It's Mother's Day!

MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER

RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK

(Revised: 2013)

ILL. A man came home from work one afternoon & found his three small children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud. Some of their toys were scattered across the lawn & on the driveway. The door of his wife’s car was wide open, & so was the front door of their house.

Surprised at this, he rushed inside & was confronted with evidence of complete disarray. A lamp had been knocked over. The TV was loudly blaring on a cartoon channel, & the family room was littered with toys & children’s clothing.

He went into the kitchen. The sink was filled with dirty dishes, breakfast food had been spilled on the counter, the refrigerator door was open, & dog food was scattered all over the floor.

Very concerned now, & fearing the worst, he frantically began looking for his wife, heading up the stairs, stepping over toys & more piles of clothes as he went. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened to her.

Rushing into their bedroom, he saw her. Still in her pajamas, she lay there curled up on their bed, reading a novel. She looked up, smiled at him, & asked him how his day had been.

Completely bewildered, he looked at her & asked, ’What happened here today?’ Again she smiled & then answered, ’You know, every day when you come home from work you ask me what in the world I do all day long?’ ’Yes,’ he said.

She answered, ’Well, today I didn’t do it.’ (Adapted – SC)

I would like to call your attention today to several passages of scripture. The first one is Proverbs 23:15-16. “My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad; my inmost being will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.”

Now go on to vs. 22 & then to vs. 25. “Listen to your father, who gave you life, & do not despise your mother when she is old.” “May your father & mother be glad; may she who gave you birth rejoice!"

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. And everybody went home feeling good about themselves & about the celebration of Mother’s Day.

Well maybe not everybody, because for some it was more of a bittersweet celebration. You see, Mother’s Day is not necessarily a happy day for everyone.

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

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 very 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 are others for whom Mother’s Day is more a day of sadness than joy.

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 were boarding 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 talked 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 for everybody. A note of sadness was detected in their voices because this Mother’s Day was different than those that had gone before.

B. Maybe you’re sad today because your mother is getting old, & you’re wondering 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 having to repeat things 3 or 4 times, & maybe even becoming irritated because of that.

Many of us have already gone through that experience, & the hardest decision we 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.