Mother’s Day 2018

Text: Honor thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) Eph. 6:2

Today is Mother’s Day, a day we all are called to honor our moms. And even if your mother is no longer living, you can honor her memory. 

Like all mothers, we learned much from them.  If your mother was like mine, and I am sure she was since all mother read from the same training manual you were taught so many virtues throughout your childhood.  

Mom taught us how to pray. "You better pray you can fix that."  She taught us how to have a great imagination.  "Don't do that again of else."  Or else what? She taught us how to anticipate the worst of things.  "When your dad gets home you will be sorry." And she taught us self-control, whenever our family would go somewhere we were told “Don’t touch anything…” and then she’d often combine self-control with imagination, “or else....”  Then there were the lessons of respect.  Don't walk between adults.  Stand up when older people enter the room.  Don't interrupt adults when they are talking. Offer to help the elderly. Give the elderly and women your seat if there are no more places to sit.  Children are to be seen and not heard.

 I am sure if you as old as I am you heard the same lessons of life.  They were universal with mothers.  Today, not so much. Today our world tries to tell mothers to do something important in their life.  While God is showing them, what is essential is sitting at the dinner table looking at you. 

 The Fourth Commandment “Honor your father and your mother” with these words, God has given the first commandment with a promise of long life.  Motherhood is a unique position of honor, higher than that of any occupation. 

You see, in God’s eyes, there is no vocation higher than parent.   What the Scriptures teach is that the vocation of parent is more important than any other vocation and that the proper ordering of vocations places fatherhood and motherhood on top. 

But we live in an upside-down world. Our world tells women, “Motherhood is a hindrance. Children will hold you back. If you want to do something important with your life and if you want nice stuff, you have to limit those things.” So, what do they offer women? Deliverance from the “burden” of children. How? Through the legal opportunity and social expectation to exercise “a woman’s right” and “choose” fewer children, not this child, no children right now, or no children ever. 

We need to hear truth: children are not an interruption of a parent’s lifework; they are a parent’s lifework. Every other vocation, in which a parent might serve, exists to serve the mission of parents. As important as other professions are—and they are essential, and God calls men and women to serve in various fields of work—we can’t mislead men and women into thinking, “This vocation over here is what’s really important, or that occupation over there needs me or this calling is what really matters.” Motherhood and fatherhood matter more than any other. 

Let me meddle at this point.  God does not call you to spend more time reaching others at the cost of your own children.  Your first obligation is to you own family. Some individuals have spent more time trying to “save” others at the cost of their own children being “lost.” This is not what God intended.  If you loose your own children what will it matter if you brought hundreds to the LORD.  Children are your heritage.  Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Ps.127:3   

Unredeemed eyes don’t see motherhood’s honored position next to God Himself. That’s why they’re always saying, “Pursue this. Chase after that. Here’s what really matters.” That’s why they keep pushing a no family planning; they don’t see the majesty of motherhood. They think a thousand different professions and positions and careers are more esteemed than motherhood. 

And don’t mishear me, I’m not saying women shouldn’t work outside the home; I’m saying the greatest vocation isn’t found somewhere out there, it’s seen in the hungry eyes of an infant, the inquisitive stare of a child, the hopeful gaze of a youth, the confident stride of a teenager, and the independence of a young man or woman stepping beyond the bounds of home for the first time. Motherhood matters more than any vocation out there.  The most important person on earth is a mother. She may not lay claim to having built some magnificent cathedral or monument, but she has created something far more significant, a dwelling for an immortal soul, the perfection of her baby's body.  The angels have not been blessed with such a grace. They cannot share in God’s creative miracle to bring new saints to heaven. Only a human mother can. Mothers are closer to God the Creator than any other creature; God joins forces with mothers in performing this act of creation.  What is more glorious than this: to be a mother?  If the church gave the message of the importance of motherhood, there might not be as many young mothers willing to sacrifice their child's life. 

As Christians, it is time that we encourage mothers who are struggling to raise their children in the ways of the LORD.  Show them there is no greater vocation on earth, for it, is God’s chosen means to bring children into this world and, likewise through parents, to bring children into Christ’s kingdom. 

Today, if your mother is living show her the respect and honor God has given to her as a mother.