Mother’s Day 2024
Notes
Transcript
You know, the problem with cities, tend to be the problem with towns, only bigger. You know, the opportunities in a BIG city, are similar to the opportunities in a smaller city, just multiplied. Really what it is, where they are more people are the things that people bring, only more of them. So, you have opportunities and challenges, crime and education, Opportunities for career advancement, and the distinct possibility that someone else will gun for your current position, attempting to leave you in the dust. You have the insiders and outsiders, wealthy, poor, and in between, and everywhere people are looking for relationships.
Her people are not from around here way back. Eunikē (UniQUE), the mother’s name, isn’t that unique, and her mother LoEESE’s name might mean “more desirable,” but apparently not many people think so, because the two of them are left to raise that boy all by themselves. Why did they move here in the first place? A job, I think. Maybe for Eunikē’s husband. I think he worked in logistics for the transport network here in the city, what with the major highway always carrying traffic East and West from and to the capitol. Her husband split, or died, and she’s practically a single mom raising little Timmy all by herself. They keep to themselves with a small group of people providing some kind of welfare, but their family won’t bring any honor to your name, so I wouldn’t bother with them if I were you.
These sorts of conversations can be found in any community, and rarely lift up people or the places they inhabit. Let’s make sure to not be gossips, but rather introduce each other to each other, and other to others so they can each share their own stories. But this story of Eunikē and LoEESE is true. Trapped in an influential city left to fend for themselves.
Being a mom in the best of circumstances is hard work. When you have access to good medical care, it can be scary to become a first time mom and give birth, and no matter the medical advancements, things can go wrong, and children and mothers alike can die in childbirth, leaving behind a deep void where hope had existed previously. When you have formula to supplement breast feeding, and a nursery in your home that supports your baby’s development, being a mom is still hard work. With a baby monitor to watch your baby sleep, a white noise machine to help keep them asleep, and a crib with sides to keep the baby from rolling off the bed in their sleep, being a mom is insurmountably challenging. Eunikē didn’t have any of those things!
When the school system supports your values, it’s hard work to guide your son through school with an intact belief in Jesus Christ. But Timmy’s school wouldn’t support him in the belief that His mom was trying to teach him. She encouraged him to share his faith and be a witness, but Eunikē often wondered if she was sending her Timmy to be like Jesus to pursue the lamb that was lost, or if he was the sheep in the midst of wolves. When peer pressure mounts during adolescence, it’s hard to maintain the relational capital to keep the information conduit flowing to you, and not just his friends. Being a mom is hard; being a son can be hard too. Growing up and just living period is challenging. But with no dad around, the culture warring against him, and the fear that he wouldn’t ever be able to find a career to support his own family one day, with the economy the way it is. Timmy must have feared that he would end up just like his dad, dead or presumed dead because he couldn’t make anything of himself, and he would never amount to anything.
So, Eunikē did what any parent would do, she worked hard, sought opportunities for Timmy, and did her best to provide him with a stable living environment in which to grow into a man. The calling of motherhood, with its joys and sorrows is one of the highest callings a woman may have. The calling to mother is higher than the call to your career, though both are often necessary. Your opportunities as mom are normally longer lasting than any your education will provide you, as your children will go into a future you may never see, and if you have more than one child, be able to handle tasks you never could alone, because there are more of them than there are of you (but being outnumbered is hard!). Your call as a mother is to raise up the next generation of believers in Jesus Christ, and that’s what Eunikē did her best to do, and she had a few special resources that helped her in the task.
The first special resource that Eunikē had, was her mom LoEESE. LoEESE done her best to raise Eunikē with a belief in God, but sometimes we as parents think, “we did our best,” but the problem with that approach, is that there are few past tense verbs in parenting while there is life and breath in you and your children. LoEESE had done her best, but she was not done being mom, but now she had a new role, and a new name Nama LoEESE. As grandma she had the unique opportunity to provide encouragement, support, advice (when asked), an example of Godly living, companionship to her lonely daughter, and most importantly, specific prayers on behalf of Eunikē and Timmy.
If you’re a grandma, you have a high calling as well to continue in your role as mother to another generation. Ask questions about who your grandchildren are, from their own perspective. Encourage your grandkids in their pursuits. One unique gift that you can give to your grandchildren is stories of who your family is, but perhaps even more important is to be real with them about your own challenges in life. It can be tempting to tell our kids only the good stuff about ourselves, and we know they probably see the bad stuff, so why give them more ammunition they’ll use against you in counseling on day? But, as a grandparent you can share about the unique struggles that you had in life, and statistically and genetically, they will probably have some of the same challenges that you had. Many of our deepest challenges in life are private and silent, and our children may never know about them, so they cannot warn their own children about them, but you can share your joys, as well as your sorrows with your grandchildren as a way of helping to guide them to be followers of Jesus Christ. Perhaps greatest thing you can share with your grandchild is a love of the scriptures
The scriptures, and her mother’s love of them, as well as her own was one of the special resources that Eunikē used while raising Timmy. Eunikē used all of the ways that she knew to help Timmy interact with, know, love the Scriptures, and the God that is made known in them. In fact, let’s look at some of the source material for this story that I’m telling you. In 2Tim 3:15, Paul writes to Timmy, or Timothy as he is historically known, reminding Timothy of what he knew for most of his life
15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Do you share the scriptures with your children? Does the media you consume contain scripture? Do you read, discuss, or memorize the scripture in your family? Do you make sure to put as much scheduling priority on church as on school or sports, or play practice, or doing the chores? Your children are paying attention, and learning how to live life. If you want God to be important to them, then you have a short window of time that you are teaching them how to be humans, and the things that you value will likely be valued by your children, and the things you love will likely be loved by your kids, or at least known by them. The best thing you can do for your children’s spiritual life is to cultivate your own relationship with Christ, and you cannot be close to God apart from knowing and reading the Bible. Then, teach your children to do the same. The Bible is able to make your children wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, just like it did for Timothy.
Another special resource Eunikē, or Eunice had in raising Timmy was a community of folks known as the church. Through the church, she was able to bring Timothy into contact with a man named Paul.
1 Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. 2 He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.
In Paul, Timothy found an example of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. He would have witnessed Paul’s persecution in Lystra, as that was his hometown. 2Tim 3:11
11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me.
Some of us need to be more like Paul. We need to take younger people under our wing and be mentors. Make it formal. Do it informally, but do it intentionally, and for a significant period of time. Six weeks is not enough, and six months is probably insufficient. Timothy ended up accompanying Paul on his missionary journeying, and became Paul’s most celebrated disciple.
Sometimes being a mother may not feel like a high or glamorous calling, and maybe you’d rather travel in your retirement than be a grandparent like Lois was, but consider this as a commendation, when the curtain drops could you have a better thing written about your life than this?
2 Timothy 1:5 (ESV)
5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.
Proverbs 31:28 (ESV)
28 Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:
Some of us are like Lois, struggling to get by to raise our kids, and using all of the relational resources available to help our kids grow up following after Christ.
Some of us are like Paul, and need to become spiritual mentors to a younger person, maybe while they’re at Truman, MACC, ATSU, or young in their professional career. Look at what happened to Paul! He received a spiritual son!
22 But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.
2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Eunice and Lois were the mother and grandmother of Timothy, who became a spiritual son to the childless Paul. Eunice was a Jewess, but she had married a Greek who was not sympathetic to Jewish customs. It seems probable that he died or disappeared early in Timothy’s life. Eunice was left to raise her son alone, with her mother’s help, and God’s.~They Were Women Like Me. Joy Jacobs
