A young man went into a bookstore in Boston and asked the clerk if she had the book
Man, The Master Of Women. The pretty salesgirl merely tossed her head and said, "You'll
have to look for that in the fiction department." In the battle of the sexes modern women
feel they are gaining victories. In spite of all the negative and derogatory remarks on the
inferiority of women by men in history, they have risen to places of leadership in almost
every field. Many women are now ordained clergy, and there are mothers who are right now
straight A students in theological seminaries.
I am keenly conscious of the sharpness of the feminine mind because I graduated from
Bethel College third from the top because 2 girls had superior grades. Plato said, "All the
pursuits of men are the pursuits of women also, but in all of them a woman is inferior to a
man." The facts, however, show that Plato, one of the greatest thinkers in history, was dead
wrong. Women can match men both as sinners and as saints. Women can now follow the
path of folly just as freely and openly as men. According to the world this is progress, and
there cheer is, "You've come along way baby." We cannot argue with the fact that they have
come along way, but the tragedy is that for many it has been the wrong way. Women have
been blind to their potential, and they have been grasping for that which weakens and
destroys their place and power in God's plan. Women are equal with men, but their role is
different. God the Father and God the Son are equal, but their roles are also different.
Most women play two major roles in life, and they are being a wife and being a mother.
In the role of wife she is to be submissive to her husband, and in the role of mother she is to
be sovereign over her children. She is to be both a follower and a leader, and when she plays
both roles well she is the masterpiece of God's creation. However, when she gets her wires
crossed she brings misery upon herself and those she loves. Women lose out on their
effectiveness almost always in the wife relationship rather than the mother relationship.
Almost all the negative literature against women is aimed at the wife. Such literature does
not even exist against mothers. It is harder to be a good wife than it is to be a good mother.
More women fail at being wives than at being mothers. Many men desert their wives, but
few ever desert their mother. Men divorce their wives, but they love their mothers to the
end. It is just a fact that husbands are harder to please than children. It is not valid to
assume that he was joking when a husband wrote this poem to his wife:
When you're away, I'm restless, lonely,
Wretched, bored, dejected, only
Here's the rub, my darling dear,
I feel the same when you are here.
A woman's hardest task in life is to be a good wife, and that is why, even from a woman's
lips, we read in verse 10 that a good wife is rare and hard to find. Good mothers, on the
other hand, are abundant. It is hard to fail as a mother. Women have been slandered with
every name imaginable as wives, but these same women have stimulated floods of poetry as
mothers. How can it be that the same person can be seen from opposite perspectives? It is
because she obeys God's will for her by nature in her relationship to her children, but her
nature resists obedience to God's will in relationship to her husband.
It takes the grace of God to be a good wife, but motherhood and its virtues are common
even among pagans. The feminine qualities of a mother's nature come to her naturally as a
part of God's creation. Motherhood is a part of God's very nature, and He expressed that in
creation. In the second verse of the Bible, Gen. 1:2, we read that the Spirit of God moved,
hovered, or brooded over the waters. The picture is of, "That tremulous motion made by
the hen while either hatching her eggs or fostering her young." From this picture some
ancients got the idea that the world came from an egg. This word has the Spirit of God
fulfilling the female function in the incubation of life, and the word came to be used to
express the idea of loving, warming and cherishing.
Had this been the only time such a picture was used to describe God and His actions we
would not dare read much into it, but the fact is, God's motherhood is described elsewhere in
the same image of a bird's love and care for her young. In Duet, 32:11 we read of how God
cared for the children of Israel. "Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its
young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions." In Isa. 66:13
God says, "As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you." In Isa. 31:5 the bird
image is used again and God says, "Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect
Jerusalem. The mother love of a bird for her chicks was apparently the best illustration of
mother love in that ancient world, for Jesus uses it to express His love also. In Matt. 23:37
we read, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to
you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood
under her wings, and you would not."
The value of these texts is that they show us that the dignity of womanhood and
motherhood is grounded in the divine nature. God created man in His own image. The
feminine is part of the image of God, and that is why Jesus had such a perfect balance of
masculine and feminine qualities, for He was the expressed image of the father, and the
fatherhood of God includes motherhood as well. In setting apart a day a year to honor
mothers, we are not merely following a custom of the world, but we are honoring the nature
of God, which is the source of all mother love. An unknown poet put it-
Something of God is in mother's love,
True motherhood has touched His garment's hem,
For strength and wisdom, and I am quite sure,
We honor Him, today, in honoring them.
