The Anchor Holds – Mother’s Day 2004
I think it goes without saying that it takes a very special person to be a Mother. Being a parent changes everything. But being a parent also changes with each baby. Here are some of the ways having a second and third child is different from having the first.
Your Clothes
1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soon as your doctor
confirms your pregnancy.
2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long as possible.
3rd baby: Your maternity clothes ARE your regular clothes.
Their Clothes
1st baby: You pre-wash your newborn’s clothes, color-coordinate them,
and fold them neatly in the baby’s little bureau.
2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes
are clean and discard only the ones with the darkest stains.
3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can’t they?
Worries
1st baby: At the first sign of distress--a whimper, a frown--you pick
up the baby.
2nd baby: You pick the baby up when her wails threaten to wake your
firstborn.
3rd baby: You teach your 3-year-old how to rewind the mechanical swing.
Diapering
1st baby: You change your baby’s diapers every hour, whether they need it or not.
2nd baby: You change their diaper every 2 to 3 hours, if needed.
3rd baby: You try to change their diaper before others start to
complain about the smell or you see it sagging to their knees.
At Home
1st baby: You spend a good bit of every day just gazing at the baby.
2nd baby: You spend a bit of every day watching to be sure your older
child isn’t squeezing, poking, or hitting the baby.
3rd baby: You spend a little bit of every day hiding from the children.
Will you bow with me for a Word of Prayer?
Mother’s day is traditionally the day when children give something back to their mothers for all the spit they produce to wash dirty faces, all the old gum they held in their hands, all the noses they wipe, and all the bloody knees they "made well" with a kiss.
This is the day mothers are rewarded for washing all those sheets in the middle of the night, driving kids to school when they missed the bus, and enduring all the football games in the rain. It’s appreciation day for making your children finish something they said they couldn’t do, not believing them when they said, "I hate you," and sharing their good times and their bad times. Their cards probably won’t reflect it, but what they are trying to say is, "Thank you for showing up."
Erma Bombeck writes:
For the first 4 or 5 years after I had children, I considered motherhood a temporary condition -- not a calling. It was a time of my life set aside for exhaustion and long hours. It would pass.
Then one afternoon, with 3 kids in tow, I came out of a supermarket pushing a cart (with four wheels that went in opposite directions) when my toddler son got away from me. Just outside the door, he ran toward a machine holding bubble gum in a glass dome. In a voice that shattered glass he shouted, "Gimme! Gimme!" I told him I would give him what for if he didn’t stop shouting and get in the car.
As I physically tried to pry his body from around the bubble gum machine, he pulled the entire thing over. Glass and balls of bubble gum went all over the parking lot. We had now attracted a sizable crowd. I told him he would never see a cartoon as long as he lived, and if he didn’t control his temper, he was going to be making license plates for the state.
He tried to stifle his sobs as he looked around at the staring crowd. Then he did something that I was to remember for the rest of my life. In his helpless quest for comfort, he turned to the only one he trusted his emotions with -- me. He threw his arms around my knees and held on for dear life. I had humiliated him, chastised him, and berated him, but I was still all he had.
That single incident defined my role. I was a major force in this child’s life. Sometimes we forget how important stability is to a child. I’ve always told mine, "The easiest part of being a mother is giving birth.... the hardest part is showing up for it each day..."
Mothers. Aren’t they something? I’ve often wondered if there is a single man on earth that could dare stand up and say he could fill a Mother’s shoes.
God help the poor man that is dumb enough to stand up and claim he could!!
Over the last week or so I have listened to the “special song” we played this morning – “I Hope You Dance” so many times I have lost track. The girls got a hold of that song and they just cannot sing it enough. In my mind’s eye, as I listen to that song – I can visualize myself saying these words to my children – I can remember holding them for the first time moments after they were born – and I remember the HOPE that I had for them and for their future life.
But no matter how much hope I had for my children – I could never come close to the hope of the woman that carried them and gave birth to them. In my mind – I can still see the look of pure, holy, love that came across my wife’s face as each child was placed in her arms – that look never changed through the birth of all three of them – a look that I am sure many of you Mothers here today understand in the deepest corners of your heart.
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder – I hope you never take one single breath for granted – and when you get a chance to sit it out or dance…I hope you dance.
