Here are some interesting things I have heard moms say.
1. My kids sure make a lot of plans for someone who can’t drive anywhere.
2. One mom said to another, “That’s it. I’m selling my kid on eBay.”
The other mom replied, “Don’t be silly! You made him. Sell him on Etsy.”
3. Nothing is lost until mom can’t find it.
4. “Silence is golden. Unless you have kids. Then silence is suspicious.”
5. “I don’t want to sleep like a baby. I want to sleep like my husband.”
6. “There’s nothing quite like being told I’m wrong by someone who depends on me for food, clothing, and shelter.”
A police recruit was asked what he would do if he had to arrest his mother. He said, “I’d call for backup.”
Mother’s Day is when we send cards and flowers and eat meals with our moms. It’s a time when we say thanks.
Interestingly, according to an FBI undercover agent, Mother’s Day is the most important holiday on the mobster’s calendar. There are no vendettas or broken bones on Mother’s Day with the mob. According to mob informants, it’s only gift baskets and boxes of candy.1 So, everyone is nice on Mother’s Day!
The Bible says, “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward” (Psalm 127:3).
No one is more influential in my children’s lives than their mother. She has served them, cooked for them, cleaned them up, scolded them, preached to them, educated them, hollered at them, and loved them repeatedly. She has taught them so many time-honored lessons along the way, from how to drive to how to do a job well. In between, there has been relationship advice, money skills, and some job skills. If my children keep the faith, a big portion of that will be because of their mom’s voice inside their heads.
Being a mother is challenging and discouraging. For many of you of ladies, it was the black and white image moving silently on a sonogram that truly confirmed the news – “I am a mother.” From that point on, you have been on a roller coaster. The gravity of your position descended upon you.
You can step away from most jobs at some point in your life when you want to. Motherhood relentlessly keeps coming at you.
Now, a mother feels daily pressure for so many reasons. You work to help provide an income for your family, and then you feel guilty when you aren’t there at home. Or you’re a single Mom, and there’s no one in the batter’s box to pinch-hit for you when you grow tired.
I want to keep two mothers before your mind’s eye today. These two moms are lifted from the pages of the Bible. Mom, when you envision your child’s future, would you ever consider your precious child being sold into slavery and dragged against his will into a foreign nation? Could you imagine your baby boy’s brothers being so jealous that they threw their young brother into a pit only to sell him to the first group of people who came by? Mom, could you imagine the baby you rock to sleep being thrown into a lion’s den? For the mothers of Joseph and Daniel, this is exactly what the future they couldn’t envision. We know that beautiful Rachel was the mother of Joseph, but the Bible doesn’t give us the name of Daniel’s mother. Yet, both of these moms rose to the challenge of raising children whose faith flourished despite the obstacles thrown their way.
America looks really different for our children than many of us imagined. Can we envision the future our children will have? How can we best prepare them for the obstacles coming against their faith?
America looks really different for our children than many of us imagined. Our children face numerous challenges, and most Americans are pessimistic about our future. How can we disciple the next generation to prepare them for an uncertain future best?
I know mom should receive a gift on Mother’s Day – I get it. Still, here are Three Gifts You Can Give the Next Generation.
1. Give Your Children the Gift of Moral Convictions
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29).
The first gift you can give your children is to galvanize their moral convictions.
1.1 Conformed to the Image of His Son
Underline that phrase “conformed to the image of his Son.” God’s goal for every single believer is that they are “conformed to the image of his Son.” Mom, your number one goal is to see your children become fully formed disciples of Jesus. Dad, your number one goal in life is to see your children become fully formed disciples of Jesus.
Just as your family would take a car trip this summer, your destination is “conformed to the image of his Son.” Your goal for your children should be that they are “conformed to the image of his Son.” How are we all to conform to the perfect Jesus? We are to be conformed to Jesus in character. The Spirit of God is working in my child’s life to conform him/her “to the image of his Son.” God’s goal for all of us and your goal for the next generation is that our character would be “conformed to the image of his Son.”
1.2 Daniel and Joseph
Again, I have two mothers in mind this morning: Daniel’s mother and Joseph’s mother. The Bible doesn’t give us Daniel’s mother or father’s name. Look with me at Daniel first.
“Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans” (Daniel 1:3-4).
Daniel was probably just a teenager when he was ripped out of his land. Daniel and his three friends, whom you probably know by their Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, are forced to leave their homes, and go into exile. Babylon conquers Israel, and the boys are forced to live in the conquering nation. Daniel is likely chosen because he was from a leading family in Israel, maybe from the tribe of Judah. Daniel’s parents could not have foreseen this.
1.2.1 Babylon Compared to Judah
Babylon was a city bigger, stronger, and shinier than anything the Hebrew boys had ever seen. As they drew closer, there was a large bridge for them to cross before entering one of the many glorious gates of the city. Can you imagine how intimidating the scene must have been for these Hebrew boys!2 As they walked across the bridge, I am sure the city walls were filled with Babylonian teenagers jeering and hurling insults at these young men. The people of God were heartbroken.
Beginning in verse 3, we notice that Nebuchadnezzar attempted to reprogram Daniel and his friends. They sought to “babylonianize” the next generation.3 This wasn’t an opportunity for Daniel and his friends to broaden their horizons. No, they were seeking to reprogram them, to get of their spiritual heritage. Daniel was away from his mother, his parents – there was nothing they could do for him at this moment.
1.2.2 Name Changes
We know this because of the name change: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were not the names given to them by their Hebrew, God-fearing parents. All their Hebrew names referred to God in their names, as you can see from verse 7. Babylon changed the names of Daniel and his 3 friends. Every one of their names was a reminder of their faith. Their new names were modeled after the Babylonian gods of Marduk, Bel, and Nebo. The 4 teenagers were the targets of an intense reeducation program.
Your job, Mom and Dad, is to stamp your children with God so that when they do go to Babylon, their name is already branded deep in their DNA. Babylon will get them, and Babylon will try to rename them.
1.2.3 Three Years
“The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. (Daniel 1:5).
Three years! – Freshman year, Sophomore year, and Junior Year! It was a three-year spiritual reprogramming for these godly Hebrew teenagers. In place of God creating the heavens and the earth, they were told about omens, magic, sorcery, and astrology. Can you imagine the kind of confidence these teens had in God’s Word to withstand three years of indoctrination? Can you imagine the discipleship process their parents had done?
1.2.3 Don’t Be Squeezed
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29).
Just like ancient Babylon, America will squeeze your children into its mold. The Message paraphrase says, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking” (Romans 12:2). TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube will squeeze your children into its mold. They will probably spend a lot more time listening and watching social media than listening to your voice. Mom, give your children the gift of strong moral convictions to succeed in this life. Galvanize their moral convictions before they leave your house. America’s morality compass is broken.
Repeatedly, tell them they are loved by their Heavenly Father. Repeatedly, tell your children that every one of God’s commands is an invitation to help yourself to happiness. Repeatedly, tell the next generation that every time the Bible says, “Don’t do this,” He’s saying, “Don’t harm yourself.”
1.3 Résumé Virtues and Eulogy Virtues
Think with me about the difference between what author David Brooks calls résumé virtues and eulogy virtues.4 Résumé virtues are the ones you list on your résumé, the skills that you bring to the job market and that contribute to external success. But eulogy virtues are deeper. Moms, eulogy virtues that get talked about at your funeral. These are the ones that exist at the core of your being — whether you are kind, brave, honest, or faithful. Mom, what are your goals for your children? Train your children to be rooted in love and graced with humility. Disciple your children to be faithful to the Lord Jesus and the Great Commission. Remind them often of the Day when they will stand before Almighty God. More than excelling at SATs and adding zeros to their paychecks one day, preach the virtue of being conformed to the image of Jesus. Too often, we are worried about our children’s résumé virtues rather than their eulogy virtues. Teach them and guide them in the way of gentleness, kindness, love, humility, and honesty.
