How Do You Spell Mother?

“How Do You Spell Mother?”

He needed someone tender enough to cherish the thrill of a baby growing within her body & yet someone strong enough to survive the pain of childbirth, so God made a Mother.

He needed someone to take care of that precious baby throughout the night & still take care of her home & the rest of her family throughout the day, on minimal sleep, so God made a Mother.

He needed someone hard enough to say no to her children when she needed to & soft enough to breaks the rules at times & treat her kids to what they want, so God made a Mother.

He needed someone who could be in two places at one time & with eyes in the back of their head, so God made a Mother.

He needed someone stern enough to paddle a little behind when it was called for & yet someone tender enough to heal a skinned leg with a Band-Aid & a hug & kiss, so God made a Mother.

He needed someone with calloused knees, calloused from the hours spent there in prayer for her family, so God made a Mother.

He needed a theologian to share the gospel, a psychologist to deal with teens, an entomologist for those insect collections, a botanist for those leaf collections, a professor for those late night homework sessions, & a physician to always know what’s wrong, so God made a Mother.

He needed someone with a tough enough heart to show her child tough love & yet someone with the patience of Job & a soft heart to show trust to that child, so God made a Mother.

He needed someone with a heart that would always hold a place for that child & yet have hands that would eventually open up & let that child go to find their own place in this world, so God made a Mother.

He needed someone who would have the grace to welcome that child that had made a mistake back into the fold, so God made a Mother.

He knew He needed someone to watch over us as we made our way through this life, so God made a Mother.

Read I Thessalonians 2:7-8. Our message is titled “How Do You Spell Mother?” We’re going to see how you spell Mother. And since we’re in church, naturally we’re talking about a godly Mother. A godly Mother is spelled modesty, observant, thankful, honorable, encouraging, & resourceful. Pray.

I. Modesty There are a couple of definitions for modest that I’d like us to look at. The first one is this: having or showing a moderate or humble estimate of one's merits, importance, etc.; free from vanity, egotism, boastfulness, or great pretensions. Even though Mom is the most important person around the house, she doesn’t let on that she is. She is always putting everyone else & everyone else’s needs ahead of hers. Even though she is carrying out the most important job on this earth, she is free from vanity or egotism. She rarely if ever allows her Super Mom cape to show or to be seen. Mom always puts her kids first. I like the story of the math teacher asking the little boy a question about fractions one day. She asked him, “Let’s suppose you had a pie & there were only four pieces left. There are five of you in your family. How many pieces of pie will each family member receive?” The little boy responded quickly that each would receive one piece of pie. The teacher asked him to think about the problem again. “There are four pieces of pie & five people so how many pieces would each family member receive?” He repeated his previous answer, “One each.” To which the teacher replied, “I can see that you don’t know much about fractions.” The little boy responded, “You don’t know much about my Momma. If there were only four pieces of pie left, Momma would decide that she didn’t really want a piece of pie.” Mom always seems to want her family to have the most & the best of everything. She isn’t too concerned about what she has. I’ve been around a lot of great Moms in my time on earth & I’ve never ever heard one tell you how great she was. She might go on & on about her kids or her grandkids, but she won’t ever boast about herself. You know why? She’s modest. The other definition of modest I wanted to share is this: having or showing regard for the decencies of behavior, speech, & dress. A godly Mother is modest in her behavior. What does that mean? It means she acts like a Mother. There are stages in our life when things change. It’s called the process of maturity. Paul described like this in I Corinthians 13:11. He writes—"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.(In other words when he was a child he acted like a child) When I became a man(or woman) I put childish ways behind me." Becoming a Mother is one of those stages. It’s a major stage. It’s the time to become a woman & put childish ways behind you. That doesn’t mean Mothers can’t have fun. On the contrary, the most fun times of your life are coming. It’s just a different kind of fun. Why is it important for godly Mothers to act modestly? So you will be a role model. Titus 2:3-4—Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children. Sadly in our society, some women have trouble making the transition & the kids end up the casualties. Godly Mothers act modestly. They also talk modestly. They dress modestly. As a member of the opposite sex, this one is really important to us. Ladies, we don’t need the temptation. Godly Mothers dress modestly. How do you spell Mother? It starts with modesty.