TITLE: Mom, Thanks for All You Do
I. INTRODUCTION:
A. When God Created Mothers...
When the Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth day of "overtime" when an angel appeared and said, "You're taking a lot of time on this one."
And God said, "Have you read the specs on this order?" She must be completely washable, but not plastic. Have 180 moveable parts...all replaceable. Run on black coffee and leftovers. Have a lap that disappears when she stands up. A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair. And six pairs of hands."
The angel shook his head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands? No way."
"It's not the hands that are causing me problems," God remarked, "it's the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have."
"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel. God nodded. "One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, 'What are you kids doing in there?' when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn't but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say, 'I understand, and I love you' without so much as uttering a word."
"God," said the angel touching his sleeve gently, "Get some rest tomorrow...."
"I can't," said God, "I'm so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick... can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger meat... and can get a nine-year-old to stand under a shower."
The angel circled the prototype model of a mother very slowly. "It's way too soft," she sighed. "But tough!" said God excitedly. "You can imagine what this mother can do or endure." "Can it think?" "Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise," said the Creator. Finally, the angel bent over and ran his finger across the cheek. "There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told You that You were trying to cram too much into this model." "It's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear." "What's it for?"
"It's for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride."
B. What Mothers Should Make (2025):
Salary.com estimated in 2024 that if mothers were paid for the work they do, their annual salary would be valued at $184,820—a steady increase from previous years.
The calculation considers more than 90 hours of weekly labor as moms juggle roles like teacher, nurse, chef, counselor, and driver.
Oxfam America, in a broader 2024 report, still emphasizes the value of unpaid labor—especially by women—as invaluable to the global economy, estimating its worth at over $1.7 trillion in the U.S. alone if compensated at minimum wage.
Mom, thank you for all that you do! You are, without exaggeration, holding the world together in unseen and often undervalued ways.
Mom, thank you for all that you do! It may go unrecognized sometimes, and it shouldn't. So today we want to encourage you. What you have done as a mother, and what you are doing as a mother, matters. It flows from who you are, who God made you to be. It matters.
Mom, thank you for all that you do! You shape us into what we become. It has been said that the hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world.
C. THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE IS THE HAND THAT RULES THE WORLD (William Ross Wallace)
BLESSINGS on the hand of women! Angels guard its strength and grace. In the palace, cottage, hovel, Oh, no matter where the place; Would that never storms assailed it, Rainbows ever gently curled, For the hand that rocks the cradle Is the hand that rules the world.
Infancy's the tender fountain, Power may with beauty flow, Mothers first to guide the streamlets, From them souls unresting grow— Grow on for the good or evil, Sunshine streamed or evil hurled, For the hand that rocks the cradle Is the hand that rules the world.
Woman, how divine your mission, Here upon our natal sod; Keep—oh, keep the young heart open Always to the breath of God! All true trophies of the ages Are from mother-love impearled, For the hand that rocks the cradle Is the hand that rules the world.
Blessings on the hand of women! Fathers, sons, and daughters cry, And the sacred song is mingled With the worship in the sky— Mingles where no tempest darkens, Rainbows evermore are hurled; For the hand that rocks the cradle Is the hand that rules the world.
Abraham Lincoln said, "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."
Oh, it's true, Mom, what you have done and what you are doing shapes the world in which we live. What you are doing matters. It is vital. It is important. Mom, thanks for all that you do!
We are shaped by our relationships. Our very first human relationship is with our mother. Mom, we wouldn't be here without you! James Brown said it well in the classic song. It may seem like this is a man's world, but it wouldn't be nothin' without a woman or a girl. It wouldn't be nothin' without a mom.
The apostle Paul agreed. In 1 Corinthians 11:12, he wrote, “The first woman came from a man, but every man since has come from a woman.” Even when God came into the world through Christ, the door through which He chose to come was a mother's womb.
The relationship between mother and child is one of the most beautiful portraits of the love of God in creation. Mom, thanks for all you do. Your love for us images God's Love.
Today, we celebrate motherhood. Mom, thanks for all you do!
It's the little things that you do, Mom, that add value to the world. The jewels that adorn creation are the things that make a great mother.
II. TEXT:
The opening chapters of Exodus highlight something we too often overlook: before there was a Moses, there were mothers—at least five distinct women whose courage, compassion, and conviction shaped his destiny and ultimately the destiny of the world. These women model different aspects of motherhood, and each reveals something about the nurturing character of God.
The human star of Exodus is Moses. But Moses's story does not begin with Moses. It begins with the story of mothers, mothers that shaped his life and therefore shaped the world that they lived in and that subsequent generations have lived.
The first verse of Exodus begins, "These are the names of the children of Israel..." Then it says that there are seventy or seventy-five descendants of Jacob. These descendants arrived because of four mothers, Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah. Mom, thanks for all that you do! You share your body with a little invader for nine months and then give birth to them. And it doesn't stop there. You feed them and love them and... Mom, thanks for everything you do!
