“Only Mary had a perfect child!”
Today is mother’s day.
Tendency is to hold up a high lofty view of motherhood that no one, other than Mary, could ever possibly live up to.
a.And that not of herself, but only because Jesus was Gods Son.
So instead of making you moms feel better, we often tend to leave you looking for your short comings.
Measuring yourself by some unrealistic standard.
I got thinking this week of Adam and Eve.
• Neither of them was born, nor did either of them have parents.
The only couple without in-laws. Everyone else has had that pleasure.
Consider with me:
It was not until after they had sinned that Eve bore children.
( Read Gen. 4:1-2 ) 1 Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man." 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.
We don’t often think of that, but it gives clearer understanding to the scripture that there is none righteous, no not one, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
So if any of you moms sitting out there this morning are thinking to you’ve, I’ve raised the perfect child.
( Buzzer sound )
But then again: You weren’t called to bear perfect children, but to bear Children that with Gods help would become eternally perfect, if they so made that choice.
What you were called to do was to be the vessels through whom God would replenish the numbers on the earth.
You were called to be the nurturing blanket in which a child would wrap their life from the moment of conception, and through all the days of their life.
Which is why after dad gave your child a home, taught him how to play football. Spent hours with him in the yard. Paid huge portions of his college bill, that when the camera is on him on the sidelines at the end of the game, he yells HI MOMMMMMMMM.
But something else hit me this week. Mother’s day isn’t just about those who have born children, but it’s about all women.
Because while not all women bear children, all women have the desire to, the ability or gifting to.
And many women, who never physically bear a child, do more to assure the well being of children than some natural mothers.
Some of the best, teachers, social workers, medical people, and church workers are those women who never actually suffered the pains of labor and yet have impacted the life of millions of children all over the earth.
Paul writes in his letter to the Galatians:
"Be glad, O barren woman,
who bears no children;
break forth and cry aloud,
you who have no labor pains;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband."
I would dare to say Mother Theresa would never of touched the millions of children that she did had she of been a married woman at home.
This morning I want to see what we can glean from a smorgasbourg of Biblical mothers.
Beginning with Eve:
From Adam and Eve - We see the heart of a mother who overcomes personal tragedy and personal family tragedy regarding her children.
The will to try again.
How many of you moms have tried cooking, sewing, and had to try it again?
Remember Cain and Able
1.One Son unwilling to do it Gods way, and the other who obeys God, is killed because of his obedience to God.
Truth is that scenario short of the murder is often played out in our homes. One child more than willing to serve God and the other more than willing to drive you crazy by not serving God.
Same mom, same love different results.
How easy it would be, having lost your one obedient child and being left with the one who has killed him to just stop there. Call it quits.
To go into a place of emotional withdrawal.
And yet Gen. 4:25 says she tried again and was blessed for it.
25 Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, "God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him."
Death to a child will always be hard for a mother.
1.For 9 months they carry them in the womb.
2.In the early months and years they nurse them on their breast
3.So when they die prematurely – It takes a great deal for them to move forward. By prematurely I mean when they die before the mom.
Still born, infant, childhood years, teen years, or any point there after.
Yet Eve did, and look at what it says in Gen. 4:26
26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh.
At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD.
Others women in scripture knew what it was to lose a son
1.Bathsheba lost a baby at birth.
2.Even the perfect mother Mary
Women have lost children for a wide array of reasons.
Abortion, miscarriage, SIDS, pool deaths, accidents, murder, war. The list is endless.
And regardless of the differing reasons it will take a strong woman of God to take Gods hand and move forward.
Eve did, Mary did.
Moms if when you first pondered marriage, you would have known a smidgeon of what you know now about mothering, you may well have opted to not have children. But then again, having viewed my wife’s commitment to motherhood as well as many of you, I would dare to say you would have gone forward anyway because that’s just how God made the heart of a woman, and a mother – To give and give again.
THERE IS ONE unfortunate truth about mothering!
No matter how good the mother -
Not all kids turn out perfect, some quite far from it.
Prov. 10:1
A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish son grief to his mother.
1.Many a good mother will visit her child in prison this year.
2.Many a good mother will bail her child out of jail this year.
3.Many a good mother will get word that her son has beaten his wife, abused a child, divorced and fled his responsibility.
4.The women who dance in the bars along the highway have mothers, many of who are Godly.
Nothing Eve did indicates she deserved to have Cain do what he did to Abel.
Eli’s wife had to deal with the rebellion of her two sons that eventually led to their death.
Siseras mother Judges 5: 26-28
26 Her hand reached for the tent peg,
her right hand for the workman’s hammer.
She struck Sisera, she crushed his head,
she shattered and pierced his temple.
27 At her feet he sank,
he fell; there he lay.
At her feet he sank, he fell;
where he sank, there he fell-dead.
28 "Through the window peered Sisera’s mother;
behind the lattice she cried out,
’Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Why is the clatter of his chariots delayed?’
Judas Iscariot mother if she were alive would have had to live with his failure. But his failure was not necessarily her’s.
a. The Mobster John Gotti had a mother
b. Charles Manson had a mother
c. Adolph Hitler had a mother
d. Osama Bin Laden has a mother.
Certainly it would be safe to say most of what these villains became was not because of their mothers.
In fact it’s possible their mothers were deeply godly women.
Our responsibility both moms and dads is to train our children in the way that they should go. God’s part is keeping them there.
We are called to discipline them - In spite of what today’s society believes.
Prov. 29:15 warns - The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.
