OPEN: Steve Pollard said his mother was very influential in his life… he said:
My mother taught me RELIGION: "You better pray that will come of the carpet."
My mother taught me LOGIC: "Because I said so, that’s why."
My mother taught me CONTORTIONISM: "Will you look at the dirt on the back of your neck!"
My mother taught me STAMINA: "You’ll sit there until ALL that spinach is gone."
A woman columnist for the Los Angeles Times wrote about the influence her mother had on her. She said her mamma taught her several rules for being a perfect lady:
1. Mind your manners and always write "thank you" notes.
2. Brush your hair.
3. Appearance matters.
4. Never marry a man in order to change him.
5. Stand up straight and clean your fingernails.
6. Eat everything on your plate and remember the starving children in the world.
7. Speak up.
8. If you ask for something, you may get it.
9. If you don’t ask, you may not get it.
10. Keep your mouth shut and your legs crossed.
11. Don’t ever do anything you wouldn’t want me to do.
APPLY: Mothers have an powerful influence on their children and it is reflected in the amount of attention Mothers get that Fathers don’t. Did you realize that
Ø there are more cards sent on Mother’s Day than on Father’s Day
Ø There are more phone calls made on Mother’s Day to moms than there are on Father’s Day to dads (granted, ½ of those are made collect… but there are still more calls made to Mothers on Mothers day than there are to Fathers on Father’s Day)
One man complained about this discrepancy, noting that he literally poured himself into son’s life. He taught him play baseball, football, basketball, took him hunting, fishing, taught him how to drive. And then, when the boy went off to college and played ball for the college team… the Network TV cameras focused on his son and guess what he said: “Hi Mom!”
I. Moms have a powerful influence on the lives of their children.
The Bible tells several stories about women, that give us deep insights into what moms are capable and willing to do for their children.
For example… Rebekah (the mother of Jacob) manipulated her husband to make sure Jacob rec’d the blessing instead of his brother Esau.
Moses’ mother - Jochebed (to avoid having him killed by Pharaoh’s death squads) hid her baby as long as she could at… then she placed him in an ark and placed it in the bulrushes near where Pharaoh’s daughter bathed… and finally, she arranged to become her son’s teacher and guardian even when he was taken into Pharaoh’s court
Then, there’s the story of 2 women who argued over a child in front of Kg Solomon. One mother said the child was hers, the other insisted it was hers. When Solomon ordered that the baby be cut in two - and half given to each women. The false mother was delighted… but the real mother was willing to surrender her child rather than have him killed.
And then, in the New Testament, the mother of James & John approached Jesus attempting to influence him to have her two sons occupy the chief seats in the kingdom of God.
Again and again, in Scripture, mothers are shown as driven to protect and promote their children
These mothers want their children to do MORE than just survive.
They want their children to succeed!
In fact, women have often been the driving force in the success of their sons and daughters.
I believe that this is because God has placed within women the powerful desire to protect and promote their children and make them do well in life.
Mothers have often sacrificed just about everything to make sure that their children succeed in…
· school
· sports
· in the finding of a good career
· or in making sure they marry the right kind of person when they grow up.
Mothers are often THE individuals to mold and shape their children’s character and future.
Paul recognized this when he told Timothy that he had “…been reminded of (his) sincere faith, which first lived in (his) grandmother Lois and in (his) mother Eunice…." (2 Timothy 1:5)
In other words, Timothy was the kind of man that he was because of the kind of mother and grandmother that he’d been blessed with. Their faith and love for God shaped Timothy into being a powerful worker for God.
II. What this tells me is that women have an amazing potential to affect the lives of their children and grandchildren.
This is an awesome responsibility. And it is a responsibility that a mother or grandmother should not take lightly.
ILLUS: In 1995, Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s wrote in his book "Well Done!":
“When I was 11 years old, my adoptive grandmother took me to Michigan’s Gull Lake to be baptized by immersion. I really felt that I was accepted by God when I was baptized. But what I remember most about my baptism was that my Grandma Minnie MADE IT HAPPEN (emphasis mine). For her, Christianity meant more than doctrine you talked about on Sundays.... It meant teaching her grandson about faith.”
A Godly mother/or grandmother can MAKE IT HAPPEN for their children… But they can only make it happen if they make God the central focus of their lives and make Him their main priority in shaping the lives of their kids
ILLUS: I recently read the story about a mother and son who stopped their car on a busy highway and watched as a mother duck led her ducklings safely across to the other side of the road.
