Mother's Matter

Mothers Matter

Mother’s Day Sermon 2001

We live in a world that is determined to minimize or outright ignore the role mother’s play in their children lives. The world would have us believe that mothers really don’t matter after all. Just last week I was watching one of the news channels and heard a report about a private school that had canceled mother’s day. There would be no mothers day cards made. The art class would not make clay picture frames for the kids to take home as a gift. Mother’s day would be completely ignored. Why? So that the children being raised by homosexuals would get their feelings hurt. Because after all two dads are just as good as a mom, right? A child can get along just fine without Mom, right? WRONG! MOTHER’S MATTER!!

One afternoon a man came home from work to find total mayhem in his house. His three children were outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife’s car was open, as was the front door to the house. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded on the wall. In the front room, the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door. - He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles and piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she may be ill, or that something serious had happened. He found her lounging in the bedroom, still curled in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, "What happened here today?" She again smiled and answered, "You know every day when you come home from work and ask me what in the world did I do today?" "Yes" was his incredulous reply. "This is it."

Often we don’t realize what it is that we have until it is gone. A good mother is more precious than the rarest rubies and should be cherished. Of course our mothers do more than keep the house clean and the kids tidy.

Mothers are our nurses & doctors & psychologists & counselors, our chauffeurs & coaches. Mothers are developers of personalities, molders of vocabularies, & shapers of attitudes. Mothers are soft voices saying, "I love you." And mothers are a link to God, a child’s first impression of God’s love.

MOTHERS ARE PEOPLE THAT MATTER.

Mother’s matter because of the impact they have on our lives.

They impact our lives in so many different and wonderful ways that I could never name them all here this morning. Instead, I want to look at a few of the mother’s we meet in the Bible and look at what they did to impact the lives of their children. First, turn with me to Exodus chapter two verses 1-4.

I. Mothers matter because they protect us Ex. 2:1-4

1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. 2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. 3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. 4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.

At one time the Israeli people were respected in Egypt and honored because of the work of their ancestor Joseph. But there was a new Pharaoh on the thrown now and he didn’t remember Joseph. As the Hebrews population grew and grew the Egyptian began to fear them. What if the Hebrews turned against them? So they set masters over them and used them as laborers. They forced them to build great cities for Pharaoh and beat them into submission. But their numbers continued to grow even under such terrible punishment. So a new decree went out from Pharaoh – all the male children of Israel were to be drowned as soon as they were born. It was a massacre and hundreds of Jewish children were murdered. But there was one mother who looked into her newborn boys eyes and couldn’t bear the thought of his death. So she took her baby boy and put him a basket and sent him down the river into the arms of Pharaoh’s daughter. Her heart must have broken when she saw that basket float out of sight. When she thought of another woman raising her baby boy- another was drying his tears he fell and tucking him into bed at night. But she had to protect him from Pharaoh and if saving his life meant that her son would never know her or the love she had for him – then so be it. She would protect him regardless of the cost. And it was because of her protection that the child Moses was able to grow into a man and set his people free from the bondage of Egypt.