Mother's Day '23
Notes
Transcript
What is your favorite mother/grandmother memory?
In the midst of a day set aside to honor mothers, remember this: God is inviting you to know Him personally. To know Him better. To trust Him more.
I have it on good authority, a short list of things moms want today:
A NAP
No cooking, but more importantly, NO DISHES
To let someone else decide
A noticeable lack of arguing
A short sermon
A hug
Your time
7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.
Paul uses the best analogy of gentleness in the world, AFAIC. Remembering his trip to the Macedonia/Thessaloniki area was immediately on the heels of his time in Phillipi makes this even more remarkable. Because he was beaten and thrown in jail there. A very difficult time was followed by the opportunity to show gentleness to new believers...
The gentleness of a mother is forged in the days and nights when we are helpless. Completely reliant on her for protection, nourishment and love. There seems to be a fierceness which finds it way into the heart of a new mother.
Is there any greater comfort for a child than to crawl up in her lap when you are scared, tired, overwhelmed? Take this and multiply it when we talk about a grandmother. The peace stemming from experience lets the grandmother calm even the fussiest of little ones.
Paul says ‘we were…’ Are we gentle with new believers? Do we look after them and care for them? Make sure they have the spiritual nourishment needed? Do we protect them?
28Her children rise up and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her:
29“Many daughters have done well,
But you excel them all.”
Proverbs 31 is much more about a wife than a mother. But these two verses remind us the value of a Godly mother. Having positive words to say about a mom (TO A MOM) is one of the most honoring things we can do. Waiting to say them at her funeral is a poor substitute. Rise up and bless her. Praise her.
Notice the writer says ‘many daughters…’ Every wife is a daughter. Every mother is a daughter. But not every wife and daughter is a mother. Thus, our focus being on your mom today lets us challenge every one of us to remember and honor our mother on Mother’s Day.
Miscarriage for some moms is a very hard part of Mother’s Day. Some moms will only ever get to know their children in heaven. Some of you will meet siblings for the first time there. Can we baptize our imaginations for just a minute? If those babies go to heaven as babies, not as adults, who will get the privilege of raising them? Who gets this reward? (Diapers lol) Does God hold them until you get there and allow you to do so? Does He let the best of the best? Someone in your family who can tell them all about you?
Last year I told a story about a woman who was not a little boy’s mother but mothered him well. Whether it was your birth mom who mothered you or someone else, remember, bless, praise her.
25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”
27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Sometimes it is another mother who cares for us, sometimes we have the privilege of caring for someone else’s mother. We talked about this verse a couple of weeks ago examining the tenderness of the statement ‘woman, behold your son’.
For Jesus to be on the cross: The beating, scourging, crown of thorns, carrying of the cross and the nails having already taken their effect on Him. He still has the heart to care for the woman who raised Him. Nourished, protected and loved Him. And standing there on crucifixion day, believed in Him. So He looks to John and says Behold, your mother.
Is there anyone around you who needs this kind of care? An older woman whose family is not close by? A young mother who is struggling on her own? After God calls us into relationship with Him, He calls us into relationship with them. Will you go?