Mothers Day 2025-05-11

My Mother

Can I tell you a story about a little boy with a part in a church play?

He had lines to say but he was pretty young.

When he got up there,

he knew when his part was coming but 

he couldn’t remember his line.

His mother thought he might need help,

so she was sitting in the front row and she tried

to mouth the words to him.

Mouth[ I am the light of the world]

He was not getting it at all,

so finally she whispered to him

                “I am the light of the world!”

The boy smile and boldly exclaimed

                “My mother is the light of the world!”

Everybody laughed, the boy had gotten it wrong!

What was he supposed to say?

“I am the light of the world!”

We know that was a quote of Jesus

He said he was the light of the world.

But many mothers have been a light in the world of their children.

Mothers and Fathers living by faith in the Lord, are a light

                To their children.

So children, let me pray for you.

prayer

Lord we life up these children today and pray that parents and others in that role

will be lights to this children, helping them to put their trust in you Lord,

the true light of the world.

Lord we also pray that as these children grow and mature,

they can be lights in the lives of younger children and

to their own children

if children are in their future.

Help us all to be lights pointing to the Father of lights,

for those younger than us.

Amen.

Mothers Good and Bad

Happy Lord’s Day

Happy Mothers Day.

A day we try to remember, our duty and privilege to honor our mothers

whether they are good or bad,

living or dead

As I look at all of you this morning,

I am confident that every one of you were conceived,

went through something like 9 months of growing in your mothers womb and then

were born.

Mothers come in all shapes and sizes.

Some are very good mothers,

some not so good,

most are somewhere in the middle.

My Betty mom thought she wanted to be Suzy homemaker.

So when they adopted their first child, she quit working to stay home,

But she found herself bored and after a few years, went back to work.

Some years later, after the divorce mom was home for a while,

I remember sometimes coming home from school

to the smell of home made bread.

Pretty soon, she was back to work though.

It appeared, she really had little interest in us kids growing up but

MAN

if someone dissed her kids,

she was an angry mother bear.

Years latter I found my birth mother, and she was so glad I did.

I was her long lost son and there was a good honeymoon period in our relationship.

But soon we learned,

she just as much controlling as Betty mom was.

***

In general moms are the caring side of the parent unit, and dads are the rule givers.

You fall down when only dad’s around,

he might ask

“Are you bleeding, is your leg broke”

and if the answers “No”, then it’s

dad might just say

“Then get up, where not done yet. “

The year I lived with my dad I came home sick once

from shoveling grain out of a silo for 5 minutes or so.

I didn’t want the fuss that mom would have made,

taking me to the emergency room that night but

dad just asked once if I was ok,

and that was that.

I lied, “Yah, I’m ok

I actually thought I might die in my sleep that night,

I said, I was ok.

Scripture paints a beautiful picture of a mothers care in the first part of Isaiah 49:15.

New International Version (2011) Chapter 49

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast

and have no compassion on the child she has borne?

For the most part,

Mothers can’t forget their child.

Mothers are vital

In general, Women can get pregnant,

they can carry babies,

they can produce milk for them

And men can’t!

Mothers nurture

mothers teach

       mothers comfort

better then most dads

Mothers have a great power in their children's lives to launch into adulthood.

Find a mother who can never be pleased,

and you will find children and even grown children

desperate to please mom.

Mothers have Great power,

to uplift or

to tear down

their children being launch into adulthood

And as wives,

they have great power to build up

or tear down their husbands

to make the home happy or hurtful

 In light of their great power,

when men are called by God to love their wives

what are wives called to do?

Wives are called to respect their husbands.

Ephesians 5:33 NIV

33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

In the movie “The Help”

it wasn’t the mom who built up the daughters confidence,

it was Aibileen Clark the nanny who invested into the daughter self image.

At bedtime each day

She looked the little girl in the eyes and said

“You is kind.

You is smart,

you is important”

Do you think

that motherly role, had any effect on the child's

self confidence

academic confidence

and tendency to kindness.

do you think, she brought those qualities into her adult life?

You bet she did!

                                Mothers, have great power of influence.

There is a story told of John Wesley.

When he was a study at Oxford,

he was shocked by the amount of drinking done by the students.

He wrote his mother about it and she wrote him back

"My dear son:

remember that anything which increases the authority of the body over the mind

is an evil thing."

(From a sermon by Steve Shepherd, Mother, May I?, 5/2/2011)

Do you think that teaching, helped John to remain moderate in his drinking.

I’m sure it did.

By the way, it is

Biblical to honor parents

Motherly attitudes and characteristics we find in God

Whether you have a 5 star mom or

something less.

God says, Honor your Father and Mother.

God’s word does not say

If they are worthy, honor your father and mother.

It just says honor them.

Sometimes it will take soul searching,

it will take Holy Spirit wisdom to know

how to do that.

Bart Millard

The guy famous for the song

I can only imagine,

had no reason to honor his father,

except that God’s word

and the Holy Spirit

called him to forgive his dad

and to honor his father and mother.

Eventually, Bart did,

and a wall of hate and tension broke down.

After being forgiven by Bart,

his dad’s heart softened

and his dad wanted that forgiveness too

His Dad confessed he was sorry for how he had treated Bart

Not every abusive story will have a nice, clean ending,

but obeying God,

freely forgiving

freely honoring your parents

Will be good for you.

Biblical call to honor parents

What does the 5th commandment say?

Exodus 20:12 NIV

12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

That command gets repeated in the new testament.

Ephesians 6:2 NIV

2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—

So we can’t just write it off as an Old Testament rule.

God Expects us to honor our parents

whether it is earned or not.

Just like he calls us to forgive,

because we have been forgiven.

Motherly attitudes and characteristics we find in God

Do we see any mother attitudes in God?

We were made in His image, so can we find in God any characteristics that remind us of mothering and motherhood?

Jesus said

Matthew 23:37 NIV

37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

Imagine that God the Son longing to gather up his children under his wings.

When danger is encountered in the barn yard, the chicks will run to their mother for protection and she will cover them with her wings.

In the Little House on the Prairie series, there is a prairie fire that comes through.

After they survived the fire,

they found the old mother hen

wings spread out

killed by the heat of the fire but

under her wings, they found many chicks who sheltered under her wings

still very much alive.

She gave her life to save her children.

From the book of Hosea we have an image of God

like a caring mother tending over the nation of Israel.

Hosea 11:3–4 MSG

3 Still, I stuck with him. I led Ephraim. I rescued him from human bondage, But he never acknowledged my help, 4 never admitted that I was the one pulling his wagon, That I lifted him, like a baby, to my cheek, then I bent down to feed him.

Here is the full passage we looked at earlier

Isaiah 49:15 NIV

15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!

Truly, we can see in God,

Motherly characteristics.

That makes sense since we are made in His image.

The Challenge

To Mothers,

the challenge is

To be the best mom you can be

with God’s help

nurturing

caring

loving

forgiving

teaching

and holding accountable

your children

Furthermore,

Be the encourager who shapes the childens future

Give Love

Give Comfort but also give correction.

And all of us are called to Honor our mothers

and the role of mothering.

whether they deserve it or not

We all need to live as lessor lights,

pointing to Jesus the greater light.

Live as lights in our community

Whether you are a parent, grandparent or a person looked up to by children, younger adults, live honorably as lessor lights following Jesus light

In conclusion

Moms,

Have a blessed day

Be thankful for the gifts you are given today.

they may be simple but they should come from loving hearts.

God Bless you.