God's Kind Of Mother

God's Kind of Mother

1 Kings 3:16-28

Today is a very special day… a day when we honor and pay respect to a very special person ... our Mothers.

To use the words of Abraham Lincoln, "It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this"

Mother‘s Day began in Virginia, back in 1908, when Miss Anne Jarvis, of Pennsylvania, was asked by her mother's church in Va. to arrange a memorial service for her deceased mother who had been such an inspirational worker in that Va. church. Miss Jarvis then talked to her home church in Pennsylvania to get them to set up a special Sunday to honor mothers. She did that because she noticed a lack of tender consideration for absent mothers among worldly-wise, busy, grown-up children; the thoughtless neglect of home ties and of` loving consideration, engendered by the whirl and pressure of modern life; the lack of respect and deference to parents among children of the present generation; and the need of a reminder of the loving, unselfish mother, living or dead,. On May 8, 1908, in Pa., the first Mother‘s Day was observed in the Sunday Schools of Pa. In 1914 the idea had caught on and the Congress of the U.S. passed a Mother‘s Day bill.

We should take the time to recognize Mother, to thank Mother, and to express our love to Mother... God knows that we don't do it often enough.

For our devotional thought I want us to think about the different kinds of mothers... there are different types.

Specifically, I want us to think about God's Kind of Mother.

There are many types of mothers.

fat/skinny; rich/poor, black/white/yellow/red; old/young; pretty/pretty; `

Those that GIVE THEIR CHILD TQ THEMSELVES

The biblical example is Herodias.

Salome was a beautiful young girl. One day King Herod was entertaining and asked that Salome might dance for their enjoyment.

The men were so impressed and Herod wanted so much to show off his great riches and power that he boldly promised Salome, "You may have any gilt you want, just name it."

Money, servants, land, position. Anything… the door was wide open and her future was secure!

She did what any young girl should do… she asked her mother what to do.

Herodias, her mother, should have used the opportunity to advance her daughters future, to see that she was well taken care of

But no! Herodias was a self-centered, self serving person that cared only for her own self

She did not even see her daughter‘s needs, her daughter's opportunity… all she saw was her own hatred and desires.

So instead of helping Salome to plan for the future, she made Salome ask for the head of John the Baptist, on a platter.

How would that help Salome? It wouldn't!

But you see, Herod and Herodias were living together in adultery, she was the wife of Herod's brother, Phillip.

John the Baptist had publically denounced their sin and exposed it.

Herod hated him and had him imprisoned. But would not kill him out of fear of the people. But Herodias had no such fear, just hatred. Now she had Herod over a barrel, he could not back out on his promise.

So he had Salome waste the opportunity by asking for the head of John the Baptist.

Herodias is the example of every mother who puts herself, her own pleasure, and her own desires above the needs, future, and desires of her children.

This is the mother who leaves her children so she can enjoy the "freedom".

This is the mother who leaves her husband so she can find herself

This is the mother who uses her child to realize her own dreams, vicariously.

beauty contests, honor roll, home-coming queen, cheer leader, etc.

This is the mother that uses the child to get money out of the state, or to use as a tool against the father.

This type of child never knows the role—model of a loving, giving mother. Naturally, they do not know how to be that type of mother.

These children often grow up to be just like their mother.

The sins of this type of mother are often visited on the grand-children.

This is not God's kind of mother.

There is another kind of mother...

Those that GIVE THEMSELVES TO THEIR CHILD

This is the type of mother that most of us have and think about.

This type of mother lives for the child, with no thought of her own needs and desires, thinking only of the children,

This type of mother would go without food to see to it that her children were fed.

This type of mother goes without new clothes, without some pretty thing she sees in the store, just so she can buy those new earrings for her daughter... she doesn‘t have to have them but she wants them for the dance.