1.4 King Richard Movie
Some of you have recently seen the film, King Richard, as I have. The film stars Will Smith as Richard Williams, the father and coach of famed tennis players Venus and Serena Williams. Richard Williams lives in Compton, California, with his wife, Brandy, his three stepdaughters, and his two daughters, Venus and Serena. Richard aspires to turn Venus and Serena into professional tennis players. He has prepared a plan for success since before they were born. Richard and Brandy coach Venus and Serena on a daily basis while also working as a security guard and a nurse. Richard works tirelessly to find a professional coach for the girls, creating brochures and videotapes to advertise their skills, but has not succeeded. At one point, a nosy neighbor calls Child Protective Services over to their house because she thinks the parents are pushing the kids too hard. As the cops are at his house, the father screams at the cops in his living room that they should be out on the streets of Compton picking up drug dealers. Before the cops and throughout the movie, you see an unrelenting father with this one goal for his two girls to win Wimbledon. Of course, Serena and Venus are household names now. Yet, you are struck by the fact this father and mother had the determination to follow their plan no matter what others thought of them. These parents had one goal: winning big in tennis and raising their financial profile. God made you, Mom, to have one goal for your children – you are to galvanize their morals.
1. Give Your Children the Gift of Moral Convictions
2. Give Your Children the Gift of Wisdom
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck” (Proverbs 1:7-9).
2.1 Listen to Your Mother’s Voice
Consider that when Proverbs was written, it was written in a Patriarchal society, even a misogynistic society at times. Still, the King of Israel singles out the mother’s voice to teach and train the next generation. Momma, your family is a school, and you are one of their primary teachers. Even if you seek help in raising your children from others, the responsibility is yours to teach and train them. Parents, we will give an account to God for how the minds and hearts of our children were shaped and molded by the educators and the caregivers we entrusted them to.5
As parents, do we care more about grades, first chair, batting orders, class rankings, and college scholarships than we do about eternity? [Pause] Do we have the kind of love that prepares them for eternity, not just college?
Proverbs calls on the son to listen to his mother’s teaching and his father’s instruction. Mother, use your voice to repeatedly instruct your children. Again, I say “repeatedly.” I love what my wife said a few years ago about our children, “They may go the wrong path, but they hear my voice in their head if they do.”
Have conversations where you invite questions. Dialogue about the big issues of life. You be a student of the Bible and bring the Word of God to bear on every subject. Teach your children to be wise.
2.2 Joseph and Sexual Temptation
Again, I want you to keep two mothers in mind: the mothers of Joseph and Daniel.
2.2.1 Rachel
While we don’t know Daniel’s mother’s name, we do know Joseph’s mother. Joseph’s mother was Rachel, and the Bible tells us that Rachel was especially beautiful. She was such a knockout that Jacob (Joseph’s father) worked fourteen years to her hand in marriage. Tragically, Joseph’s mother, Rachel, is already dead before we really meet the seventeen-year-old Joseph. She died while giving birth to Joseph’s brother, Benjamin (Genesis 35:19). Rachel was Joseph’s father’s, Jacob, favorite.6 Joseph was Jacob’s favorite because his mother, Rachel, was Jacob’s favorite.
2.2.2 Joseph Sold into Slavery
Later on, Joseph was sold into slavery because of the jealousy of his brothers. Joseph ends up as a slave to a man named Potiphar in Egypt. Joseph finds himself working for his slaveowner boss, and he is constantly around his owner’s wife without the husband, Potiphar. Joseph inherited the good looks of his mother, Rachel—both were described as beautiful people. Joseph must have had model good looks, and Mrs. Potiphar takes notice.
First, this sexually aggressive woman tries a direct frontal assault. In essence, this married woman says to her husband’s slave, “Sex! Now!” “But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God”” (Genesis 39:8-9)?
I love Joseph’s moral convictions here. He didn’t say, “God has abandoned me. I might as well be happy because God doesn’t care about me.” Joseph was taught to have moral convictions.
But Mrs. Potiphar didn’t stop there. She was so insulted and so embarrassed that she decided she would get even with this young man. She began to scream that he had assaulted her. Then she disheveled her hair and perhaps, tore her clothing a little bit, maybe even scratched her face. All the while, she still had Joseph’s coat in her hand, and she told the other men there, “This young Hebrew tried to do this terrible, horrible thing to me.” When Mr. Potiphar came home, it was reported to him, and Joseph is now cast into prison.
