It's Not A Pack Of Cigarettes

It’s Not a Pack of Cigarettes

How many mothers here today received a Mother’s Day Card from your children?

Calvin & Hobbes was one of my favorite comic strips. On one Mother’s Day, Calvin is pictured standing by his mother’s bed. "Hey, Mom! Wake up. I made you a Mother’s Day card." "My, how sweet of you." she says. "I did it all by myself. Go ahead & read it."

She begins to read: "I was going to buy a card with hearts of pink & red.

But then I thought I’d rather spend the money on me instead.

It’s awfully hard to buy things when one’s allowance is so small.

So I guess you’re pretty lucky I got you anything at all.

Happy Mother’s Day. There, I’ve said it. Now I’m done.

So how about getting out of bed & fixing breakfast for your son." And it was signed, “Calvin”.

"I’m deeply moved," said his mother. "Did you notice the part about my allowance?" He asks.

Carol went to a meeting one evening. Her husband and children decided that they would do something special for mom, so they cleaned up the kitchen. They put away all the food, wiped all the counters, washed all the pots and put the dishes in the dishwasher — they even remembered to rinse! They swept and mopped the floor. Two hours later she came home from the meeting, glanced at the kitchen, took off her coat, grabbed the remote and plopped in front of the TV.

Dad and children were surprised that she hadn’t said anything about all their hard work. They followed her into the family room and just kind of stood there looking at her. “What?” she said. Her husband said, “The kitchen.” “The kitchen, what?” she said. He said, “Well, we cleaned it up for you. Didn’t you notice?” She said, “Oh yeah. Thankless job, isn’t it?”

Well, some of you may feel like Calvin’s mother or Carol this morning, wondering if anybody’s going to say, "Thanks, Mom. Thanks for all the great things you do." Being a mother is a tough job & we recognize & honor that today.

We need to express appreciation to our mothers because of the impact they have on our lives.

Mothers gave birth to us

Gen. 3:16 “To the woman God said, ‘I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children.”

In pain, mothers give birth to their children. We men may have seen videos of it in Lamaze classes, but we’ve never experienced it. I don’t think there is any such thing as “painless childbirth”, epidurals notwithstanding.

A young couple had their first child. The first Sunday the new mother brought her baby to church everyone said something like, “Oh, what a cute baby!” And the mother said, “Yes, but he’s going to be an only child.”

At first, it was thought she meant she couldn’t have any more children, but what she was saying was, “I’M NEVER GOING THROUGH THIS AGAIN!”

Of course, we know that guys don’t see it the same way.

Another young couple had 5 children. The father was asked what he thought about this birth business and he said, “AH, IT’S JUST LIKE HAVING PIGS.” I bet they didn’t have any more children after that comment!

So, thank you moms, for going through the pain of childbirth for us!

Mothers raise us

Prov. 31:27, “She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.”

Many mothers have devoted their entire lives to the home and the raising of their children.

You’ve heard the old saying, “Man works from sun to sun, but woman’s work is never done.” Mothers may well be the hardest-working people in the world!

Many mothers work at full-time jobs outside the home and then come home and continue to work. They come home, prepare the evening meal, do the dishes, do laundry, clean the house, catch up on work they brought home, and on and on until they fall asleep in their chair. So, thank you moms, for working hard and raising us!

Mothers protect us

Exod. 2:3, “When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and she plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.”

She took her baby boy and put him a basket and sent him down the river into the arms of Pharaoh’s daughter. She had to protect him from Pharaoh and if saving his life meant that her son would never know her – then that’s the way it had to be. She would protect him no matter what. Because of her protection Moses grew into a man and set his people free from the bondage of Egypt.