But, then the story went on: it said that “as the mother duck confidently continued up the street, she approached a gutter that led down to a sewer. The mother duck, seeing no problem with the gutter, walked right over its grated cover with her large, webbed feet.
She failed to realize her little ones were much smaller.
Yet, the babies faithfully followed their mother, and one-by-one they fell in-between the cracks of the sewer grate. Plop … plop … plop. Everyone (in the car’s) heart sank as they watched the mother duck boldly lead on thinking her babies were safely following in stride.” (“Mother Duck, Lead On.” Forward In Christ, May 2002: 20)
I believe it’s possible for a mother to strive, and strain and struggle to lead her child to safety on the other side of life’s road, and ultimately fail to accomplish her goal. It’s possible for her to make sure her son/ daughter are successful in:
· School
· Or Sports
· Or career
· Or marriage
And still, fail to give their sons and daughters the most important direction they can have in life
To paraphrase Mark 8:36… (which says "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and then lose his soul")
“What shall it profit a mother if her son/ daughter shall gain the whole world, and then lose their souls?”
My point is… it’s possible to love your child so much that you want them to have THE BEST THAT THIS WORLD can offer… And fail to make sure they have the best that GOD can offer.
The true tragedy would be - for our children to have bookcases loaded with awards and trophies. Walls lined with diplomas and certificates of achievement…
But to have hearts practically empty of God… and faith
III. BUT …Timothy didn’t have that problem
Timothy had a godly mother… and a godly grandmother who had their priorities straight. Timothy had a mother and grandmother who handed down a SINCERE FAITH. They gave Timothy something that was precious in God’s sight.
AND AS A RESULT, they gave this young man an inheritance that would last for eternity.
An inheritance that would still be his long after all of this world’s awards and honors have turned to dust.
ILLUS: Near a church in Kansas, there are prints of two baby feet set in the cement of the sidewalk… with the toes pointing toward the Church. It’s said that 20 years ago, when the sidewalk was being laid, a mother asked for permission to stand her baby boy on the wet cement. The tracks are still seen plainly today. That Mother had wanted her little boy to start aright.
That’s the kind of parent - we should all strive to be like.
We realize, of course, that cultivating a spiritual foundation in our kids goes beyond setting our kids’ feet in wet cement outside the church building. But that’s the kind of motivation that drove Timothy’s mother and grandmother
That’s the kind of mindset that inspired them to make sure Timothy had a “sincere faith”
IV. Well… how did that do that?
How did Lois and Eunice hand down their faith to Timothy?
I don’t know how they did it. But I do know how my mom did it for me.
· My mother read to me
Every night, she’d read Bible stories to me, til I knew the names of the Bible characters almost as well as she did.
· My mom prayed for me
Frankly, she still prays for me… and for my brother and sister.
She prays for our families.
She prays about our relationship to God
And I know she prays for this church
· She involved me in ministry.
Her ministry for God was to sing in the choir, and she made sure that each of her kids joined her in that ministry. Every Sunday morning, we would sit in the choir loft and hear the sermon and look out over the crowd gathered in worship.
· And my mother modeled her faith for me
I always knew of her faith in Christ and her love for His church
Now, Dad was a godly man… but it was Mom who communicated her faith to me in ways men have a hard time doing.
AND I believe that a mother who makes this a priority in their lives can do more to place their sincere faith into the hearts of their children than even the best of men can do.
I believe this potential is why mothers have such a treasured place in the hearts of so many of their children as they grow up.
ILLUS: There is a story about 4 preachers discussing the merits of various translations of the Bible.
One liked the King James Version best because of its simple, beautiful English.
Another liked the New American Version best because it was closer to the original Hebrew and Greek.
Still another liked a contemporary version because of its up-to-date vocabulary.
The fourth minister was silent for a moment, then said, "I like my mother’s translation best." Surprised, the other three men said they didn’t know his mother had translated the Bible.
"Yes," he replied. "She translated it into life, and it was the most convincing translation I’ve ever seen."
CLOSE - Abraham Lincoln was one of the greatest presidents our country has ever known.
And he himself believed that his mother’s faith had a strong role in developing the kind of man he became.
Even tho’ his mother died when he was young, he always remembered how he’d
seen God in her life,
how he’d heard her read to him stories from the Bible,
and how he listened to her as she taught him how to live a godly life
When she died, these were her parting words:
"I am going away from you, Abraham, and I shall not return. I know you will be a good boy... I want you to live as I have taught you, to love your Heavenly Father and keep His commandments."
And til his death, Lincoln remembered these words…
… and he remembered that he solemnly promised that he would do just that.
