Happy Mother's Day?

MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER RIDGE CHAPEL. KANSAS, OK

TEXT: Ephesians 4:25-32

A. Today is Mother's Day, & Mother's Day used to be such an easy Sunday for preachers because we could preach sermons filled with warm, happy illustrations. And everybody wore flowers red if mother was still alive, & white if she had died.

Virtually every church had special Mother's Day programs, & children took part to honor their mothers. And everybody went home feeling good about themselves.

Well maybe not everybody, because for some it was more of a bittersweet celebration.

ILL. One woman wrote, "Mother's Day is such a wonderful day for so many women. But it will be a sad day for some of us who have tried so hard to become a mother, but without success. To us, having a baby is a dream just out of our reach, & Mother's Day is a day of tears instead of joy."

And there were others for whom Mother's Day was more a day of sadness than joy. But not many noticed because, after all, Mother's Day is a time of celebration, of remembering & honoring our mothers.

B. But times have changed, & Mother's Day is not quite the celebration that it once was.

ILL. At a Ministerial Association meeting, one of the preachers said that he had told his congregation that he was not going to make any recognition of Mother's Day, & that the people were not to wear flowers or do anything special to celebrate during their church services that Sunday.

PROP. That's rather sad, isn't it? But maybe we do need to realize, in the midst of our celebration, that Mother's Day is not necessarily all that happy a day for everyone. What is today like for you?

I. MOTHER'S DAY IS NOT A HAPPY DAY FOR EVERYONE

A. Maybe your Mother's Day is tinged with sadness because you're a long ways away from your mother, or from your children. And you'll not be able to see each other & express your love face to face.

ILL. Three mothers boarded an airplane. They were all in their late sixties & on their way to the homes of their children for Mother's Day.

They sat together, & as they talked they had many common experiences to share. They reminisced about the way things used to be when their homes were the centers of family gatherings, & how the kids always came home for Mother's Day, & how it was such a happy time when they were all back home together.

But circumstances had changed, & now they were widows. Now they were traveling to their children's homes because that was the easiest thing to do. A note of sadness was detected in their voices because this Mother's Day was different than those that had gone before.

SUM. So maybe this Mother's Day is a sad one for you because there are so many miles separating you from each other.

B. Maybe you're sad today because your mother is getting old, & you're won¬dering what the future holds for her.

You've noticed how fast she is aging. Her eyesight is not as sharp as it used to be. Sometimes she stumbles & falls & you worry about her hurting herself. Her hearing has deteriorated, too. You find yourself repeating things 3 or 4 times, & maybe even becoming irritated because of that.

Many of us have already gone through that, & the hardest decision we have ever had to make came when we realized that we could no longer provide adequate care for our mother or father ourselves, & that we would have to commit their care to someone else.

ILL. The following words say so much that I feel compelled to read them to you this morning. It's an old mother in a nursing home expressing her feel-ings in rhyme.

What do you see, nurses, what do you see?

What are you thinking when you're looking at me?

A crabby old woman, not very wise,

Dwelling in the past with half-closed eyes.

I'm a small child of ten with a mother & father,

Brothers & sisters who love one another.

I'm a bride in her twenties, my heart gives a leap,

Remembering the vow that I promised to keep.

I'm a woman of 30. My young now grow fast,

Bound to each other with ties that should last.

Now I am 40. My children have grown & gone.

And my man is beside me to see I don't mourn.

At 50, once more babies play round my knees,

Again we know children, my husband & me.

I'm an old woman now, & nature is cruel.

`Tis her jest to make old age look like a fool.

The body it crumbles, grace & vigor depart.