VICTORIOUS CHRISTIAN LIFE: MAKING MOTHERS THE PRIDE OF OUR HOMES
Consider the rose and how its beauty has brightened the life and made the day of many a woman whether wife or mother or unclaimed blessing.
No finer tribute has been paid to motherhood, yea, all of womanhood, than that which was rendered by the great tenor, Mario Lanza, in his classic recording, “For You Alone”:
“Take this rose, this little tender rose, the rarest flower in all God’s garden fair, and let it be, while yet its crimson glows, an emblem of the love I proudly bear.
“Take this heart, the heart that loves thee well, and let it flame before thy shrine, my own. Take thou my heart, for oh, your dear eyes tell God fashioned it for you, for you alone.”
In much the same way that rose growers take pride in the blossoms that are produced by their tender love and care, and some of them take the best of their roses to enter in a contest, most if not all of us take pride in our moms who brought us into this world and nurtured us into adulthood.
Thus, for the most part, none of us living the victorious Christian life should have a problem with the concept of Making Moms the Pride of Our Homes.
Say what you will about great men, but its mothers who make the biggest impact on the world! For example:
George Washington: “My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”
Abraham Lincoln: “All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my mother.”
Ronald Reagan: “From my mother I learned the value of prayer, how to have dreams and believe we could make them come true.”
Perhaps you’ve heard of the great sculptor Bartholdi – best known for his famous statue in New York Harbor. When commissioned, Bartholdi was told that the statue he would sculpt must represent the ideal of liberty, respect, love, and acceptance. He examined dozens of heroes to inspire his sculpting of the Statue of Liberty, but in the end, he chose as his model his own mother.
John and Charles Wesley, founders of the Methodist Church, are examples of many of the world’s most renowned spiritual leaders whose great success can be traced directly to the influence of their mothers - all of whom were women of faith and prayer.
And what about you and me? Cannot we attribute to our mothers much if not all our innate tendencies toward being honorable people who at least seek to do right in God’s sight - and seek to do right in our mother’s sight. Not only we ask, “What would God have me do?” but also “What would mama have me do?”
Did your mom, like mine, have an ability to be almost everywhere at once . . . have eyes in the back of her head . . . explain to you, in later years, that the joy of motherhood was what she experienced when all the children were finally in bed? One thing I learned early on about mama was that you can fool some of the people all the time, all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool mama. If she told me once, she told me a thousand times, “I can read you like a book.”
Try as hard as I might, I could never figure mama out – which turned out to be a helpful experience later in life, when I learned the same thing about my wife – just can’t figure her out. It must be a “woman thing”, you reckon? Which reminds me:
A man was walking along a beach, stumbled across an old lamp, picked it up, rubbed it, out popped a genie. Genie said: “Listen, I’m tired of all these wishes, so instead of three, you get only one wish.”
The man thought long and hard, then replied, “I’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii but I’m afraid to fly and I get seasick; could you build me a bridge?” Laughing the genie said, “That’s impossible!” You’ve got to come up with another wish.
After thinking about it, the man responded, “Well, I’ve been dating for years, and the women I date always tell me that I don’t care about them, that I’m too insensitive. So, my wish is to fully understand women and to know exactly how they feel and what they’re thinking.”
The genie paused for a minute, then answered, “You want that bridge with two or four lanes?”
Be that as it may, there is one thing someone figured out, about wives if not all women. It’s best summed up in the words of an old saying: “Men may wear the pants in the family, but the woman tells him which pair.”
Puzzled as we might be about our relationships with wives, mothers, and other women with whom we associate, there is one question posed in the Bible that, when asked of us, we can usually come up with someone in our memory, or someone with whom we are currently acquainted, who indeed measures up to the criteria put forth by the writer of Proverbs in the following passages: Proverbs 31:10-12 . . . 31:25-29 . . .
Folks: If, prior to coming to The Palms, I had been unable to answer the question, “A woman of noble character who can find” I certainly could have answered that question after coming here and getting to know quite a few of you who do in fact fit the biblical description of a godly woman. I can say of you what Solomon said: “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”
There is no greater characteristic of godliness than: that which our Lord recognized and commended women for - and that is, their faith. Jesus said to the Canaanite woman whose persistence in appealing to him to heal her daughter: “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted!” (Matthew 15:28) . . .
Such faith was the distinctive mark of the godly woman of Proverbs.
Such faith was the distinctive mark of the godly women (grandmother-mother duo) who were subjects of Paul’s admiration and appreciation as he wrote a letter of encouragement toTimothy – 2 Timothy 1:3-5 . . .
Isn’t it nice to see a mother’s, yea, a grandmother’s faith being lived out in their sons and daughters! Talk about legacy! Could there be a greater legacy than to see the faith which first lived in your grandmother and your mother now living in you, and the faith which lives in you now being lived in your grandchildren!?
What is the essence of the faith of godly women? Not just any faith but a faith that can best be named “A Mother’s Faith” - as expressed in this “Ode to Our Mother” by an anonymous writer:
“Your love we know: we’ve seen your tears; you’ve given to us life; you’ve walked thru hours and days and years of heartache, toil and strife.
“To see that we could have the best that you could give to all kids we, you gave up needs and often rest; you viewed eternity.
“To do his will our highest call, and by your special care we stood and walked and did not fall; you held us up in prayer.
“Though strands of gray brushed your hair, and miles separated our ways, we know that by your prayers, you helped us day by day.
“You showed us how to give, to share, to put our own needs last. You helped us see and be aware that life is soon past.
“To spite your love we would not dare, for there is not another who spread her gentle love and care like you – our Mother.”
When Jesus saw his mother near the cross, and saw the disciple whom he dearly loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Your son’, and to the disciple, ‘Your mother’. And from that time on, the disciple John took Mary the mother of Jesus into his home.
Mothers who cared for their children in time of need are worthy of being cared for in their own time of need. Jesus nods, “your son” - to whoever “your son” your caregiver might be, he or she. Jesus nods to whoever “your son” your caregiver might be, he or she, “your mother”; for, you see, we children of God are to love and care for one another just as Christ our Lord loved and cared for us! Amen.
