Proper Esteem

Background to passage: Mother’s Day is a multi-faceted day!

I want to thread the needle this morning as we think through a particular destructive worldly philosophy that has influenced the church. We speak and think like the world does without even realizing it. So many angles to cover, there’s no way to do it all. Just going to handle one thing.

We have succumbed to the message that motherhood is of less importance that other accomplishments within this life. Don’t hear me saying that if you are a woman who works outside the home, you are not doing what God wants. I know that there are seasons in life that vary. Hear this, regardless of whether you work outside the home or don’t, or your spouse does or doesn’t, we must realize that the task of motherhood is of primary importance, and to allow anything to supplant it, which the two exceptions of being a follower of Christ and a wife to your husband, is to fail to honor Christ.

The family is the first institution established by God. Before the church, before the government, family first. Man and wife, children, even extended family is of first importance.

Proverbs 31:25–31 ESV

Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

Opening illustration: "A mother…by her planning and industry night and day, by her willfulness of love, by her fidelity, she brings up her children. Do not read to me the campaigns of Caesar and tell me nothing about Napoleon’s wonderful exploits. For I tell you that, as God and the angels look down upon the silent history of that woman’s administration, and upon those men-building processes which went on in her heart and mind through a score of years; —nothing exterior, no outward development of kingdoms, no empire-building, can compare with what mother has done. Nothing can compare in beauty, and wonder, and admirableness, and divinity itself, to the silent work in obscure dwellings of faithful women bringing their children to honor and virtue and piety." Henry Ward Beecher

Main thought: Elevate motherhood.

1) Worldview (v. )

Proverbs 31:25–31 ESV

Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

1) Worldview (v. )

1. “One of the hardest things for a contemporary wives to do is be satisfied with being a homemaker.” The word translated here is literally “house worker.” It means one who has responsibility in the home. It is her job to manage the household to the benefit of her family. This means in ordering things, domestic chores, as well as child rearing. What is being said is that the home is the wife’s special domain for ministry to family and others, and her first and primary calling and responsibility.

2. 1 Tim 5:14,

3. Illustration: Both the Greek and the Jewish culture highly esteemed women who were stay at home moms. The most creative job in the world involves fashion, decorating, recreation, education, transportation, psychology, romance, cuisine, literature, art, economics, government, pediatrics, geriatrics, entertainment, maintenance, purchasing, law, religion, energy and management. Anyone who can handle all those has to be somebody special. She is. She’s a homemaker. …chauffeur, gardener, family counselor, maintenance worker, cleaning woman, housekeeper, cook, errand runner, bookkeeper/budget manager, interior decorator, caterer, dietitian, secretary, public relations person, and hostess. Using this impressive list of household duties, Minton figured the dollar value of a housewife’s work in today’s (1981) labor market. He came up with the amount of $785.07 a week. That’s $40,823.64 a year! Tell about the products of the Edwards household and what was written of her by friends of the family. The Meanest Mother in the World. –ill file

4. The Feminist Movement has done the ladies of our country a great disservice with these two. Our culture vilifies this work that God esteems. The church should be about the business of raising the status of housewife in the eyes of the culture. Ladies you have the most important job for the generations. And husbands you have a responsibility to provide for your family so that she can flourish. Don’t be deceived into believing the world’s view is correct. See your work as God’s work, valuable to the kingdom. See it as a responsibility of divine design. Strive to create a home environment where your husband and children thrive because of its security and order.

Closing illustration: being a full-time wife and mother – is not a destructive drought of usefulness but an overflowing oasis of opportunity; it is not a dreary call to contain one’s talents and skills but a brilliant catalyst to channel creativity and energies into meaningful work; it is not a rope for binding one’s productivity in the marketplace, but reins for guiding one’s posterity in the home; it is not oppressive restraint of intellectual prowess for the community, but a release of wise instruction to your own household; it is not the bitter assignment of inferiority to your person, but the bright assurance of the ingenuity of God’s plan for complementarity of the sexes, especially as worked out in God’s plan for marriage; it is neither limitation of gifts available nor stinginess in distributing the benefits of those gifts, but rather the  multiplication of a mother’s legacy to the generations to come and the generous bestowal of all God meant a mother to give to those He entrusted to her care.

Recap