We will honor Him all the more if we looked at and seek to live up to the ideal of
motherhood, which the Scriptures reveal. This ideal we see in Proverbs in a woman's
description, and she is a mother herself. Every mother wants to play some role in choosing
her son's wife, and king Lemuel's mother, therefore, taught him what to look for. In a
previous message we considered the first requirement for being an ideal mother, and that
was to be a good wife. That is the hard part. Today we want to focus on the other
characteristics of an ideal mother. The first is that an ideal mother isI. INDUSTRIOUS.
Laziness and motherhood do not go together. The ideal mother delights in her labor for
those whom she loves. Verse 13 says she works with willing hands. That word willing means
with pleasure. The Syriac translation has it, "And her hands are active after the pleasure of
her heart." This whole passage stresses how industrious a mother is with her hands. Over
and over it pictures how she provides for her family.
In verse 16 it is with the fruit of her hands that she plants a vineyard.
In verse 17 she makes her arms strong.
In verse 19 she uses her hands to spin to provide clothing.
In verse 20 she opens her hands to the poor and needy.
In verse 31 we see another reverence to the fruit of her hands.
Times have changed and mothers no longer have to spin their own thread and sew all
their own clothes, but they must still fulfill this principle of being industrious. A good
mother is a busy mother. She is never without work to do for the good of her family. Good
works do no earn salvation, but in the realm of motherhood earn for her all her praises and
glory. A mother's hands are still one of her basic tools for success. Another unknown poet
wrote,
These are the hands that cook, wash and mend,
Hands of the teacher, the nurse, and true friend.
Though scarred by toil and wrinkled with care,
They're beautiful when uplifted in prayer.
They write and bake, and their fingers bless,
And all the world's healing is in their caress.
Many wives and mothers will not appreciate the analogy of verse 14 where she is said to
be like the ships of the merchants. In our weight conscious society few women see any honor
in being compared to a ship. One boy said to his father, "What would mom like best for
Mother's Day?" He replied, "To be weighed and found wanting." Longfellow in a beautiful
poem draws an analogy between a barge and a bride. The groom turns and looks, and this is
what he sees:
The sun shown on her golden hair,
And her cheek was glowing fresh and fair.
With the breath of morn and the soft sea air,
Like a beauteous barge was she...
F. W. Boreham, the great Australian preacher, said no woman should resent this
analogy, for all our ingenious inventions the ship is the only one of divine origin. The ark
was the first ship, and its plans were divinely dictated. The ark was the means of salvation,
and in its bosom man was delivered. And so from the bosom of Mary the mother of Christ
came our deliverance. The comparison here in our text is dealing with her industriousness.
A ship is a key factor in the industry of that day, and a mother is a key factor in the economy
of the home. She would travel far to provide food for her family. This is not necessary
today, but again, the idea is that a good mother will be a economic blessing in the home. She
will not waste money and be a burden, but will be an economizer. If she cannot raise food in
a garden and sew her own clothes, she can still go out of her way to get the best bargain. The
details have changed, but the principles remain the same. A good mother is a hard worker.
Verse 17 does not picture the weaker sex as weak, but as strong. Many mothers use
more energy in their labor than does the man of the house. Verse 23 pictures him sitting at
he gates of the city in dignity, and he is being praised because of his hard working wife.
Hard work is not degrading to a woman, but idleness is. A mother with nothing to do is a
problem. The industrious mother is not only a blessing to her family, but by her wise and
economical living she is able to share with those who are poor. A good mother is a blessing
beyond her family, and she is an instrument of God for blessing an entire society. Next we
see that she is-
II. INSTRUCTIVE.
A mother is not just a machine good for physical labor. She is life's most important
instructor. Verse 26 says, "She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness
is on her tongue." Most references to the tongues of women are negative. One said that the
last thing to stop moving in a dead man is his heart, but in a woman it is her tongue. Crabb
wrote of one, "The wife was pretty, trifling, childish, weak. She could not think, but would
not cease to speak." Men often feel women would be better off if they did not open their
mouth, but it is in her role as a wife rather than a mother.
