Mom The Ultimate Survior All Star

AND MANY TIMES – she is presented as the model of being a wife and motherhood… AND – most of the time all she does is make women feel guilty… IN FACT – I have a book on my shelf written by Marsha Drake called, ‘the proverbs 31 lady and Other impossible Dreams.’

BUT – this week as I was working on my message, I started wondering what it was that keep this lady going… AND – I found it in two verse towards the end of the chapter… AND - in my humble opinion IF these 2 verses weren’t there neither would the other 19 verses;

OKAY – here’s the key to the Prov 31 lady; here’s the wind beneathe her wings…

Her children speak well of her. Her husband also praises her saying, “There are many fine women BUT you are better than all of them.” Pr 31:28,29 (NCV)

Her children speak well of her. Her husband also praises her saying, “There are many fine women BUT you are better than all of them.” Pr 31:28,29 (NCV)

Talk about putting fuel in someone’s tank….

HER CHILDREN – speak well of her…

AND HER HUSBAND - ‘you go girl, I don’t know how you do it, but you’re the best…’ Husbands, kids – are fueling up your moms (your wives tank) with high octane appreciation.

IMAGINE – what are homes and world would be like if we did – Hebrews 10:24; “Think of ways to encourage one another to outbursts of love and good deeds. “ (NLT)

Robert Welch wrote an article in Focus on the Family several years ago entitled, "Holding Down the Fort." He told about the time his wife took a short-term mission trip to Haiti, and he learned to appreciate her in a whole new way.

YOU SEE - he had his own survivor experience.

Following the experience, he wrote, "Let’s humble ourselves, dads, by admitting we’re spoiled rotten. We get the glory, our wives get the grit. It starts early, with the birth of the child. The woman has just spent nine months throwing up, gaining weight, & trying to get out of the car without accidentally honking the horn. Meanwhile, the man’s challenge has been trying to sneak a pillow into the childbirth classes to take a nap. But when the child is born, guess who’s on the phone soaking up the congratulations. ’Piece of cake,’ he tells his friends. The gap widens as Jr. grows. We fathers sit in our offices sneaking a peak at baby pictures. Meanwhile, mom is home, cutting Silly Putty out of the little tyke’s hair while simultaneously lifting the refrigerator to retrieve an overdue library book."

After that two weeks as Mr. Mom, Welch wrote, "I pressed three shirts before realizing that the iron was not plugged in. I let so much toothpaste build up in the kids sink that I could’ve chipped it off and had a week’s supply of breath mints!"

After a host of other similar calamities, he offered this advice: "Sometimes we men need to walk a mile in our wives’ Reeboks to appreciate everything they do, discover everything we don’t do, and realize how we can be better husbands and fathers." He concluded, "If we fathers stand proudly at the helm, it’s our wives who keep the ship afloat.