Who would you say is the greatest mom in the history of the whole world?
How about Ida Eisenhower, the mother of one of the greatest U.S. presidents, Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Mary Ball Washington, the mother of our first president, George Washington who said this about his mom, “My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother.”
Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great. He was the first Christian Roman emperor who opened the door for Christianity to the world in 306 to 324 AD.
Susannah Wesley, the mother of John and Charles Wesley. Men who helped bring revival to England in the 18th century.
Clara Barton, founder of the Red Cross and mother to thousands of wounded soldiers.
Marie Curie, a mom and a chemist who helped pioneer the world of radioactivity. She was given two Nobel Prizes and her daughter also was given a Nobel Prize.
What about Mother Teresa? She had tens of thousands of people who considered her mom, and she did some really amazing things as a missionary to India.
I don’t think any of us could argue that these women were not great moms.
What made them so great? Maybe the fact that they raised successful children who accomplished great things?
CBN identifies 6 amazing moms of the Bible:
Eve, the first mom. Everyone can trace their family tree back to Eve.
Sara, the mother of Isaac. She got a late start at being a mom.
Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. I am not sure why she is so amazing, she played favorites, and helped Jacob out more than Esau. It’s never good to play favorites with your children.
Bathsheba, who was the mother of Solomon, the wisest man to live. Bathsheba’s motherhood gives women hope that, regardless of the circumstances surrounding your pregnancy and the birth of your child, God can redeem any situation. You never know, you might just have the wisest person ever on the planet staring back at you from that high chair.
Jochebed, the mother of Moses, Miriam, and Aaron. Who sent her son Moses up the river to save his life and then stepped in to raise him after Pharaoh’s daughter found him in the river.
Mary, the mother of Jesus our Lord and Savior. What a responsibility she had!
Who would you say is the greatest mom and why would you say that she is the greatest mom?
Today we are going to look at another woman in the Bible who is often over looked in regards to being a great mom, but as we will see, she did a really good job of being a mom.
Her name is Hannah and she is the mother of Samuel.
PRAYER
Father, open my eyes to see Your Word.
Open my ears to hear.
Open my mind to understand.
And open my heart so I may receive Your Word today.
AMEN
Hannah may not be your first choice as the greatest mom in the history of the world just for the fact that after God gave her the son that she so desperately prayed for, she gave up her toddler to be raised by someone else.
May I submit to you today, for your consideration, that Hannah was a great mom?
Seriously, she was one of two women who were married to Elkanah. In the Old Testament God allowed polygamy, but it was never recommended.
Just so we are all clear, God designed marriage to be between one man and one woman.
Whenever there were two or more wives involved in any situation it always ended up with some sort of trouble. In 1 Samuel 1:6 the two wives are called rivals.
To make matters even more tense between the two women, Hannah was not bearing children, which was considered a curse in those times. The fulfillment of a woman was to have children.
Another cause of the tension between the two was the fact that Elkanah loved Hannah more than he loved Peninnah, his other wife. After all Peni was giving Elk children and Hannah wasn’t.
So Hannah had some troubles in her life.
But here is something that makes a difference; here are the things that made Hannah a great mom.
Hannah knew how to pray. Great moms know how to pray.
In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord. 1 Samuel 1:10
Notice also in verse 12 it says that Hannah kept on praying.
Hannah is doing something that we should all be doing on a constant basis, she prayed until she got an answer.
So often people today do not pray with the intensity that God desires for us to have. Paul admonishes us to Pray without ceasing in 1 Thessalonians 5:17
Too many times we ask God for the thing we need or the thing we want and then we move on thinking that the answer is only minutes away when the fact is that God desires us to pray through until the answer comes.
We need to pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and keep on praying until we get the answer.
We have watered down prayer to the point that we pray for a few minutes and then if we don’t get an answer then it wasn’t God’s will.
That’s not right. God will reveal His will in His timing and we need to continue to pray until we get the answer.
Great moms pray. I consider my mother in law to be a great mother. For years her two sons ran from God, knowing the truth they decided to not live for God. But Debbie’s mom prayed for them without ceasing and today all five of Debbie’s brothers and sisters are born again and living for God.
Pray, pray, pray.
Something else that Hannah did was she never gave up on God.