A mother's tongue is a source of wisdom. Her words can heal the pain of body and
spirit. Her words can cheer and comfort as none other. The kindness she shows and teaches
determines much toward the character of her children. Henry Ward Beecher said, "My
mother's heart was my school room." Columbus said, "Mother was chart and compass to
my life. Her great love held me to the true course all the way." The evidence of history
clearly indicates that a mother's teaching does more to determine a child's character and
relationship to God than any other single factor. Almost every great man of God, who has
been used to lead many into the kingdom, was himself led into the kingdom by his mother, or
was strongly influenced by his mother.
Dwight L. Moody loved his mother as a boy. She was a widow with 5 children. She
taught them to be generous even in their poverty. Dwight thought she was too severe when
she insisted that he go to church to hear a sermon he did not understand after working in the
fields all week. When he went out into the world he deliberately missed church, but the habit
was strong, and he soon came back. As a man Moody wrote to his children, "I have often
said since, mother I thank you for making me go to the house of God when I didn't want to
go." A mother's instruction determines whether children will become church goers or
church skippers. A Spanish proverb says, "An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy."
A mother is the most important influence in her child's life when it is so impressionable and
pliable. She determines the direction of development. An unknown poet wrote,
Tis woman's to fashion the infant mind,
To kindle its thoughts, and its hopes unbind,
To guide its young mind in the earliest flight,
And lure it to worlds of unsullied light;
To teach him to sing, in his gladsome hours,
Of a Savior's love, with an angel's powers.
God entrusted His own Son to be raised and taught by a godly mother. Joseph died, and
the result was an even stronger connection of child and mother. The implication of the
experience of Jesus is that a mother is more essential in a child's life than the father. The
evidence of history supports this as well. There is so much more to be said of a mother's
instruction, but we have to move on. Just let this poem by an unknown author remind you as
mothers that you hold the key to your children's future.
I saw tomorrow marching by on little children's feet,
Within their forms and faces read her prophecy complete.
I saw tomorrow look at me from little children's eyes,
And thought how carefully we'd teach, if we were wise.
The ideal mother is industrious, instructive, and finally, she isIII. INSPIRING.
Verse 28 says her children rise up and call her blessed. The children of the good mother
may not recognize her worth as youth, but when they grow up they will look back and praise
her as being the main inspiration of their life. Many successful men would never have
without the inspiration of a mother. When every one else thinks you are incapable, mother
still has faith in you. This faith has inspired many to press on. Thomas Edison said, "My
mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had someone to live
for, someone I must not disappoint."
The mother of J.C. Penny had 12 children, and she lived in poverty. She did the work of
three women and worked from morning till night. Her husband died and left her with large
debts. With all her burdens she still instructed her children in Christian principles, and J. C.
grew up to praise his mother for he operated his business based on the Golden rule and was
a great success. The mother of the Mayo brothers was also poor and had no formal
education, but she raised her children with a love for learning, and they grew up to become
two of the most famous doctors in the world.
General Robert E. Lee had a uniquely close relationship to his mother. Ann Carterly
was declared dead and was buried in the family vault in Virginia. The next day when the old
sexton brought fresh flowers to lay on her casket he heard her calling for help. She let out of
the casket and 15 months later gave birth to the famous general. Lee reflecting back on life
said, "I had the most wonderful mother-in wisdom, in love, and in inspiration. God
resurrected her from the tomb that I might have just such a mother. I owe all that I am and
all that I have accomplished to my mother-the best Christian mother in all the world."
George Washington said, "If I have been of any service to the United States of America,
the credit all belongs to my wonderful mother." We can't begin to quote all the great men
who have risen up to call their mothers blessed and the source to their life's inspiration. I
will close with one more example from a Japanese author Isako Hatano who wrote to his old
mother, "When the great tree that I love is withered I shall always be proud to have been its
fruit." Such is the praise received by the ideal mother, the mother who has been industrious,
instructive and inspiring. May God inspire every mother to strive toward this ideal, for the
key to the future is in the hands of you mothers.
