Real Mothers are special people.
Real mothers would like to be able to eat a whole candy bar (all by themselves) and drink a Coke without any "floaters" in it.
Real Mothers know that their kitchen utensils are probably in the sandbox.
Real Mothers often have sticky floors, filthy ovens and happy kids.
Real Mothers know that dried play dough doesn’t come out of shag carpets.
Real Mothers do NOT want to know what the vacuum just sucked up.
Real Mothers sometimes ask "Why me?" and get their answer when a little voice says, "Because I love you best."
Real Mothers know that a child’s growth is not measured by height or years or grade...It is marked by the progression from Mama to Mom to Mother.
This morning we’re talking about a “real mother” whose name is Hannah.
Hannah is a very special woman because she’s one of those rare women that God holds up for us to see and admire.
But we quickly find that Hannah has a problem. It seems that she can’t get pregnant.
Why not? According to this passage God has closed up her womb.
Was God punishing Hannah?
Oh, I don’t think so.
There’s nothing in this story to tell us that she was wicked or evil in any way. In fact the picture painted here is of a godly woman whose heart is breaking and she’s praying with all of her strength that God will help her.
That’s not the kind of person God punishes
The real truth is that God needed Hannah’s womb to remain closed until the appropriate time.
Sometimes God needs us to wait for the right time and the right place before He answers that prayer or before He does that great work in and through us.
2 Chronicles 16:9 says “…the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. – That’s Hannah.
God wasn’t punishing Hannah.
God searched the whole earth to find a woman just like her.
And He knew Hannah would be a woman He could use because Israel was a nation in was in trouble. [Judges 17:6] tells us: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.”
The whole nation was corrupt and even Eli the priest and his sons were in on the corruption.
God needed to bring about a change.
He needed to raise up a hero who could lead His people to righteousness.
He needed a man who could step up and do what needed to be done.
He needed someone who could be a judge, a prophet, and a priest.
AND in order to train up that kind of leader for Israel God was going to need the help of a very special kind of mother. That’s why Hannah was so important and THIS was her time.
The time was right and God was ready to answer her prayer.
Hannah was the kind of woman that God could count on. Let me ask you something. Can God count on you today? God knew Hannah would be a woman He could work through. How about you? Can God work through you or have you built a wall around your heart, refusing to let Him work through you? Hannah had no idea what God would do but she was willing to let Him do what He saw fit.
But notice that it didn’t happen immediately. First God had to bring Hanna to the point where she was desperate enough to do what God needed done.
You know, God sometimes works through our pain to bring us to that place.
C.S. Lewis once said:
“God whispers to us in our pleasures,
speaks in our conscience,
but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
Look at Hannah’s’ decision:
If God will give her a son she says: in 1Samuel 1:11 “… I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life…”
At first glance, that’s not really a big deal, since every first born son belonged to God anyway, according to; [Exodus 13:2] where God told His people: "Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether man or animal."
Here’s the difference in the law and what Hannah was doing.
[Numbers 18:16] tells the Israelites: “When (your son is) a month old, you must redeem him at the redemption price set at five shekels of silver…”
What Hannah’s vowing here is; “God, if you give me a son, I’ll let you keep him. I won’t redeem him back.”
This was no easy decision for her but she determined in her mind and in her heart that if God gave her a son she’d give him to the priests at the Tabernacle to raise so he could serve God.
Because she was willing to give her son to God, He rewarded her in some powerful ways:
• Not only does she get pregnant right away
• But she bears 3 more sons and 2 more daughters according to [1Samuel 2:21].
**But even more significant than that… she was the mother of Samuel!
• Samuel was one of the greatest men in the Old Testament.
• He was the last of the judges and the first of a long line of prophets.
• He was such a righteous man that he guided the people out of their immorality back to obedience to God and His law.
• And he was so highly regarded by God that not only are there 2 books in the Bible that bear his name, but a couple of times God compares his righteousness to that of Moses.
Now… when God tells us stories like this, there’s something He wants US to learn.
And what God wants you to see is this:
• Hannah is a Godly, praying woman
• Hannah is the kind of woman that God listens to
• So Be like her!
If you want your children to make you proud - be like Hannah.
If you want your children to make a difference in this world - be like Hannah.
If you want your children to grow up to be truly great – be like Hannah.
(PAUSE)
So… how are you going to do that?
How can you be like Hannah?
1. A Godly mother believes in the power of prayer…
She is willing to pray for her family to the point of weeping before God.
The heart of this entire story centers on Hannah’s prayer and how God is so impressed her.
We’re told that she prayed with tears.
She prayed with intensity.
She prayed with purpose.
She prayed believing.
And God heard her prayer and gave her the desire of her heart.
That’s the way we need to learn to pray. And when we do, God tells us in [Psalm 37:4] that if you “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
2. A Godly mother gives her children to God.
Now; Hannah’s gift to God was more dramatic than most of us would think to do, but a Godly mother is convinced that God will help her children if she places them in His hands.
That brings us to the third thing a Godly mother does
3. A Godly mother desires GOD’s best for her children.
She learns the wisdom of Christ’s words in the garden: “not my will, but thine be done.
She does this because she’s convinced God’s best is the best.
She knows she can supply nothing better for her children than the best God has to offer.
4. A Godly mother keeps her word to God (and others)
God was able to trust Hannah with this wonderful baby boy because He knew He could trust her to do what she’d promised. CAN HE DEPEND ON YOU TO KEEP YOUR WORD TO HIM? As soon as Samuel was weaned…she marched him right up to the tabernacle and she honored her word to God.
But she didn’t just “leave” him there and walk away.
1Samuel 2:19 tells us that “Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.”
Every year she went to visit her son. Some mothers today don’t pay any more attention to their children than a flea does to what kind of dog it’s on.
That brings us to the last thing a Godly mother should do
5. A Godly mother tells her children about God.
She looks for ways to tell her children about how God loves them and cares for them.
She looks for ways to make them understand that God has a purpose for their lives.
She looks for ways to drive home that they ARE precious in HIS sight.
A Godly mother is one of the most powerful forces on earth.
They have within their hands the ability to shape the future with their children.
I read the true story of a Christian mother in California who said that, one day, her 3 year old son was making it hard for her to do her housework. He seemed to be right behind her wherever she went and whenever she stopped to do something and turned back around, she would trip over him.
Several times she patiently suggested fun activities to keep him occupied. “Wouldn’t you like to play on the swing set?” she’d ask.
But he simply smiled an innocent smile and said, “Oh, that’s all right, Mommy. I’d rather be in here with you.” Then he continued to bounce happily along behind her.
After stepping on his toes for the 5th time, she began to lose her patience with him and insisted that he go outside and play with the other children. Then she asked him why he was acting this way, he looked up at her with sweet green eyes and said, “Well, Mommy, in Sunday school my teacher told me to walk in Jesus’ footsteps. But I can’t see him, so I’m walking in yours.”
(Davida Dalton “Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul”) …Thanks to Pastor Jeff Strite for the original outline.
If your children walk in your footsteps will they be walking in the footsteps of Jesus?