We are admonished to treat them evenly or fairly –
• Example of failure Isaac and Rebecca w/ Esau and Jacob
Prov 31 is the ideal/ the model : A wise woman shoots for all of what she can on the list and does what she can to the best of her ability.
And accept what she can’t. In today’s society it has become increasingly difficult, but where ever possible it is best to be in the home.
•The balance must be found between Responsibility and Guilt.
Women, moms: Often you are torn between work and the home.
Many women today would much rather be at home building a safe place for their children.
But much of what we have done in America has affected that.
Years back in the 50’s we made a mental pledge as Americans to leave our children more earthly wealth than we had known.
That thinking has greatly affected the home –
• Terms like latch key kids / Children left to their own.
•Inadvertently that has led to more divorces in America.
•More stress over what we have
•More individual independence rather than having one provider and one home builder.
•More male/female contact in the work place, more temptation.
•More Divorce
•And because of more divorce, even greater pressures on women to be the providers for their family.
There is probably no greater emotional stressor on a woman than to be torn between putting a roof over her children’s heads who she loves with every breath, and being home to be sure they are ok.
Mothering today is more difficult than at any previous point in time.
One of the listed strengths of the Prov 31 wife is that she was able to work from home. Continue to make money yet be there for her children.
Many of the women who first ran off to escape the home in the liberation period of the 70’s and 80’s and 90’s have now returned home and found different ways to do it.
That’s not possible for many today and moms bear the additional pressure of that. It has made an already difficult calling, even harder.
Mom’s working or not working may not be something you have present control over and so I encourage you to do the best you can with what you have been given, and if somewhere God opens a door take it.
If not trust and move forward.
As a dad, I have always draw comfort from Hebrews – Fathers discipline their children as they thought best.
Mom’s often all you can do along with your husband is teach your children what is right before God.
They may not always look as though they are walking that way, and in fact some may not walk that way. But your calling is to be faithful. The rest is Gods.
Over 26 years of ministry, I’ve heard many a parent share with me stories of how God had promised them their child would be used in His service.
Prophecies, altar calls, or personal words from the Lord to the individual mom.
Sometimes the parent grows weary when it doesn’t seem to be happening.
Sometimes it never even comes to pass in the parent’s life time!
Maybe no clearer picture of that is shown in scripture than that of the wife of manoah, concerning their son Sampson. Found in Judges 13 and 14.
Her life was already tough, she was barren, but then the angel of the Lord appeared to her and told her she was going to have a special son. A nazarite.
Vs. 24 of chap 13 tells us The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson, He grew and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
But to be honest from that point forward I’m sure his mother had many times when she wondered if she had heard from God at all. Philistine wife, Delilah, endless foolish behavior.
But these are the last verse ever written about Samson.
Judges 16:27-30
27 Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. 28 Then Samson prayed to the LORD, "O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes." 29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, 30 Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.
Scripture doesn’t tell us if his mother ever lived to see that victory. His brothers and his father’s family went down to get him to being back for burial
Who knows if the thief on the cross mother ever got to know her son got it right in the end.
This I know about mothers, they don’t stop doing their job until they draw their last breath.
They don’t stop having an impact even then. ( Moms death standing outside of church looking up at the sky. ) Many times I still hear her words.
It’s there that I hear the words of Prov. 1:8
Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
Moms may never see this side of glory the just reward that awaits them but God is faithful.
Even Mary, the Bible says she would see the things that Jesus did and just store them, or ponder them in her heart.
But even with all she knew it wasn’t until she crossed from this life to Eternity that she fully understood.
I want to play a quick clip of a basic summary of what her life would have been like. Both the joy and the sorrow.
Moms the truth is the one thing I can guarantee each of you is that in the course of your motherhood you will have your heart broken.
But before that scares you – it’s the same brokenness of heart that God feels for each one of us.
It’s what Paul called the fellowship of His suffering, where we are made conformable in His image.
The only thing that will vary will be the ways or numbers of times your heart is broken.
One may have your heart broken by now carrying to full term.
One whose child is born with some form of handicap or illness.
One whose child is taken from her in the early years. Natalie Grant Held
The one who you watch struggle for the lead part in a play only to watch them fail.
The one who wants so bad to be on the baseball team but couldn’t make it on their best day.
Parent whose child rebels even at an early age
Whose child is arrested, or brought home drunk.
Whose child steals a car, or robs a store.
Hulk Hogan’s sons friend. Child who is tragically hurt in a car wreck in the very best years of their life.
The one killed in a war.
The child who just can’t seem to hold a job.
Whose marriage is falling apart and they may well be the cause.
The child who just doesn’t seem to make in anywhere.
The child who becomes self centered and won’t listen to anyone
The child raised in church, but who now is living the worst possible life.
The child who had all the scholarships, but gave it up for a nose full of coke.
The child who has made a life altering choice and there is no natural way you can help them.
You see mom. Dad fights these issues in a totally different way.
But like Mary you ponder them in your heart.
And yet the rewards of motherhood will always outweigh these hurts.
To see a child succeed, to see them rise above the Frey.
To see them overcome a handicap, rise past an addiction.
Fight back to save a marriage. Mostly because of what they learned in your arms or the school room of your heart.
Yes there is a price to motherhood, but it’s worth every cent of it.
But sometimes we just need to come and leave the excess hurts with the Lord.
Or need to come and renew our commitment to carry on.
Some of you children here might need to fulfill moms dream this morning, and turn your life over to the Lord. Give Him your heart and heal your moms at the same time.