My own Mother gave me those words for Christmas just this last year. And Mom – you have been a place of hope for me my entire life – an anchor – a never-ending source of love that I know I can always depend on –
Have you ever watched a roomful of children? If one of them falls down and skins their knee – they get up and run to Mom. If they are proud of something they have just done – they look up to see if their Mother was watching. If they feel left out, or sad – they go looking for Mom to cheer them up.
Children depend on their Mother! They know they can count on her!
As children of God – we need to understand that we can depend on Him. God’s love for us is the only love we have that will surpass a Mother’s love.
Turn with me to Isaiah Chapter 40 – beginning in verse 28
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary, and the young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. The will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
Our hope is in the Lord. He will not grow weary. God is an anchor we can depend on. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He loves us so much He sent His Son to die for us.
I say these things and then men have a general understanding of what I am talking about – but the women – they truly understand.
About 6:00 A.M. on a Wednesday morning James Lawson of Running Springs, California left home to apply for a job. About an hour later his thirty-six-year-old wife, Patsy left for her fifth grade teaching job down the mountain in Riverside, accompanied by her two children, five-year-old Susan and two-year-old Gerald, to be dropped off at the babysitter’s.
Unfortunately, they never got that far. Eight and a half hours later the man found his wife and daughter dead in their wrecked car, upside down in a cold mountain stream. His two-year-old son was just barely alive in the forty-eight degree water.
But in that death the character of a mother was revealed in a most dramatic and heart-rending way. For when the father scrambled down the cliff to what he was sure were the cries of his dying wife, he found her locked in death, holding her little boy’s head just above water in the submerged car. For eight and a half hours Patsy Lawson had held her beloved toddler afloat and had finally died, her body almost frozen in death in that position of self-giving love, holding her baby up to breathe. She died that another might live. That’s the essence of a mother’s love.
James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois, 1988; pg. 375).
Life has a way of throwing out a few curve balls. More often than not, when we choose to go down a path that God has not chosen for us – when we begin to make choices in our life without checking in with Him, we go off on a journey down a long dark road.
God has plans to prosper you – not to harm you. But, He also loves you enough to let you make your own choices. I used to think I knew it all – that I had all the answers. As a parent, I now respect my parents all the more – I just cannot fathom how they were able to release me to make my own decisions in my life as I got older –
You see, they knew from experience that I would probably make some wrong choices. But they loved me enough to let me go. God is the same. He definitely has the upper hand on experience – but He loves each of us enough to let us make our own choices – even though He knows some of them are not good for us.
And yet, even with this He still tells us – “He will not grow tired or weary and His understanding no one can fathom”
I will never understand why God would love me enough to continue to be there for me in my life – I will never understand how He can look at me and love me.
And yet, at the same time – I don’t have to understand. God loves me because I am His child. God loves you because you are His child. He wants a relationship with you – He wants to be the One you come to in your times of trouble. And your times of joy.
Through all the trials and tribulations – through all the ups and downs – through all the times I have disobeyed – God still sees me in love.
He is the anchor that holds. He is the One who will always be there. He will renew my hope – and cause me to soar –
I have no doubt that I have broken God’s heart many times in my life. I know I have broken my Mother’s as well. But, it was during these times that my Mother’s love for me and most certainly God’s love for me was proven all the more –
Through the storms of my life – that is where God proved His love to me. “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Billy Graham once said, “ In the midst of the storms of life which are always going to rage, there is the peace of God.”
I am in no way this morning trying to elevate Mothers to the heights of God. But, I see so many similarities in their love. And for this, I think we should all extend our hearts to each of you.
The magnitude of your love at times overwhelms me. You are all so under-appreciated. You are all so taken for granted. And today – I want you to walk out of here hearing these words: we love you. We thank you. And yes, we appreciate you.
Thank you for holding us – for mending us – for loving us regardless of who we are or what we are – thank you for really meaning it when you tell us “everything will be ok” – thank you for all the times you have stood beside us when no one else would – thank you for being the one that would never leave our side. Thank you for all the second chances.
This morning, as we close out our service, I just want you each to take a moment to reflect on your storms. And your anchor – do you have one?
God, in His great love for us, sent His only Son to die that we might have eternal life. He wants to be the anchor in your life. He wants to lead you through all the trials and tribulations of your life – and give you peace in the storm.
Will you bow with me for a Word of Prayer?
