Excellence, Honor & Respect--Happy Mother's Day

Being help does not mean you are beneath someone else. At times you may be the stronger one, but at other times you may be the weaker one. Some times you are on the exact same level. Eve was a help suitable for Adam.

That means she could rise to whatever level of help Adam needed for the situation. I think a more accurate description of what God created Eve to do than help is the word empower. Women have a great ability to empower and inspire others to rise above where they are.

God created woman in such a way though for her to be a help and empower in many different ways and situations. A woman does not have to be married to be one who empowers .Even if there is not an Adam in a woman’s life that does not reduce the glory and honor God created for her.

Because she still is one who empowers for excellence; sometimes she empowers other women, sometimes she empowers children, sometimes she empowers situations, sometimes she empowers the church, and sometimes she empowers God’s plans for the kingdom.

The first commandment I found given to us all concerning women is found in Exodus with the fifth of the Ten commandments in which it says for us to honor our mothers. It is repeated again in the New Testament on a couple of occasions. Jesus got upset when the Pharisees found a way to get around this commandment

To honor means to treat with respect, to look upon with favor, to do good to, to look out for, to be a blessing to and to lift up. The interesting thing about being a Christian, is we are commanded to do certain things without waiting for the other person to do something to deserve it. We do not wait for our mothers to deserve to be honored, we honor them because Jesus says this is what we are to do.

Here is Jesus’s will for us toward our mothers and toward women. For some of us, it is a lot more difficult for us than for others. But this commandments is just as a much a benefit for our own well being, than it is our parents.

For at the heart of it is a willingness to forgive our mothers for the mistakes they have made and may be making and- the chance to bless our mothers for whatever good they have done be it small or great. Without them, the good we have done would not have been done.

Men, how do we honor women. We do it by recognizing that all women are special and deserve our respect. They may not look like it, act like it or dress like it. But as men of God we are called to look upon all women as Jesus Christ sees them. She may see herself as a sex symbol but we are called to higher level and see her as one for whom Christ died and wants to change.

Not as objects for our sexual desires, but as God’s precious gifts that can be a tremendous help in life. We do it by recognizing that God created them to be just as smart and at times even smarter than we are.

We honor them by listening and valuing their opinions, realizing that our way might not be the best way to proceed. We honor and respect them by being careful in the tone we talk to them, recognizing them as our equals and not as our children.