Pause: Where did Joseph get these moral convictions from?
2.2.3 Joseph Stands All Alone
Again, Joseph’s resistance should encourage all of us. What is so surprising in this story is this: Joseph resists sexual temptation when so very few in his family are able to resist. Joseph’s father was a polygamist. Joseph’s grandfather was a polygamist. His older brother, Judah, slept with his own daughter-in-law, thinking she was a prostitute! His sister, Dinah, was tragically raped when Joseph was around 11 years old.7 And Reuben, his brother, shamefully slept with one of his father’s wives.8 Did his mother teach him how to value the gift of sex and use it wisely?
Joseph’s story is a story of hope in a sexually confused world. Joseph teaches us that dysfunctional families don’t define us. I think Rachel’s voice got through to Joseph.
2.3 Clear Up Marriage Confusion
Moms, I don’t have to tell you that our world is saturated in sexual freedom.
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).
Moms teach the next generation that Marriage is for life - it is permanent and exclusive. When Jesus echoes the “one flesh” union of Genesis 2, He describes marriage as being between two people for life. So sexual intercourse isn’t something to be shared about a wide variety of people, but two people only. Upon your partner’s death, then and only then does the Bible allow for remarriage of the living partner with another.
2.3.1 A Post-It Note
Sex should be thought of as a post-it note.9 Track with me on this for a moment… The first time you use a Post-it note, it sticks well. But when you try to use it again and again and again, it loses its stickiness. We are not designed for casual sexual encounters. As this happens, the encounter becomes increasingly empty and broken.
2.3.2 Relational Cement
Think of Sex as “relational cement.” Our Creator designs sex as something to knit two people together for life. God designed sex as an act where you’ll bond with your spouse. So, the duration of marriage is permanent – “until death do we part.” Because this is such a minority view in our culture, you will need to give your children the love, confidence, and affirmation to withstand a tidal wave of assaults coming against them. The locker room, dating apps, and pressure to send explicit photos will call for you to be vigilant.
Give your children the gift of wisdom, mothers.
2.4 Children Listen to Their Mothers
A recent 2019 Households of Faith report finds that mothers — more often than fathers or anyone else in the household — are seen as the confidants, providers of support, and drivers of faith formation.10 This report says teenagers most often talk about God and their faith with their mothers. They are more likely to pray with their mother. Over 80% of teens tell us they are most likely to speak to their mother about questions about their faith.
Moms are the go-to people for teens with questions about the Bible, politics, and things that bother them. Mothers are the main spiritual coaches for their teenagers. Moms are the number one people who encourage their teens to go to church, talk about God’s forgiveness, and teach them about the Bible. Give your children the gift of wisdom, mothers.
2.5 Relational Wisdom
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck” (Proverbs 1:7-9).
Make the connection between the mother’s teaching and the father’s instruction, which connects back to “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” Repeatedly, teach the next generation to marry only once in this life and do everything possible to protect your marriage. Repeatedly, teach your boy to never, ever abandon their wives for someone else who they think is prettier or hotter because they will have a lifetime of regret. Repeatedly, teach your boys to be the best daddies possible and never to abandon their future children, or they will have a lifetime of regret. Remember to teach them eulogy virtues even when we are constantly bombarded to teach Résumé virtues.
2.6 Could Not Foresee
We don’t know a lot about Rachel and Daniel’s mother. Neither could have foreseen what their children would experience. In their wildest dreams, neither mother would have believed you if you were to tell them their sons would be thrown into prisons and lion’s den through no fault of their own. Neither mother would have guessed when they rocked those babies to sleep at night that their boys would rule foreign nations.
1. Give Your Children the Gift of Moral Convictions
2. Give Your Children the Gift of Wisdom
3. Give Your Children the Gift of Your Love
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Your love can make a huge difference in your child’s life.
3.1 Armand’s Son and the Earthquake
On December 7, 1998, at 11:41 a.m. local time, an earthquake occurred in the northwestern part of Armenia. It was estimated that 30,000 people died. In one small town, a father survived the earthquake and immediately ran through the streets to the school where his son had been attending class. Once he arrived, he saw a pile of rubble where the school had once stood. He figured out in what area his son might have been when the earthquake occurred. He then climbed up on the pile of rubble and started digging. After an hour or two, others began to call out to him, telling him how hopeless it was and that no one could have survived.
