Mothers Are Made, Not Born

TITUS 2:3-5

MOTHERS ARE MADE, NOT BORN

“Older women likewise are to be reverent in behaviour, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”

Erma Bombeck was a delightful humorist. She wrote primarily out of her own experience as a woman, as a wife and as a mother. She had the uncanny ability to see the humour in everyday events. She spoke a great truth in telling the story of God making a mother.

By the time the Lord made mothers, he was into his sixth day of working overtime. An angel appeared and said “Why are you spending so much time on this one?”

And the Lord answered and said, “Have you seen the spec sheet on her? She has to be completely washable, but not plastic, have 200 movable parts, all replaceable, run on black coffee and leftovers, have a lap that can hold three children at one time and that disappears when she stands up, have a kiss that can cure anything from a scraped knee to a broken heart, and have six pairs of hands.”

The angel was astounded at the requirements for this one. “Six pairs of hands! No Way!”

The Lord replied, “Oh, it’s not the hands that are the problem. It’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers must have! One pair of eyes is to see through the closed doors when she asks, ‘What are you kids doing in there?’ Another pair in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t but what she has to know. And of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say, ‘I understand and I love you,’ without uttering so much as a word.”

The angel tried to stop the Lord, “This is too much work for one day. Wait until tomorrow to finish.”

“But I can’t!”, the Lord protested, “I am so close to finishing a creation that is so close to my own heart. She already heals herself when she is sick AND can feed a family of six on a pound of hamburger and can get a nine year old to stand in the shower!”

The angel moved closer and touched the woman. “But you have made her so soft, Lord.”

“She is soft,” the Lord agreed, “but I have also made her tough. You have no idea what she can endure or accomplish.”

“Will she be able to think?” asked the angel.

The Lord replied, “Not only will she be able to think, she will be able to reason and negotiate.”

The angel then noticed something and reached out and touched the woman’s cheek. “Oops, it looks like you have a leak with this model. I told you that you were trying to put too much into this one.”

“That’s not a leak,” the Lord objected. “That’s a tear!”

“What’s the tear for?” the angel asked.

The Lord said, “The tear is her way of expressing her joy, her sorrow, her disappointment, her pain, her loneliness, her grief and her pride.”

The angel was impressed. “You are a genius Lord. This woman is amazing.”

As an aside of greatest significance, I must say that the greatest role any woman can play is not to be successful in breaking the glass ceiling, or to succeed in her chosen profession, or to gain adulation from adoring masses, but to have her children rise up and call her blessed. Mothers that merit our blessing are precisely those that are instructed in righteousness.

Most of us would feel that Bombeck wrote masterfully what we feel concerning mothers. However, godly mothering does not just happen. A variety of influences unite to produce godly mothers that bless their children and ultimately bless a nation. There is undoubtedly a major contribution of a woman’s own mother and grandmother in many instances. However, the general attitudes and expectations of society are also important. The congregation can, and should play a great role in encouraging godly mothers according to the Apostle Paul.

Writing the young missionary, Titus, Paul reminds him that the work of the ministry is oriented toward teaching. We know from other missives that preachers are to teach, equipping others also to be able to teach [see 2 TIMOTHY 2:2]. Ultimately, the growth of a congregation is directly proportional to the multiplication of the teaching ministry of the pulpit. Every member is expected to echo the instruction he or she has received.

Certainly, each of us is responsible to teach the lost of the grace of God revealed in Christ Jesus the Lord. We are each charged to encourage and comfort one another as members of the same Body, “teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in []our hearts to God” [COLOSSIANS 3:16; cf. EPHESIANS 5:19]. These are general charges that are incumbent upon each member of the Body of Christ. However, beyond this, Christian men and women are appointed to the vital ministry of teaching their own children, a ministry that seems often neglected in this day late in the Age of Grace.