Mother’s Day is quickly approaching! I think it is altogether appropriate that we set aside a day to honor and be glad in our moms. We all have different experiences, feelings and reactions to our mothers, but whether those memories be good or bad, we must not diminish the honor the Bible places on motherhood. To not honor mom is to not honor the Bible, and to not honor the Bible is to not honor God. So, when we honor and rejoice in Mom we are honoring and rejoicing in God.

“…Forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.” (Proverbs 1:8b-9)

And those who do honor Mom (not only on this day but throughout the year!) it will go well with our lives. Maybe one of the reasons life is such a drag for you can be traced back to the dishonor you’ve shown your Mom.

“‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.’” (Ephesians 6:2-3; cf. Exodus 20:12)

It’s never too late to pick up the pieces, get in touch with your mother (visit, phone, letter, email, text, or whatever), and begin rebuilding that relationship that will glorify God.

Let me challenge the mothers who read this to remember your biblical responsibility to teach, train, nurture, and love the gifts God has graciously given you – your children! Put the time in early in their lives and it will pay of immeasurably in the future. Sacrifice now, today, for the sake of bringing up a child who will honor God tomorrow.

Moms, you have a gigantic weight on your shoulders, but I am confident that through God’s gracious, helping hand you will succeed in raising godly kids. I admire and love you and am praying for your perseverance in motherhood.

Happy Mother’s Day,

Scott

Mother’s Day is upon us! Yes, this is a pre-warning for all the kids out there (young and old) that we have just a couple of days to write something special on a card and buy or make Mom something for this day. Over the years I have come to understand that Moms really don’t care about what they get, what they care about is that kids remember them in some special way. Moms want to know what’s deep inside us; they want to know what’s in our heart for them.

Here are some starters – call them appetizers for Mother’s Day:

·      Make her breakfast

·      Hand craft a Mother’s Day card

·      Make some coupons for her to use anytime she wants (foot rub, back rub, doing the dishes, cooking supper, playing her favorite game, etc.)

·      Make a 5 minute home movie telling her how much you love her

·      Movie night out (her choice!)

Here’s my point: put some thought into Mother’s Day, sacrifice some time for Mom, dig deep inside and pull out what you really feel for Mom on this day, and let her know that this isn’t the only day that she’s special! Husbands with babies or small children you don’t get off. Yeah, for the next several years you’re going to have to step in and help make this a special day for the mother of your kids. Hey, our day is coming soon! Let Mom set the agenda for the day; do the things she likes to do.

Now let me write something to Moms…relax, stop doing and just enjoy, let yourself be pampered, don’t worry if breakfast is a little runny or burnt or if it’s meatloaf with cereal, bask in your children’s love, and run from the temptation to get up and fix anything. Let this day be your day, you deserve it!

“Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.” (Proverbs 31:28)

Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day (a couple of days early)! I hope you’ve all made your plans to properly and biblically honor your mother on this special day. I would encourage you to think of those attributes in your mom that you can praise – her wisdom, hard work, patience, love, grace, perseverance, tenacity, encouragement, foresight, etc. Every mom has something for which we can say “thank you.” So take the time this weekend to tell her how much she means to you. The Bible clearly says that we as children will “rise up and call her blessed” (Proverbs 31:28). In other words, it’s a given, it’s assumed that we will do this…so let’s do it.

Something else we can do this Mother’s Day that we find in the Bible is to remember the lessons she taught us and do them!

…Forsake not your mother’s teaching. (Proverbs 1:8)

We would do well to reminisce on all the little talks Mom had with us and pull out the “wisdom from above” that God was trying to communicate to us. Moms are consistently teaching through their lives and lips. So many tips have come from those lips on cooking or getting a difficult stain out or how to manage time properly or how to show genuine compassion or how to make personal devotions a priority or how to stand under peer pressure, and many countless other valuable lessons. A foolish person hears these wise words and then walks away without doing them (read James 1:22-25). I will take the text from Proverbs 1:7-9 and share some lessons on Sunday morning – so more on that later.

This Mother’s Day we can give the gift of an obedient and wise life to our moms. Solomon wrote this,

A wise son (and/or daughter) makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother. (Proverbs 10:1).

Wisdom is simply making choices from a biblical perspective, so foolishness would be the opposite. A foolish child is one who makes decisions based on fleshly desires and earthly pressures. Oh, how many of us have done that (yeah, all of us). But we don’t need to stay parked in despair. Through repentance we can find our way back to wise living. So, let me encourage you to make Mom a glad Mom by living wisely.

Grace & Peace,

Now, for all us kids out there who still have our mothers let me challenge us to pick three to five characteristics of our moms that have the most meaning, and when we are writing her a Mother’s Day card tell her why these characteristics mean so much to you about her. This is going to take some thinking, and it means that we just can’t sign the card. I want all of us to put some genuine effort into communicating to our moms just how much they mean to us. Keep in mind that they have spent countless hours investing themselves into our lives. We are who we are because of the influence of these women.

Do your mom a huge favor this week and take her to church and then lunch. I believe it would mean so much to her to have you sitting beside her on this special day. I know Barb loves these days when she is able to sit in church with our four; it is a special day out of the year that she knows they’ve made a special effort to worship with mom.

Happy Mother’s Day!