Even though she was barren, even though she was persecuted, even though she felt she was cursed, Hannah never lost her faith in God. She trusted in Jehovah Jireh, her provider.
This something that makes a great mom. Great moms trust God.
So she continued to pray, she continued to seek the Lord, she continued to seek His blessings and provision, she continued to ask God for the thing she desired most, a son.
Every year she made the annual trip to Shiloh with her husband to worship God, she remained faithful to Him.
During one trip to worship Hannah prayed out of anguish and grief she poured her heart out to God and she made a vow to Him.
The vow is found in 1 Samuel 1:11.
And she made a vow, saying, "O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head." 1 Samuel 1:11
Hannah had great faith and trusted in God and because of her faith and trust, God answered her prayer. Great moms trust God.
But let’s not forget the vow that Hannah made to God. We can’t forget the vow.
How difficult do you think that was? She was going to leave her young son, the son God gave her to a bunch of old and corrupt priests. Well they were, go home and read the first four chapters of 1 Samuel.
Eli was the priest and his sons assisted him and they did all sorts of evil things and Eli let them.
Fortunately there were some women who served in the temple as well, so she wasn’t just leaving him to the men.
How many of you mom’s would have looked for an escape clause?
She was only going to get to see her son once a year.
Hannah fulfilled her vow. She kept her promise.
Another mark of a great mom, they keep their promises.
Jesus told us to “Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”
Matthew 5:37
Another mark of a great mom was Hannah’s knowledge.
Hannah knew two things:
1. She knew that every child is a gift from God even if they arrive in a less dramatic fashion than Samuel did.
2. She knew that every child should be given back to God. That does not mean that we are supposed to take our babies and leave them at the church building. I love your kids but I am not going to raise them for you. That is your job.
Every Christian parent should resolve in themselves to dedicate their children to God and recognize that out main tasks as parents is to help formulate the relationship between our children and God.
That is why the Word of God says, Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6
And, Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:4
Another thing that made Hannah a great mom was what she did during the time she had Samuel with her.
It doesn’t take a person very long as they read about Eli the priest to find out that he was one of the worst parent that ever lived. Because of his poor parenting skills his sons died in shame. Why did Samuel turn out to be a great man of God?
Samuel’s age when he was dropped off at Eli’s house was around five years of age. According to most experts in regards to children the most formative years of a child’s life are the year’s birth to five years old.
Those first five years lay the foundation of the rest of their lives.
Children start forming their moral values during this time. It is during this time they begin to know what is right and wrong. It is during this time they form their beliefs, their likes, and their dislikes.
Whether you realize it or not, you start teaching your children the day they are born.
I also believe that babies can hear and learn things while they are still in the womb. Research shows that at 20 weeks babies in the womb have memory and perceptive skills.
We need to be careful what we say and do around our children even before they are born.
Hannah is a great example of a parent who believes and trusts in God. Together with her husband, they raised Samuel in the fear and admonition of the Lord Almighty.
They taught him that God was over all things and the result was Samuel became one of the greatest men of God in history.
And lastly, Hannah praised God for all He had done.
And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.
1 Samuel 2:1-2
She had just dropped her little guy off and instead of crying great big tears of sadness and being depressed and down hearted as she leaves, this great mom starts praising God.
And what I really want you to notice is what she praises God for.
She does not praise God for how good of a son Samuel was, or how smart he was, or how handsome he was. She doesn’t even mention the gift that God gave her.
Hannah praises the giver of the gift. The focus of her praise is God and God alone.
This wonderful woman of God endured a time of trial and testing. She suffered greatly before Samuel was born. And then God answered her prayer and gave her a son and for five years she raised this boy only to fulfill her vow to God and give the boy away.
And instead of exploding in tears of sadness she explodes in praise of a great and loving God.
A God who is holy.
A God who provides all we need.
A God who is a rock.
A God who is one of a kind.
A God who delivers.
Hannah was a great mom because she served a great God.
And all of you here today, you can be great moms. You can be great dads. You can be great grandparents. You can be great brothers and sisters.
You can be great because:
The great pray.
The great have faith and trust in God.
The great keep their promises.
The great have Godly knowledge.
The great raise their children knowing God.
The great praise God
These are the marks not only of a great mom, but they are the marks of a great man and woman of God.
Are these the things that define you?
CLOSE.
