Honoring Your Mother

Mother’s Day is really important to Mothers. In case you haven’t caught on by now, let me repeat that for you, Mother’s Day is a big deal to almost every mother. Even the most phlegmatic, laid back, understanding mother expects to be honored today with special attention.

If you stop and think about it, it’s easy to understand why. This woman sacrifices her body, time, energy and selfish interests for her family 364 days out of the year. She cleans the house, prepares the meals, washes the clothes, runs a taxi service and oversees the family without much thanks year around. She often feels like she’s taken for granted, and she is—it’s expected of her! She tries not to feel sorry for herself, but she does sometimes.

Then one day a year is designated Mother’s Day. For days in advance the family is reminded to find a way to say thanks to Mom just this once. She hears the ads. She sees other mothers getting privileged treatment. If you don’t do anything, she feels even more unappreciated. She thinks, “Why bother? They don’t even notice. I’m just an unpaid maid.”.

I like the cartoon that shows a mother standing in a living room that’s a total mess. She’s got a crying baby in her arms and another child is scribbling on the wall. The dog is chasing the cat. The husband, with briefcase in hand, has just walked in the front door, and his eyes are bugging out at the chaos. The exasperated mother barks, “You always ask me what I do all day. Well today I didn’t do it, and here it is!”.

Mother’s Day is a big deal to mothers because it’s a chance to say thanks.

The Fifth Commandment reads, “Honor your father and your mother.”. To honor simply means to value, to respect, to pay tribute to. That responsibility to honor our mothers begins when we’re a child and continues until the day we die.

Jesus Christ set the example for us about how to honor our mother at the

various stages of life. So today let’s consider how Jesus honored Mary on several different occasions and let’s be determined to follow in His steps.

Turn to Luke 2:52.

Here we see:

#1: Obedience & Maturity When You’re A Teenager:

There’s only one story about Jesus as a child, but it’s an enlightening one.

Jesus was 12 years old and went with His parents to worship at the temple in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. It was an annual trip of almost 100 miles if they took the normal route around Samaria. Since they usually walked in large groups, it probably took four or five days.

The boy Jesus had always proven responsible and His parents trusted Him. So, when the contingent from Nazareth started home Mary assumed Jesus was with His father and Joseph assumed He was with His mother.

At the end of the first day, when they set up camp, they discovered Jesus was not there. The longer they searched, the more concerned they were. Panic began to build in Mary’s heart. There were hundreds of thousands of people in Jerusalem. Some of them were not good people.

What had happened to Jesus? In her mind she had to picture Him kidnapped, injured, or, at the very least, lonely and terrified. Here she had been entrusted by God with raising the Messiah and she had lost Him—failed to protect Him. The prophet, Simeon, had predicted a sword would pierce her soul. Is this what he meant?

When Sam was 8 years old I took him to Jamestown. At the time he loved the Indian village, the Colonist’s Settlement, and he especially loved the 3 ships that they have there, which are replicas of the three ships that brought the first settlers from England; The Discovery, Godspeed, and the Susan Constant. He and I were going through the Indian village and I went inside one of the tee pees and thought he was right behind me so that he could see all the animal pelts, homemade arrows, and the various arrow heads that they have. Well I was looking around and then all of a sudden went to say something to Sam, turned around to get his attention, and all of a sudden realized that he wasn’t in there with me. I started getting nervous and my heart started racing. I mean we’re around a bunch of tourists, most of which are Yankees, and I started to panic. I quickly got out of the tee pee, looked around and didn’t see him. I thought, “Do I go to the colony settlement or to the ships?” I went to the settlement and didn’t find him there either. I’m freaking out on the inside but appearing to be calm on the outside. Ten minutes later I found him touring around the outside of the three ships. That was a panicky feeling for me. Sam was so casual about the whole thing. He said, “I knew you’d find me.” I just looked at him trying to keep my composure. Then he said, “Dad, did you know that the name of this ship is Godspeed?” I said, “You’re going to need God’s speed when I get finished with you.” But it was a panicky feeling for me.