Great Moms

We owe our celebration of Mother’s to a woman by the name of Anna Jarvis in 1914. She wanted a day for children to recognize and honor their mothers. I guess that makes Mother’s Day universal. Everybody has a mother!

It was about the same time that the sailor’s tattoo of ‘mom’ with an anchor became very popular. Sailors were away from home, fighting in the World Wars and mom represented everything that was good in their worlds. They desired to be home. They placed ‘Mom’ on an anchor because of the stability and comfort of mom. She could be trusted.

Great Moms Are Treasures

Someone once said, “Successful mothers are not the ones who have never struggled. They are the ones who never give up, despite the struggles.” Great moms are certainly not perfect. There are definitely days when meeting the needs of the kids and your husband can be overwhelming. There are times when you lose your patience or seemingly lose your mind…but successful mothers never give up.

The Bible provides some great examples of women who were great examples of mothers. Hannah, Mary, Abigail, Lois, and Eunice all come to mind. This morning I would like to explore some of the GREAT ATTITUDES of these mothers and others throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament.

There is also something very cool about this…although this is Mother’s Day, these GREAT ATTITUDES are attitudes that every one of us should have in our lives. These attitudes will simply make each of us great men and women.

Great Moms Have Great Attitudes

Great Moms are Loving

For our first attitude, I want to look at how God compares Himself to a mother. This is a good illustration that these attitudes are not just for women but for all of us:

Isaiah 49:15 NIV

“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!

This passage is rich because it points out that there is a responsibility that a woman has for her baby. She has the nutrition that the baby needs. She understands the frailty of the baby and the dependence of the child on mom.

The Lord uses this illustration to show His responsibility and concern for His people. Does it surprise you to think of God in this way? He sees that we have needs and feels that responsibility. He knows that He is the bread of life and the living water.

In the NT, Paul takes this same idea and shows how he applied it in real life.

1 Thessalonians 2:7–8 NIV

Instead, we were like young children among you. Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.

This is a good example of how we can all take this GREAT ATTITUDE of moms and work it out in our own lives.

Great Moms Have Adoptive Attitudes

I have seen this work here in our own church. Sometimes individuals will come into the church and members of our congregation will reach out to them and ‘adopt’ them into their families. These folks have families of their own, but they may be distant by hundreds or thousands of miles. People with adoptive attitudes invite them into their holiday celebrations, their family activities, and, basically, into their lives.

The apostle Paul had an adopted mother with a strange name in, I suppose, Rome.

Romans 16:13 NIV

Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.

After Cindy and I married I moved to Houma, Louisiana. There was a couple that ‘adopted’ me just like the rest of the family. They were Waybrun and Eleanor Hebert. It seems like every Sunday afternoon we would be eating lunch at their house. I’ve never tasted a better shrimp jambalaya with Rouse’s French bread.

You may be surprised to learn that some pastors have mixed feelings about celebrating Mother’s Day. The reason: many women sitting in the pews long to be mothers but aren’t—those who are single and celibate, those who struggle with infertility, or those who have suffered a miscarriage or lost a child—and for them the day is painful. But every woman can be a mother to someone.

Perhaps you’re more of a mother than you realize. Or perhaps there’s more than one “mother” whom you need to appreciate this year on Mother’s Day.

Great Mothers Are Comforters

According to Isaiah 66:13, even the Lord longs to be like a mother to us.

Isaiah 66:13 NIV

As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

On August 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just after taking off from the Detroit airport, killing 155 people. One survived: a four-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, named Cecelia. When rescuers found Cecelia they did not believe she had been on the plane. Investigators first assumed Cecelia had been a passenger in one of the cars on the highway onto which the airliner crashed. But when the passenger register for the flight was checked, there was Cecelia's name.

Cecelia survived because, even as the plane was falling, Cecelia's mother, Paula Cichan, unbuckled her own seat belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia, and then would not let her go.

Nothing could separate that child from her parent’s love—neither tragedy nor disaster, neither the fall nor the flames that followed, neither height nor depth, neither life nor death. (Los Angeles Times, 1987)

Can you see Jesus as that mother who gave her life to save her child’s? This is the desire of our Heavenly Father. What an amazing church we would be if we had this attitude in our lives for those around us!

Great Mothers Are Spiritual Teachers

Many years ago, I received a letter from my youth pastor who took the 2nd letter of Paul and personalized it for me. He began with the 5th verse which should read:

2 Timothy 1:5 NIV

I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

Instead, he wrote, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your mother, Betsy and, I am persuaded now lives in you also.”

Moms, you have the wonderful opportunity to speak into the lives of your children. Timothy was a student of Paul, but it began with Timothy’s mother and grandmother.

According to a recent Barna report, about 6 in 10 practicing Christians in the U.S. today say they came to faith because of the influence of a believer in the household where they grew up. Of those, 68 percent say a mother’s faith influenced them.

Roughly 70 percent of Christian teens told Barna they had talked with their mothers about God and faith in the past month, and more than 60 percent had prayed with their moms. In fact, teens are more likely to turn to their mothers for spiritual guidance than to other family members or friends.

About 90 percent of Christian teens say they would take questions about faith and the Bible directly to their mothers. And nearly all say their moms encourage them to attend church.

Billy Sunday once said, “There is more power in a mother’s hand than in a king’s scepter.”

Learning from Great Moms

I suppose that we could continue to learn many more GREAT ATTITUDES from the Word of God, but these 4 are really special:

1. Loving

2. Adopting

3. Comforting

4. Teaching

I have yet to see the Blue Angels do a fly over to honor mothers, but they really ought to. On second thought, it is more appropriate that we take the time, the effort, and the resources necessary to make moms know that they are appreciated for all they do.

Want to pay tribute to your mother? Take these Great Attitudes of Great Moms and begin to use them in your relationships with others around you. 2 weeks ago I went to a white board and put the word, ‘Need’ and began to surround the word with needs of the church and the community. Each of us can do the same with family members, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. What needs do they have? Is God giving you an opportunity to care for others the way God cares for us?

And, Remember, Great Moms are Not Perfect

As we conclude, let me drop a teaser for next Sunday that is relevant for the conclusion of this message today. DON’T LET YOUR MISTAKES OF THE PAST STOP YOU FROM BELIEVING IN YOURSELF IN THE PRESENT.

Philippians 3:13–14 NIV

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.