Then there were the mothers who bore the children throughout the 400 years that Israel was in Egypt. They were a part of keeping the truth of God's promise to Abraham alive in the hearts of the children and the nation, one generation after another. Mom, thanks for all you do. When you teach your children their memory verse, when you bring them to worship service, and Sunday School, when you read the Bible to them, you teach them the truth... Oh, it matters! Mom, thanks for all you do!
Let’s take a moment and reflect on these “mothers of Moses”:
1. Jochebed (Moses’s biological mother):
She bore him, protected him, and took a faith-filled risk by placing him in that basket. She represents the mother who sees potential in her child and is willing to let go in trust so that the child might live. As Hebrews 11:23 tells us, she did this by faith. We only later learn that her name is Jochebed. In Exodus 2, she is simply named Amram's wife. She is nameless in her first appearance. Her badge of honor is that she is a mother. And the writer of Hebrews calls her a person of great faith. She hid Moses for three months. She saw that he was a special child. It literally says that he was a beautiful child. Mom, thanks for thinking we are beautiful. Thanks for thinking we are the best. Jochebed saw that God had a greater purpose for her baby, and she was not afraid to disobey the king's command (Hebrews 11:23). Mom, thanks for knowing when to break the rules for our benefit! Jochebed's insight caused her to place her baby in a basket and pitch it with tar and send him out on the Nile. Mom, thanks for all that you do. There may be places where you have to send your children out in a less-than-ideal environment, but you send us out covered with a network of prayer and a covering. Oh, how many times it has happened to me that I have asked a mother if she had anything that I could pray with her about something, and she replied, “My children.” Mom, thanks for never giving up on us! Thanks for all that you do!
2. Miriam (his sister):
She wasn’t his mother, but she looked after Moses with a mother’s heart. She stood watch, intervened at the right moment, and ensured that he would be safely returned to his own mother for care. She is a reminder that motherhood is not just biological—it is also protective, resourceful, and watchful.
3. Shiphrah and Puah (the Hebrew midwives):
These two women defied Pharaoh’s murderous command. Though they were not Moses’s direct caregivers, their commitment to life and justice made his birth possible. They mothered a generation through their bravery. They are a model of the kind of moral courage mothers so often show when they stand against systems that harm children. They cared for other mothers and became mothers themselves. Their courage may have been one thing that emboldened the mothers of Israel to refuse the oppressive commandments of Pharaoh. And God gave them families of their own! Mom, thanks for all you do. Thanks for the moments that you show courage to us by doing things that may terrify you, but you know that they must be done for our good and the good of future generations. It matters!
4. Pharaoh’s daughter (his adoptive mother):
She saw a Hebrew child in a basket—an enemy child in the eyes of the empire—and had compassion. She raised him with privilege and education, equipping him with tools he would later lay down in the service of God’s people. She reminds us that adoptive and foster mothers are doing kingdom work. She reminds us that nurturing can come from unexpected places. That day, as she bathed in the Nile, she found the basket Jochebed had placed her beautiful baby in. She embraced him and named him Moses. She made sure he was taken care of. She hired Moses's own mother to nurse him, to care for him. Pharaoh's daughter gave Moses the best she knew to give him. By the time he was 40 years old, he was a man mighty in word and deed. He was educated in all the wisdom of Egypt. Pharoah's daughter was a mother to Moses, who gave him the opportunity to grow up to be the deliverer that he would eventually become. Mom, you may have some children who are not biologically yours, but they are yours. Thanks for all that you do!
Together, these women—some related by blood, others by calling—form a network of nurturing, resisting, releasing, and raising that made Moses who he was.
Without them, there is no deliverance, no Exodus, no Mount Sinai, no covenant.
Without them, there is no pointing forward to another child—one placed in danger, saved by a faithful mother, and destined to save his people.
Mom, you have more influence than you know. Thank you for all that you do.
Without these mothers, along with the other women in Exodus 1-2, there is no Moses. Without Moses, there is no deliverance from Egypt, no Exodus, no Torah, no nation, no fulfilled promise to Abraham, and the list goes on down to the time when an angel was sent from heaven to a young virgin named Mary. He told her that she was going to be the mother of the Messiah. After the angel explained that it would be a miracle conception through the Spirit of God, Mary said, "Be it unto me according to your word."
Her Son would pray similar words one day in a garden, "Not My will, but Your's be done." And then Jesus went to the cross to die for our sins, was buried, and rose the third day according to the Scriptures. Mom, you have more influence than you know. Thank you!
And so, just as Mary, the mother of Jesus, said, “Be it unto me according to Your word,” every faithful mother participates in the same story: a willingness to carry, to raise, to release, and to trust that God has a purpose in every act of love and sacrifice.
Mom, you love us. Thank you!
Mom, you heal us and protect us. Thank you!
Mom, teach us. Thank you!
No sacrifice is meaningless. All that you do for your children matters. The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
III. CONCLUSION:
On this Mother's Day, we celebrate you. We want to take a moment to pray for you and ask God's blessing and strength. We want to ask God to give you rest today.
