Mother's Day 2012

This post is a day late, but I wanted to get it up anyway. What follows are some nice videos of Denielle singing with the kiddos. They are blessed to have such a great, godly woman for a mother. Sometimes they just don't know it.

 If you have been looking for some indication as to the growth and development of our children, these might help wet the appetite.

And, I must say in this forum a warm and heartfelt "Happy Mother's Day" to my own mothers. You  pointed our lives in the right direction, and continue to be steady, godly influences on the directions that we take. Thank you! And thank you God, for Your grace.







Here comes the political bit- a few of my thoughts on Mothers and Missions:

Abraham Lincoln said it: "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." I think we can stand with Mr. Lincoln and say that the job of raising children is absolutely fundamental to a healthy society. Society's problems are multifaceted, they are complex, and profound but they are not political, neither are they rooted in whatever political party is or is not in power. They have little to do with whomever is elected president in the next cycle. (I digress, be watching for another blog on the Gospel and Politics coming soon.) The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.

The hand that gets up three times a night, that sacrifices her goals, her time and ambition for ungrateful and demanding and incredibly selfish little ones. If good investments are long term investments, then being a mother is the ultimate investment. Often the returns are still being reaped generations from when the investment was made.

Speaking of investments, the insurance industry says that homemaking mothers are worth $100,000 per year. In other words, if you have to contract out the services that a homemaker performs throughout the year, you are looking at contracts totaling $100,000. Of all the estimates that the insurance industry makes, this one is quite possibly the most inaccurate every produced. It was a nice try but woeful inaccurate. The job of mothering, motherhood, is truly priceless.

Rebekah was a terrible biblical example of a mother. She dutifully trained her child in the art of deceit, revenge, and cover-up (Genesis 20-26). Without piling on, she was a disaster as a mother (at least the parts we know about when her children were older). She didn't get a lot of help from her husband however...



Hannah was a wonderful example (I Samuel). After being granted her first born son, she fulfilled her vow and dedicated her child to the service of God in the temple. Obviously, there were a lot of factors in making Samuel who he was, not the least of which is God's great grace. Yet, where would Israel have been if Hannah had selfishly hung on to her child. Hannah blessed her nation by preparing her son to be a great leader in Israel. I think the case could be made that he was the greatest leader Israel knew post-Moses. Hannah planted the seeds in Samuel's life as only his mother could, and did not cling to her son as we all might be tempted to do but gave him to the Lord, followed-up on her promise and blessed an entire nation in the process.

And now we move into the point I want to make: motherhood has the potential to dramatically impact the world for Christ like no other profession does. We could make thousands of anecdotal cases but I won't. Mothers are not the only influence on the lives of their children but they have the ability to be the greatest.

My mother continually planted the seeds in my own life to point me towards missions. I'm thankful that my mother-in-law did the same for my wife.

This is what Timothy's mother and grandmother did for him as well. The biblical Timothy received the instruction in godliness from his mother and grandmother that became the foundation for his life of ministry. Eventually, he was included in the great line of church leaders in the New Testament. We do not have all the details of his story, some of it is conjecture. His father a Greek, his mother a Jew, and Timothy in that awkward position of being in a bi-ethnic class. His father was apparently absent in the all important task of raising his son in righteousness. Yet when Paul arrives in Lystra in Acts 16, Timothy is almost immediately presented to him as someone who had great potential for ministry. Paul, recognizing that potential, almost immediately begins investing in Timothy as a ministry partner and future leader.

How is it that Timothy, a man with an absentee father (at least in spiritual things) could become such an asset to the cause of Christ worldwide, so much so that his life and testimony continue to impact people today through the Bible?

This is the impact that a mother can have on a child, that a grandmother can have on a child.

"I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:3-7

We do not simply want to raise honest upstanding members of a society who vote for the right party and root for the right team. We do not want to raise merely good citizens who recycle and use cloth bags and the grocers. We want to raise sons and daughter who will embrace the gospel, walk with Christ as devoted disciples, love His church and dedicate themselves to teach others to do the same.

You have an opportunity to impact the world for Christ based on the kind of parent that you are. A mother's impact on her child is singular. There is no one who has a greater opportunity to invest in the lives of human beings than mothers... unless of course, they delegate that job to someone else. This is the most important job in the world. Let us give mothers their rightful honor and reclaim the dignity and value of motherhood in the church.