Mom's Can Make A Difference!

Mom’s can make a difference!

2 Timothy 1:1-7

Three ladies were exercising pride in their grown sons. The first lady told of the extravagant birthday parties her son provided her. “Why he even hired a full band for my last birthday.” The second lady bragged about how her son gave such lavish vacations. “Just last month he sent me to Hawaii for the fourth time.” The third woman was not to be outdone and she piped up, “That’s nothing. My son has been paying a psychiatrist $150 a week for the last three years just so he can talk about me.”

Mom’s can make a difference. That is the title of my sermon and the story of my own personal life. My mom made a difference in my life. She stayed faithful through some very difficult times in her life. She as far as I know has never strayed from her faith. I know she is not perfect, but she is close to it. She always has the needs of others, exemplifying Christ.

She is very conservative with her finances, some would call her cheap, but she never made more than a little over $ 11.00 per hour and yet she retired early and owes nobody anything and has a nice next egg to live the remaining days of her life with.

She is devoted to her church, her children, her six grandkids, her own family and friends, but even more devoted to her Lord.

So when someone tells me that I am just like my mom, I take pride in that.

It has been said, “It takes a village to raise a child”. But just consider the source and I totally disagree with that statement. I think the truth is that is takes the grace of God and Godly parents to raise a child.

But today more than ever, people and things other than parents are raising their children. Today with the cost of living and our wants and not necessarily our needs cause both parents to work. Now I am not here today to preach against that.

Because even the stay at home moms are letting things raise our kids.

We let the TV’s, DVD’s, gameboys, computers, and other things raise our kids.

And then sometimes we get so busy keeping them busy that we don’t teach them how to do anything right. We think they have to do everything that we didn’t get to do, and the truth be known that you can be doing something every night if you let yourself.

So does it really take a village to raise a child? No but we act like it does in the way we raise them. It is the responsibility of the parents to influence and be involved in the instruction and correction of our kids.

In our text today, we see two examples of Godly mothers; Lois and Eunice, the mother and grandmother of Timothy.

Read 2 Timothy 1:1-7

Eunice was a single mom. She was a Jewish believer in Jesus. She had at one time been married to a Greek unbeliever, who had either left or died. Like today raising a child as a single parent was no picnic.

But our text tells us that she must have done a good job because she raised him in the genuine faith.

So this morning we are going to look at some of the basic things that young Timothy learned from his mother and that we can learn, not just the mom’s, but all of us as well, to teach others.

We will look over a few chapters to do that in 3:15-17

The first thing that we need to do is…

Start Young “From childhood”

Timothy’s mother started at a very early age. Timothy received a religious education as a child. His education didn’t come from a priest, a Pharisee, or a Pastor, but from his mother and his grandmother.

Some times I hear about parents who say that they are not going to push their beliefs on their kids. They want to let them when they are old enough to make their own choice.

But think about how stupid that sounds. Would you let your child choice weather or not to do their homework? Or if they even attend school? Or what kind of food they eat, or how late they stay up, or who they hang around with.

Someone once raise a good question, “Have you ever wondered why so many parents tie up their dog, but let their children run loose?”

So their belief in Jesus as their Savior, the most important decision a person can make, should not be left up chance? We need to start training our kids at a young age.

Proverbs 22:6 Train a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.