By means of his

dreams he rose to a point where he, for all practical purposes, ruled the world of his day,

for all depended upon his wisdom for survival in the great famine. In this message we

want to consider the hand that rocked his cradle. Rachel is one of the most lovely and

most loved mothers of the Bible. It is interesting that her story is also a sister story. She

and her sister Leah, a long with their two handmaids, became the mothers of the 12 sons

who became the 12 tribes of Israel. Rachel was just not the mother of 2 famous boys,