Appreciating Our Mums

Good morning

Could everyone who has or has had a mum please raise their hands?

Good I have prepared the right sermon for Mother’s Day.

We all have a mum.

God has given us many blessings in life.

Jesus is the greatest blessing of all, eternal life.

And not far behind Jesus would have to be mums.

Without them we wouldn’t have life.

God has given us life through them.

And they fulfil God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah

That He will bless them so they can be a blessing to others

God has blessed mums so they can be a blessing to us and others.

And there are many blessings mums are to us.

On a Monday a teacher gave her class a lesson on the magnet and what it does.

Every Friday they have a revision of the weeks lesson.

One of the questions was: “My full name has six letters. The first one is M, and I pick up things. What am I?”

Half the class replied mother.

Mums bless us in many ways.

I invite you to turn to the person next to you and share one way God has blessed you through your mum.

Some people have mixed feelings about their mum.

Not everyone has had a good relationship with them all the time.

And sometimes even mums get things wrong.

Remember Romans 3:23: for everyone sins and falls short of the glory of God

One day, a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking among her black hair. She asked "Why are some of your hairs white, Mum?" Her mother replies, "Well, every time you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white." The little girl thinks about this awhile, then asks, "So how come ALL of Grandma’s hairs are white?"

Despite their superhuman efforts at times mums aren’t perfect,

often they are the first to admit it

But God does forgive them.

And so should we.

Someone once said that one of the blessing about life they learnt from their mum is about forgiveness,

About seeking forgiveness and giving forgiveness.

This highlights something about mums that are worth remembering.

Throughout their lives they often reflect God

especially that God is constantly thinking of his children,

even if their children don’t think so.

Susannah Wesley, mother of John Wesley spent one hour each day praying for her 17 children. In addition, she took each child aside for a full hour every week to discuss spiritual matters. No wonder two of her sons, Charles and John, were used of God to bring blessing to all of England and much of America.

But it is not only the obvious times that they are thinking of their children.

One of the most difficult situations I have so far in ministry is ministering to a lady in her last days.

For over 20 years she had been estranged from her children.

As we were preparing some details the issue of her children came up

At which you could see a tear in her eye

And she requested that I contact them and see how they reacted.

Even though she had not spoken to them for 20 years she had never stopped thinking of them and praying for them.

Unfortunately that night she died.

And she never got to speak to her children.

And they probably never realised that she still thought of them.

Being a mum is difficult

Kate Samperi writes before becoming a mother I had a hundred theories on how to bring up children. Now I have seven children and only one theory: love them, especially when they least deserve to be loved.

And we it comes to the blessing God gives us through our mums

We benefit most from mums when we allow God’s approach to life to influence our relationship

Ephesians 6:1-3 restates that famous commandment it says Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

Honour your mum’s.

Doesn’t mean we worship them as gods.

But it does mean we give them respect.

In this commandment God is encouraging us to always give them some of the time He has given us.

To give them respect.

As I think about it….not everything my mum does I like.

And when I was a teenager I thought she was a bit weird.

But over time you notice when you respect your mum.

More blessings become obvious.

And so I encourage you to respect your mum as God’s gift to you.