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To be a mother is to be a vessel for life
- Your birth made your mother a mother and it was a painful, near-death experience, through sickness, and agony. And when you were born, the pain and sorrow were all forgotten because a new life entered the world. Not just any new life, but her new life.
- A mother is like a Christian.
- She carries life as a Christian carries Christ. Paul said he labored with the Galatians to form Christ in them.
- The new life in you makes you have cravings you didn’t have before. When the word of God takes root in someone’s life, their desires start to change.
- Sometimes that new life makes you sick. Honestly, some of the things I’ve learned from the Bible make me nauseated about my self-righteousness. When I felt like I started learning the Bible I became very self-righteous and that wasn’t Christianity, it was just mean-spirited. But now that the words of God are dwelling in me, it makes me sick to think how I thought about people and the things I’d said to good people.
- And the new life makes the trouble pale in comparison. Jesus said, When a mom is in labor she is in pain because the time of birth has come, but when the child is delivered she doesn’t remember the pain because a son is born into the world.
To be a mother is to prioritize family relationships
- Mom understands that relationships are the most important thing this side of the resurrection.
- The question of who I am is not a question I can answer. That’s a question answered by the people closest to me. Relationships tell me who I am in a way that just reading the Bible and trying to self-assess and self-diagnose doesn’t.
- Jesus taught this. Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and John followed suit. A new commandment, love one another, especially they of the household of faith. Love is a relationship. The entire law could be fulfilled in two relationships, love God and love your neighbor. Are relationships important? You better believe they are.
- Mom understands the value of relationships. She is a home builder. Every wise woman builds her house (Proverbs 14:1).
- Proverbs 31:12-22 you see all the things that she does to keep her home.
- This is one reason Hannah is one of the greatest women in Israel’s history. She asks God for a son. She has one son. Then lends him to the LORD, living away from her, growing up as a priest. This was a bigger sacrifice to Hannah than had she given her own life. Samuel became one of the greatest prophets Israel ever had because of his mother’s faith.
- At 6 we say “I love you” Mom, At 10 we say “Whatever Mom”, At 16 we say “Mom is so annoying”, At 18 “I want to leave this house”, At 25 we say “Mom was right”, At 30 we say “Can I come over, Mom?”, At 50 “I don’t want to lose my mom”, At 70 we say “I would give anything to have my mom here with me.”
To be a mother is to carry the weight of your family’s pain
- Your family’s feelings become your burden to bear. You want to make sure he’s not hurt. You want to make sure your baby isn’t afraid. You want to make sure your child isn’t suffering.
- A foolish son is the heaviness of his mother (Proverbs 10:1). That’s not said about the father.
- We are familiar with the influence a mom has on her child, but what about the influence her child has on her? A child’s trouble is a mother’s trouble. And a child’s trouble is a mother’s trouble in a way that it isn’t Dad’s trouble.
- Remember Lot’s wife. Mothers would rather die than see their children suffer.
- Regrets can destroy you. What should I have done?
- Sometimes the regrets can be overwhelming, affecting the marriage
To be a mother is to be a teacher of good things
- As the famous Meghan Trainor song goes, “I am your mother. You listen to me.”
- Proverbs 6:20 the law of your mother
- Proverbs 31:1 the prophecy that his mother taught him
- 2 Timothy 1:5 Lois and Eunice – Timothy becomes pastor of the Ephesian church. We have a letter to the Ephesians because of his work. And it was the unfeigned faith of his mother and grandmother that influenced him so heavily in God’s calling.
- In a room of 120 pastors it was asked how many had been led to the Lord by their mother. 100 of them raised their hand.
