Righteous Parents
Mothers Day • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 4 viewsWhat does it mean to be a righteous parent?
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MOTHER
MOTHER
A teacher gave her class of second graders a lesson on the magnet and what it does. The next day in a written test, she included this question: " My full name has six letters. The first one is M. I pick up things. What am I?" When the test papers were turned in, the teacher was astonished to find that almost 50 percent of the students answered the question with the word Mother.
Today, we celebrate mothers!
This includes:
grandmothers
aunts
spiritual mother.
Truthfully,
it should include
fathers
grandfathers
uncles
spiritual parents of all kinds.
Today, we celebrate mothers!
not for their perfection,
but because
through their
love,
care,
sacrifice,
we catch a glimpse of
the character of God.
Repeatedly
throughout scripture
God show metaphor
His love as a parent.
As one whom his mother comforts,
so I will comfort you;
you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
God describes His
compassion toward us
like a mother
comforting child.
Any sick child
wants their mommy.
Nobody comforts
like she does.
God is our comforter.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
Similarly,
like a father
God is compassionate.
This is more
than a metaphor.
Ellen White says:
Parents stand in the place of God to their children to tell them what they must do and what they must not do with firmness and perfect self-control. - Adventist Home p. 320
As kids practice
obeying mommy and daddy
so they will obey Jesus.
Home religion
is practice for heaven.
We get to model
love
grace
justice
God Himself
to our kids.
What a privilege.
There is no career is
more noble than
that of motherhood at its best.
There are no possibilities greater
and in no other sphere does
failure bring more serious penalties.
To attempt this task
unprepared and untrained is tragic,
and its results affect generations to come.
On the other hand,
there is no higher height
to which humanity can attain
than that occupied by
a converted,
heaven-inspired,
praying mother.
The Honor of the Call
The Honor of the Call
The bible repeatedly
describes the honor
of parenthood.
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Parenting is rewarding.
It is hard work.
But also rewarding.
In fact,
nothing that is
simple
effortless
is truly rewarding.
This is Mother’s Day Weekend.
Proverbs talks about
godly mother.
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.
When Robert Ingersoll, the notorious skeptic, was in his heyday, two college students went to hear him lecture. As they walked down the street after the lecture, one said to the other, “Well, I guess he knocked the props out from under Christianity, didn’t he?” The other said, “No, I don’t think he did. Ingersoll did not explain my mother’s life, and until he can explain my mother’s life I will stand by my mother’s God.”
James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, Tyndale, 1972, p. 381.
Examples of Faithfulness
Examples of Faithfulness
Throughout the Bible
many examples of
great mothers.
Jochebed
Jochebed
Mother of Moses
Slaves in Egypt.
Command to kill male babies.
She was
mother of faith
mother of love
mother of courage.
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
She knew that
if she was caught
not only kill child
but her and family!
Reminds me of Bible verse:
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.
Jochebed could not forget
the baby she birth
the baby she nursed.
Like all good mothers,
she would die for him.
Years ago, a young mother was making her way across the hills of South Wales, carrying her tiny baby in her arms, when she was overtaken by a blinding blizzard. She never reached her destination and when the blizzard had subsided her body was found by searchers beneath a mound of snow. But they discovered that before her death, she had taken off all her outer clothing and wrapped it about her baby. When they unwrapped the child, to their great surprise and joy, they found he was alive and well. She had mounded her body over his and given her life for her child, proving the depths of her mother love. Years later that child, David Lloyd George, grown to manhood, became prime minister of Great Britain, and, without doubt, one of England’s greatest statesman.
James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, Tyndale, 1972, p. 375.
Mothers
Thank you for
the protection and care!
Lois and Eunice
Lois and Eunice
Traditionally, families had
multi-generational homes.
It wasn’t just
the mothers raising
the children of the house.
Typically,
grandmothers were
just as involved.
They didn’t just
feed them food
and change diapers.
This brings me to
the example of:
Lois and Eunice
Lois and Eunice
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.
Timothy is commended
not because he was
founder of spiritual heritage.
But he was only
continuing what he
gotten from
Grandma
Mother.
Lorne Sanny of The Navigators once wrote of his mother: "My mother gave birth to me in a frontier house on a Midwestern prairie. On the kitchen counter she placed a list of the ingredients necessary for my formula. At the top of the list was 'prayer,' and that remained at the top of her list for me throughout her life...I have her to thank for firmly establishing my spiritual roots."
Today in the Word, January, 1990, p. 23.
Mothers
Grandmothers
Adopted Mothers
Thank you for
the legacy of faith
you instill
in the kids!
Strength for the Journey
Strength for the Journey
Parenting is not a sprint.
years of nursing
years of toddler tantrums
years of elementary teaching
years of adolescent counseling
years of adult comradery
(cheerleading).
We are not perfect,
we make mistakes
along the way.
But we have
this beautiful promise.
Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Your investment
in your children
is like planting seeds.
You may not see
the harvest today,
but God promises that
training them in
the way they should go
leaves a lifelong foundation.
Mothers
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for building that foundation!
Ilion Jones writes that "On the great biographer Ida M. Tarbell's 80th birthday, someone asked her to name the greatest persons she had ever met. She responded, 'The greatest persons I have ever met are those nobody knows anything about.'
"Once the New York Times was asked to help a group of club women decide on the twelve greatest women in the United States. After due consideration, the editors replied, 'The twelve greatest women in the United States are women who have never been heard of outside of their own homes.'"
Jones concludes, "I ask you, who was greater, Thomas A. Edison or his mother? When he was a young lad his teacher sent him home with a note which said, 'Your child is dumb. We can't do anything for him.' Mrs. Edison wrote back, 'You do not understand my boy. I will teach him myself'. And she did, with results that are well known.
Morning Glory, January 8, 1994.
We are not perfect
but God will give us
strength for the journey.
I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Mothers
Thank you for
your tireless services.
May God continue
to give you that
never ending energy.
A Legacy of Grace
A Legacy of Grace
The greatest purpose of
mothers
grandmothers
spiritual mothers
fathers
spiritual parents of all kinds
Is to leave a legacy.
John says:
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
What is our legacy?
to have children
walking in the Lord.
Listen,
if we have raise
kids that are
beautiful/handsome
hard-working
intelligent
successful in this life
not spiritual
we failed.
A Mother's Influence
I took a piece of plastic clay
And idly fashioned it one day;
And as my fingers pressed it still
It moved and yielded at my will.
I came again when days were past,
The form I gave it still it bore,
And as my fingers pressed it still,
I could change that form no more.
I took a piece of living clay,
And gently formed it day by day,
And molded with my power and art,
A young child's soft and yielding heart.
I came again when days were gone;
It was a man I looked upon,
He still that early impress bore,
And I could change it never more.
Mothers
Thank you
for putting character first!
Thank you mothers
for all that you are
and continue to be
for the
kids of the body.
kids that are not yours
kids of the world!
I want to end with
this Final Blessing:
Therefore, my beloved [mothers], be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Mothers
Your Labor is not in vain!
We thank you
because you model
Christ to kids of
this world.
Appeal
Appeal
Keep on Doing
What you are Doing!
It’s worth it!
