HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

This is an awesome day! Each year, the world recognizes the millions of women who have either been or acted as a parent to a child. That includes all of these:

*Women who have had children and given them up for adoption
*Women who are happily married and raising their own children
*Women who are single mothers, and
*Women who are helping to raise children who are not biologically theirs.

I’m one of the latter, having taken on the challenge of helping my husband to raise his two children. Because of some of the things that have happened to them, Ashley and Vincent have really needed a mother figure in their lives that they know isn’t going to hurt them or allow anyone else to hurt them. Shortly after Kurt and I announced our engagement, they started calling me Mommy. It wasn’t anything that I had asked for, and I was incredibly touched by a comment I heard with Ashley over the phone a couple of months before the engagement even started. “Vincent and I want you to be our mom.” I honestly didn’t know what to say, and all I could do was thank her.

The first example of motherhood in the bible was the first woman, Eve.

*Genesis 3:20 (Message) “The man, known as Adam, named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.”

*Genesis 4:1-2 (Message) “Adam slept with Eve his wife. She conceived and had Cain. She said, “I’ve gotten a man, with God’s help!” Then she had another baby, Abel. Abel was a herdsman and Cain a farmer.”

After the death of Abel and the cursing of Cain, Adam and Eve had Seth and several other children, leading to the beginnings of the population of the entire world.

*Genesis 5: 4 (Message) “After the birth of Seth, Adam lived 800 years, having more sons and daughters.”

Another example of a strong mother is Hannah, the mother of Samuel. She was a barren woman, and her husband’s other wife, Peninnah, had children. Pininnah was cruel to Hannah, flaunting the fact that she had children and Hanna did not. When the family went to Shiloh for a feast and sacrifice to God, Hannah decided to go to the tabernacle to pray.

1 Samuel 1:10-11, 20 (Message) “If you’ll take a good, hard look at my pain, if you’ll quit neglecting me and go into action for me by giving me a son, I’ll give him completely, unresentfully to you. I’ll set him apart for a life of holy discipline. (20) “Before the year was out, Hannah had conceived and given birth to a son. She named him Samuel, explaining “I asked God for him.”” Another translation says that Samuel’s name meant “God has heard.”

Would any of us who are mothers be willing or able to be that strong, to give up our children to a life in the service of God at such a young age like Hannah did? Thanks to her sacrifice, not being able to watching her oldest son grow up at home, Samuel grew up to be a prophet for God.

Other examples include Elizabeth, the mother of John The Baptist, Rachel and Leah, the mothers of the 12 sons of Israel, and Naomi, the mother-in-law of Ruth. But the one mother who is most often recognized for her strength was Mary, the mother of Jesus. This woman was not yet married when she discovered she was with child, which could have gotten her killed if Joseph hadn’t understood the position that Mary was in. She had to give birth in a stable, not in the comfort of her home, and she was forced to flee into Egypt with her family to protect the baby from being killed by Herod’s men. She had to watch her son be tortured and killed before her very eyes. Would we have the strength to do all of that?

Several years ago, I heard someone speak about how much he loved his son, and said that if he was asked by someone to give up his son to be killed so that the people in the congregation would be saved, he didn’t think he could do it. Imagine if God had said “No, I won’t give my son up to these evil people in order to save the entire world!” Imagine if Mary had tried to prevent her son from being killed. None of us would have the hope that we have today as Christians.

One thing that my mother always taught me was to watch how the guys I was dating treated their mothers, because that’s how they’ll treat you. My husband’s mother was not the easiest person to get along with, and so they didn’t have a very good relationship. I can see that since meeting my mother, Kurt has grown to love her, and I’m very glad that Mom has accepted him into the family. The way he treats her is the way I hope he always treats me.

One final point I want to make is that we are all sons and daughters of parents who love us, whether we OR they realize it or not! We may have been hurt by our parents in some way, whether physically, emotionally or, in some horrible cases, sexually. In Exodus 20: 12 (Message), God says “Honor your father and mother so that you’ll live a long time in the land that God, your God, is giving you.”

I encourage all of you who read this to treat your mother the same way every day as you treat her on Mother’s Day, with love and respect. You don’t have to shower her with flowers and gifts and candy every day, but let her know that you love her as much as you can. Have a wonderful day!