Siphrah And Puah:surviving Motherhood - Mother's Day

“Siphrah and Puah: Surviving Motherhood”

Exodus 1:1-22

Mother’s Day Sunday, May 11, 2003

Purpose: To honor mothers and to give some Biblical advice on how to survive motherhood.

Intro:

I needed some help for this sermon. So in talking to my wife and other moms about motherhood, I tried to sum up of their struggles.

If I come close, I need to hear an Amen or two to let me know I’m on the right track…O-K? Here we go…

Mothers are the first to get up in the morning, and often the last to get to sleep due to restless

children that won’t take bed time seriously….

Moms are the ones who wake the children, feed the children, clothe the children, keep the children

occupied, run the children every place they need to go, feed the children again, try to get a least one task accomplished in spite of the children, bathe the children, settle down the children and try to get the children to fall asleep, only to start the process again the next day.

Mothers are the ones who are charged with making their children happy, their husband happy, (if

they work outside the home) bosses happy, and if there’s any time left then and only then

can they be happy…

Moms are the ones who are excellent first aid givers. When dad says “you’ll live” mom grabs the

Band-Aid for non-existent scrape, and with a simple hug and kiss is always able to make the

pain go away….

Mothers are the ones put up with what seems like everyone telling them that they aren’t doing it

right, that they should be doing something else, and that, even though their children are well-adjusted, content, and happy, if they don’t change today, their children will become juvenile hoodlums….

Moms are the ones who, although they’ve completed high school and maybe some college, find their vocabulary slipping away from with short phrases like, “Let mommy fix the boo-boo.” and find themselves repeated phrases constantly like “Don’t do that!” “I said no.” “Get back here.” “Get over here.” “Get out of there.” and the like…

Mothers also know a lovely arrangement of Barney, Bob the Builder, Sesame Street, and Clifford the Big Red Dog tunes replacing anything that had learnt previous to motherhood that may be more sophisticated…

We could do this for the whole sermon couldn’t we???

First let me say, before I go any further. That I believe motherhood is a God-given institution that is being attacked with a great vengeance in our county.

Let me also say that motherhood as an institution is greater than the motherhood of the past. For instance, there are single dads who are mothers. There are granddads and grandmas who are mothers. There are teachers, pastors, counselors, guardians who often serve as a mother to a child.

In fact, I believe that God, although often referred to as Father in our Scriptures, also has some mothering characteristics. Does the phrase "as a hen gathers her chicks..." sound familiar? And since we are "created in God’s image" does it not make sense that there’s a bit of motherhood in God as well. I certainly hope so..Amen?

But that’s probaby a different sermon for a different time. This message is about surviving motherhood. You see what scares me is that the importance of the role of motherhood is being questioned.

Those whose voices are often give the most credibility in our society, are advocating the relinquishing of child rearing to professionals. Many of these so-called experts are calling for curtailing parental rights, suspending the Biblical basis of parenting, and calling for changes in the American family in the halls of the United Nations as well as in our state and federal legislatures.

Some people ridicule Mother’s Day as a lot of sentimental drivel. They say that it is nothing more than a greeting card holiday that benefits florists and long-distance phone companies.

And I must admit that there is some truth to their arguments. But I also believe that a little bit of sentiment is healthy now and again. And that while some mother’s do not create the perfect model of motherhood, nor do they deserve to be recognized, I have to believe that most mothers, a majority of mothers, do the right thing by their children and their families, and deserve this day of recognition more than any other family member.

I can only imagine the stress, the hurt, and the confusion, our mothers might feel as they try to make sense of it all. Today, unfortunately, in many ways motherhood isn’t something to be enjoyed but it’s something to be survived.

If you’re in that predicament, hear these words…

If you love your children, and you’re trying your best to love them as much as God has loved you, then you’re OK, you’re doing good. And you do deserve this day.