The Faithful Mother

Intro.

Today is a special occasion, yes? Today is the special day where we give due honor to the women in our lives who have nurtured and loved us in the ways that only maternal figures can.

Each of us, I hope, have had experiences with women in our lives who functioned in a maternal capacity. I say it like that, because it doesn’t have to be our biological mothers who step into that role — though I do hope ours all have. We all, I believe, have stories and memories of our mothers which make us look back and appreciate the women that helped us become the people we are today.

I know for myself, my mother has always been a blessing to me and my family. Maybe I don’t agree with her every decision or the all of the ways she handled things that came up. But that doesn’t change the invaluable lessons that she taught has taught me and countless others around me.

Among the things my mother always taught me was to kindness and hospitality. My mother is one of the most mildly tempered people I’ve ever known. She always kept our home open to family and friends who needed a place to be, and several times it happened that we had extra people living in our home for extended periods of time.

I’m sure that if we went through the room and recalled what our mothers taught us and what we love about them, we could be here all day long. And that is a good thing!

I’m sure you know already, much more than I no doubt, that motherhood doesn’t stop when your kids grow up and move out. And neither is mothering bound to biology. Paul never had children, yet Timothy and Titus are called sons to him! Women can have that same relationship, and indeed in the Church that is a holy endeavor I believe.

Today, through the Scriptures, I want to encourage our sisters, giving due honor to the faithful stewards of motherhood among us, and hopefully also help open some opportunity for mothering others in a different sense.

The Faithful Mother Prays

Firstly, I want to mention a woman of great faith — Hannah. We first meet her over in 1 Samuel. She was a barren woman who was ridiculed by her husband’s other wife, and also looked down on by society. In such a situation many people would begin to take a defeatist attitude, and be beaten down by the emotional and mental toll it must’ve taken on dear Hannah. Yet, not her! She arose in her despair and took her plight to the Lord of Heaven and earth, having faith in her God!

Faithful mothers must be women of prayer!

What is your prayer life like? Do you pray in total faith?

You may be asking why prayer is a necessity to faithful motherhood, or why I’m even qualified to have an opinion on the matter. But the truth is rather simple. Praying women know Him in whom they have believed.

An active prayer life shows a relationship with God without which faithfully raising children in the Lord is impossible! If you want your children to know the Lord, you must know Him yourself!

It was told to me a long while back that you cannot take people any further than you have gone yourself. Meaning, if you want to take your children up to know Jesus, you can only take them as far as you’ve come. If you don’t know God very well, they won’t come to know Him well through you. But what a wonderfully mighty thing it is when a woman of prayer and faith shines with the joy and peace of knowing the Lord!

More than that, as I’m sure you already do, pray on behalf of your children! As we are told in Scripture to pray for all people and one another, how much more ought we to pray for the souls given to our stewardship?

The Faithful Mother Trusts God

Now, that leads naturally into our second point this morning: Faithful Mothers Trust God

It is a wonderful thing for a woman of God to be a warrior of prayer — but prayer is even ineffectual if there be not faith!

Let’s put it in a metaphor. In the 1960’s, the first successful manned mission to the moon was operated. In order to get to the moon, they needed their rocket, yes? But their rocket was not going to get them there by itself — it needed fuel and propulsion!

If prayer be a rocket, faith is the propulsion taking it to God! Our mothers need faith as they pray. Yet, not only as they pray, but as God throws new things in your path and difficulties in life happen.

The perfect example of this is our blessed sister Mary.

Luke 1:26–38 CSB

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you.” But she was deeply troubled by this statement, wondering what kind of greeting this could be. Then the angel told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.” Mary asked the angel, “How can this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?” The angel replied to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. And consider your relative Elizabeth—even she has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called childless. For nothing will be impossible with God.” “See, I am the Lord’s servant,” said Mary. “May it happen to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.

See the faith that she had, only a teenager in all likelihood yet totally trusting in the Lord’s decision for her life!

Many people react in fear and worry and anger or depression when all our control over life gets tossed away. Not Mary! She was told she was selected by God to bear God in human form within her womb, and her response the whole way through was of faith!

Sisters, as life throws complications at you, learn from Mary of her faith to trust in the Lord’s guidance and faithfulness. Say, as did she, “I am the Lord’s servant,” and walk by faith not sight!

And I know that you already do. I cannot pretend to imagine the difficulties you have faced in the rearing of your own children and I want you to know that your love, faith, and bravery are seen and appreciated. I say these things as a reminder to you, not as a rebuke.

Walk humbly with your God, and remember Him whose steadfast love endures forever! Have faith in the Lord in all circumstances!

Faithful Mothering Encourages the Young

Lastly, we come to a bit of a nuance in mothering: Faithful Mothering Encourages the Young.

Paul calls both Timothy and Titus his own sons, yet we know that they were not his by biology. They were his sons in the Lord as he was a mentor of theirs.

Paul encourages other, older men in the Church in Crete to take on the same role he has for Timothy and Titus: Titus 2.1-2

Titus 2:6–8 CSB

In the same way, encourage the young men to be self-controlled in everything. Make yourself an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. Your message is to be sound beyond reproach, so that any opponent will be ashamed, because he doesn’t have anything bad to say about us.

In like manner, he says that the women who are older should take on mentorship roles for the young women in the Church: Titus 2.3-5

Titus 2:3–5 CSB

In the same way, older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not slaves to excessive drinking. They are to teach what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands and to love their children, to be self-controlled, pure, workers at home, kind, and in submission to their husbands, so that God’s word will not be slandered.

God has not left all teaching and instruction up to the men! Sisters carry the responsibility to teach the young women how to be godly women and righteous in their living. Men cannot teach girls how to become women!

Paul was a father-figure to Timothy and Titus. You, dear sister in the Lord, can be a mother figure to young women who are not yours biologically! Take them under your wing and guide them; teach them the wisdom you have gained as a woman of God striving for holiness. You see it just as much as any man in here, and probably more — God is not honored in the women of our culture anymore than He is in the men. Men, we are to teach boys to become godly men so they learn to lead and that God is not blasphemed through them. Sisters, your charge according to Paul is similar. Teach them how God calls His holy daughters to live in holiness, so that God is not slandered through them!

Mother them, in the sense of nurturing and mentoring them into spiritual maturity! Because we men are incapable of teaching girls to become women of God; the Church needs you to be involved in that ministry to the young!

Inventory

So we’ve seen that faithful mothers are women of prayer, faith, and encouragement. I know that you ladies here are all these things!

My challenge to you is more of a reminder that you are needed by the Church for the work of God on earth. You are stewards of children, grandchildren, and young women in your lives you aren’t related to. Keep stepping up into your God-ordained ministries in these places. By far, these are not the only places you are needed, but these are some areas I thought would be good to focus on this morning.