Mother's: The Heart of the Family

“Mother’s Day Is Remembrance Day” by Helen Steiner Rice; We pause on the path of the year To pay honor and worshipful tribute To the Mother our heart holds dear… For, whether here or in heaven, Her love is our haven and guide, For always the memory of Mother Is a beacon light shining inside… Time cannot destroy her memory And years can never erase The tenderness and the beauty Of the love in a Mother’s face… And, when we think of our Mother, We draw near to God above, For only God in His Greatness Could fashion a Mother’s Love.

Nations rise and fall, empires prosper or crumble, and men are stirred to great accomplishments or driven to shameful failure often because of the influence of a wife or a mother. The wise poet William Ross Wallace has properly said, “The hand that rocks the cradle, is the hand that rules the world.” For most women, motherhood is a great privilege, a crowning joy and a sublime fulfillment. Perhaps the greatest privilege of motherhood is that of sharing and giving. No one shares and gives as a mother does. She shares her body with another in order to conceive. She shares it again with her unborn child. Then she shares her time, energy and talent with her child after it is born in order to meet its needs enabling it to grow and develop. But most of all, she shares her heart and her love as she weeps, laughs, sorrows and rejoices with her child through the months and years of infancy, youth, adolescence and adulthood. Motherhood, while being a great privilege, also involves obligation. No task on earth requires more dedication, greater skill or fuller commitment. Her responsibilities demand devotion to the highest ideals and patient perseverance over long years of time. Her task is formidable because there is no human obligation that is less adaptable to substitution than motherhood. You can substitute for the teacher, policeman, governor and most anyone else but no one has found an adequate substitute for your mother’s love. The greatest writers and speakers of the ages have tried to capture the fullness of motherhood but all have failed to maximize it.

[Proverbs 31:10-31] The collection of wise sayings assembled by Solomon and written through inspiration of God was “…to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young” (1:4), and to make the wise even wiser (1:5). The book of Proverbs is unique in a way that it has 31 chapters – just enough to fulfill a Bible reading of one chapter per day each month – what’s the date – read that chapter. I also find it fitting that the book would end in remembrance to “The Wife of Noble Character;” “The Virtuous Wife;” “The Woman Who Fears the Lord” each sub-titles to the last section of Chapter 31, depending on translation style, that after all the wisdom had been presented we should be reminded to honor the woman God gave to man as a help-mate, not forgetting the qualities she has been blessed with. Only in Scripture do we see the blessedness of a good mother fully described. “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.” Happy and blessed is the home and the children of a loving mother – one devoted to her husband, children and the Lord. Let us thank God if our home is so blessed. Happy Mother’s Day - here and in heaven. Amen.