Mother's Day

But Mothers are not perfect. Sometimes in their assessment of their child, they may be wrong. For example:

• A picture of George Washington’s head is on the front of every dollar bill. But when George was a child, his mother told him constantly, "Georgie you do not have a head for money."

• Charles Lindberg was the first man to fly across the Atlantic alone, but his mother often said to him, “Charles, can't you do anything by yourself?"

• Neil Armstrong's mother often said, "Neil has no more business taking flying lessons than the man in the moon."

Mothers can be wrong about some things when it comes to their child, but Mothers are noted for their love for their children.

Illus: The mother of one of our President’s was asked, “You must be proud of your son?” She said, “Which one?”

Illus: An eight-year-old wrote about mothers. He said, "A mother is a person who takes care of her kids and gets their meals, and if she's not there when you get home from school, you wouldn't know how to get your dinner and you wouldn't feel like eating anyhow."

All the greatness that you see in the world today, can be traced back to Motherhood.

• This is why the devil is robbing the homes of our Mothers, and putting them into the work force. Why? Because he knows that if he can get the mothers out of the home, and place the children in front of the televisions sets, and let this Hollywood crowd raise their children, we will have the problems we are having today.

• Satan knows that if we allow our children to be taught about sex and morality in the public schools, by homosexuals and immoral people, we will have the problems we are having today.

In Proverbs 31 we are given a picture of what appears to be the perfect woman.

Illus: Years ago, Bo Derek the actress was known as a ten. That is, if you rated women with certain physical features from 1 to 10, she was classified as a ten.

But in Proverbs 31, God shows us what he considers to be the perfect woman.

Let’s look at-

I. HER ABILITIES

Look at verse 10. We read, “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.”

Look at the word “Virtuous.” This is the word “Chayil,” which means SUBSTANCE.

This is not an ordinary woman, this is a virtuous woman with substance.

For example, have you ever tried to find out the truth about something that has taken place, from some of these politicians? They can talk for ten to fifteen minutes, and when they are through talking, you still do not know any more than you did to start with. Why? Because, their conversation does not have any substance to it. They only speak empty, meaningless words.

The Lord is talking about a VIRTUOUS WOMAN. When she talks, she speaks with some substance.

A. SHE GAVE GOOD COUNSEL TO HER CHILDREN

Proverbs 31 was written to Lemuel, the king.

Since no king with the name of Lemuel can be found in the history books, some believe that this was written to Solomon. They feel that Lemuel was a pet name that Bathsheba had given to him as her child.

Since history does not record a king by the name of Lemuel, we are also going to assume that this was addressed to Solomon from his mother Bathsheba.

Look at some of the GOOD COUNSEL this godly mother gives to her son.

Look at verse 9. This mother says to the King, “Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.”

Notice, this mother does not tell Solomon, that he has a wonderful opportunity:

• To get rich

• To establish a legacy for himself that few men have ever done before

Instead, she is saying, “Lemuel, you have an opportunity to do so much good.”

Notice, she requested two things:

(1) SHE REQUESTED HE JUDGE RIGHTEOUSLY

She was saying, “Solomon, you are going to have to make many decisions in your life as king. And every time you make a decision, SEEK TO MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION.”

This was a virtuous woman, This could be the reason that when Solomon could have requested anything he wanted of God, he requested that God give him wisdom.

Solomon was a great king that had much wisdom to make the right decisions.

But again, I want to remind you that any time you find greatness, you can usually trace it back to a godly mother or grandmother.

This virtuous woman pleaded with him to judge righteously.

Also, in her counsel to him she requested that he-

(2) PLEAD THE CAUSE OF THE POOR AND NEEDY