What Being A Parent Sometimes Means

Mother’s Day Sermon

“What Being a Parent Sometimes Means”

Exodus 2:1-11

INTRODUCTION: “The Lord gives good many things twice over; but he don’t give ye a mother but once” says Tom in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Today is the day set aside each year to pay tribute to Mothers, a sometimes thankless and difficult job. Sometimes Mothers think their job is tougher than most anything else they do in life, and they are probably right. Many people think we are living in the worst of times to raise a family --drugs, violence, all kinds of temptations pulling at children, but the Mother in our scripture today had some very difficult choices to make during a very critical time in history also. Mothers have to be all things at all times it seems.

STORY: The second grade teacher had been giving a lesson on science. She had explained about magnets and showed how they would pick up nails and other bits of iron.

Now it was question time, and she asked, “My name begins with the letter M and I pick up things. What am I?

Billy, a little boy on the front row waved his hand and proudly answered, “You’re a Mother!!”

How can this Old Testament account give today’s Mothers a sense of new confidence and empowerment to handle the difficulties of today’s world? What can it say to you personally today?

1. Being a Parent Sometimes Means Making Difficult Choices: The Mother of Moses had a difficult choice to make. The Hebrews had fallen into slavery down in Egypt. As they began to multiply and grow stronger in the land they became a threat to Pharoah who was beginning to fear them. He decreed that all baby boys be killed--thrown into the Nile River. Parents were probably hoping that they would have only girls in that day even though boys were generally preferred. The Hebrew parents were going through much turmoil as they were trying to make decisions. Acts 17:17-22 tells us that many parents abandoned their babies--maybe not abandon them necessarily to die but that someone would come along and preserve their lives. Verse 18 says, “Then another king who knew nothing about Joseph became ruler of Egypt. He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our forefathers by throwing out their newborn babies so they would die.” Moses Mother tried to make a better decision. First of all she “hid him for three months” (Ex. 2:2). The family probably was on pins and needles the entire time so that no one would detect him and that no one would hear him crying. Someone from Pharoah’s court could have passed by at any time and discovered him. Moses Mother had to make another difficult decision when she could hide him no longer. She put him in a basket that day and put the basket out on the river. It was a difficult decision to let him go after carrying for him for three months, but she didn’t just abandon him on the river that day.

None of you have ever had to make that exact kind of decision concerning your children but there are other painful decisions that occur from time to time. Some have to do with difficult medical decisions when there are life-threatening conditions.

STORY: There was an article in one of the magazines where a one year old had such a serious medical condition that only an experimental medical procedure MIGHT help her. Otherwise she would die in a short time. Certain members of the family were strongly opposed to going ahead with it. The parents were agonizing over what to do. Do they run the risk of her dying from the surgery or go ahead with it? It was a difficult decision which they ended up making in favor of the surgery. After a long process the little girl started to recover and now she is four years old.

Sometimes being a parent means making difficult choices -- how do you do this?

We need God’s help on a DAILY basis. Too many families today are trying to make it on their own. Making decisions that are diffcult without the wisdom and guidance that only God can give can lead to disasterous outcomes. There is no parenting manual that gives all the answers or tell the “right” way to handle everything. Moses Mother was not an expert in every way, but she sought the Lord’s guidance on a daily basis.

Mothers, stepmothers, grandmother’s and other caregivers--put your dependence upon the Lord who can guide you and direct you toward the best decisions in these difficult times as well as the necessary daily decisions.

2. Being a Parent Requires Wisdom and Parenting Skills: Moses mother posted his sister, miriam, nearby to keep an eye on the basket. She was instructed to stay out of sight to see who might come along that day. When it so “happened” that Pharoah’s daughter saw the basket and the baby inside, Merriam volunteerd to find a Hebrew Nanny to take care of him--Moses own mother. When she showed up, she showed wisdom and restraint by not letting on that she was actually the baby’s mother and she agreed to take the job and received a paycheck for doing it.