Other well-meaning parents tried pulling him off what was left of the school, saying: “It’s too late!” “They’re dead!” “You can’t help!” “Go home!” “Come on, face reality, there’s nothing you can do!” They told him to come down off the pile, but he ignored their pleas, and he kept digging. He dug for 4 hours, 8 hours, 16 hours, 24 hours, and for 36 hours. The fire chief showed up and tried to pull him off the school’s debris, saying, “Fires are breaking out, explosions are happening everywhere. You’re in danger. We’ll take care of it. Please go home.”
Finally, at the 38th hour, he heard voices coming from the rubble. He called out to his son. “Armand! Is that you?” “Yes, father, we are okay!”
Armand and twelve other students were tucked away in a small space that had protected them. Armand yelled to his father, “Dad? It’s me, Dad! I told the other kids not to worry. I told them that if you were alive, you’d save me, and when you saved me, they’d be saved. You promised, ‘No matter what, I’ll always be there for you!’ You did it, Dad!”11
That kind of love should motivate you to teach, to love, to galvanize your children’s biblical convictions.
3.2 Conclusion - Sojourner Truth and Her Son, Peter
Isabella was born in 1797 as a Dutch-speaking slave in rural New York. She was separated from her family at the tender age of nine, and she was sold several times. She suffered both physical and sexual abuse as a slave. Isabella walked to freedom in 1826 because she was inspired by her “conversations with God.” She was a lanky character, standing nearly six feet tall, and she wore glasses and a Madras handkerchief turban around her head. She eventually had five children through a coerced marriage to another slave. At every step along the way, Sojourner Truth was inspired by her faith in Christ. Even though she never learned to read or write, Sojourner Truth became a powerful speaker. For much of her life, she advocated for women’s rights and the end of slavery. Sojourner Truth gained recruits for the Union in the Civil War, helped freed slaves get work, and advocated for states to set aside property for freedmen after the war.12
It was in 1826 that she learned her son, Peter, had been illegally sold into slavery in Alabama. With no money in her pocket, and ignoring everyone who mocked her, she raised money for the legal fees to take the matter to court, where Peter was freed by a grand jury in 1928. She was persistent. She was determined to say the least.
Rescue your children from modern Babylon just as Sojourner Truth did her child.
EndNotes
1 https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-may-13-adna-mobmoms13-story.html; accessed May 8, 2024.
2 J. Paul Tanner, Daniel, eds. H. Wayne House and William D. Barrick, Evangelical Exegetical Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2020), 134.
3 I owe this term to Tony Evans, “Saints in a Secular Society,” Tony Evans Sermon Archive. (Tony Evans, 2015).
4 David Brooks, The Road to Character (New York: Random House Publishing Group, 2015 ), 2.
5 https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/do-not-forsake-your-mothers-teaching; accessed May 7, 2024.
6 Omitted in the interest of time: Now, Joseph wasn’t the youngest son of Rachel that was Benjamin. But perhaps Joseph was his dad’s favorite not only because his mother was Jacob’s favorite but his birth had a happy ending. In Joseph’s birth Jacob gained a son. But in Benjamin’s birth, Jacob lost his favorite wife.
7 See Genesis 34:2.
8 “While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine. And Israel heard of it” (Genesis 35:22).
9 I am indebted to Sam Allbery for this concept. Sam Allberry, Is God anti-gay? And Other Questions about Homosexuality, the Bible, and Same-Sex Attraction, (n.p. :Good Book Company, 2013),
10 https://www.barna.com/research/moms-christians-households/; ; accessed May 8, 2024.
11 https://steemit.com/article/@elsieguy/a-true-life-story-no-matter-what-i-ll-always-be-there-for-you; accessed May 8, 2024.
2 https://www.denisonforum.org/biblical-living/christianity/the-truth-is-powerful-and-will-prevail-how-sojourner-truths-faith-changed-history/; accessed May 7, 2024.
