I. Introduction
Text: Acts 11:26
The second weekend of May, Mother's Day is celebrated throughout the world. It is interesting to note the definition of a mother by this unknown author who said:
"A mother can be almost any size or any age, but she won't admit to anything over thirty.
A mother has soft hands and smells good.
A mother likes new dresses, music, a clean house, her children's kisses and an automatic washer.
A mother doesn't like having her children sick, muddy feet, temper tantrums, loud noise or bad report cards.
A mother can read a thermometer (much to the amazement of Daddy) and, like magic, can kiss hurt away.
A mother can bake good cakes and pies but likes to see her children eat vegetables.
A mother can stuff a fat baby into a snowsuit in seconds and can kiss sad little faces and make them smile.
A mother is underpaid, has long hours and gets very little rest. She worries too much about her children but she says she doesn't mind it at all.
And no matter how old her children are, she still likes to think of them as her little babies.
She is the guardian angel of the family, the queen; the tender hand of love, a mother is the best friend anyone ever has."
A mother is love.
What is a Christian mother? Someone has said, "A Christian mother is a person through whom Christ thinks, a heart through which Christ loves, a voice through which Christ sings, and a hand through which Christ helps."
II. A Christian mother is one through whom Christ thinks
We become disciples of Jesus Christ by receiving Him into our life as Lord and Savior. We experience the miracle of the new birth through faith in Him as the one whom God has sent for the salvation of the world Gohn 3:16).
Disciples of Jesus become truly Christians when they begin to think as Christ thought. The apostle Paul challenged the disciples in Philippi to seek for and to highly prize "the mind of Christ" (Phil. 2:5-8). In Paul's epistle to the believers in Rome he speaks of the need for and the urgency of experiencing "the renewing of your mind" (Rom.12:1-2).
We cannot become like Jesus Christ in our attitudes and actions until we accept the very thoughts of God as the way in which we will do our thinking.
Through Isaiah, the prophet, God urged the people of that day to forsake their wicked ways and their unrighteous thoughts (Isa. 55:6-8). Because the thoughts of God are so much higher than our thoughts, we must think as Jesus thought if our ways would be comparable to His (Isa. 55:8-9). A Christian mother is a mother through whom Christ thinks.
III. A Christian mother is a mother with a heart through which Christ loves
There are different kinds of love in the world. There is romantic love. This type of love is always seeking its own satisfaction. There is philanthropic love or respect love which is based on worth and expresses itself in kindness.
The love that Jesus Christ had for God and for man is agape love the love which helps. This love is characterized by a persistent, unbreakable spirit of good will and is devoted to the highest possible good of the person being loved.
Christian mothers are those who have something more than a maternal type of love. They are those who have permitted the Holy Spirit to pour out within them the very love of God for the members of their family (Rom. 5:5).
A Christian mother is a mother with a heart through which Christ loves.
IV. A Christian mother is one through whose voice Christ speaks and sings
During the ministry of our Lord there were mothers who brought their little children to Him that He might bless them. It is easy to imagine Christ, with great love, talking in affectionate terms with a little child on His knee. It doesn't take too much imagination to believe that He might sing to little children.
Some of us are fortunate in that we have memories from early childhood of a mother who would sing to us some of the great songs of faith expressing God's love.
Genuine Christianity affects the speech of those who are true believers.
The Christian mother will be a good steward of her tongue, using it to speak words of kindness, affection, and encouragement, as well as correction. The Christian mother will be generous with words of praise and commendation and very sparing with words of criticism that might harm and hurt and create a sense of low self-esteem in the heart and life of her child.
The Christian mother will certainly communicate her faith to her children and encourage them to not only trust Christ as Savior but to follow Him as Lord.
A Christian mother is a mother with a voice through which Christ speaks.
V. A Christian mother is a mother through whose hands Christ helps
It is a proverbial saying that "father works from sun to sun, but mother's work is never done."
In the wise man's great tribute to a good woman, he describes her as one who "opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet." (Prov. 31:20-21).
The Christian mother is a true helpmate to her husband. The Christian mother is a great helper to her children. She is a worker. She is an achiever. She is a doer. She finds her strength and her help in the Lord.
VI. Conclusion
What is a Christian mother? She is one who believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. She loves Him and seeks to obey Him day by day. She sees home life as a place in which to honor God and serve her generation.
May each husband seek to help his wife be a good Christian mother.
Each mother can be a Christian mother with the help of Jesus Christ. May God bless you in your efforts in that direction.
VII. Illustration
- Countless times each day a mother does what no one else can do quite as well. She wipes away a tear, whispers a word of hope, eases a child's fear. She teaches, ministers, loves, and nurtures the next generation of citizens. And she challenges and cajoles her kids to do their best and be the best. But no editorials praise these accomplishments where is the coverage our mothers rightfully deserve? -James C. Dobson.
- Cod can't always be everywhere, and so he invented mothers. -Sir Edwin Arnold.
Thank you Cod,
For pretending not to notice that one of Your angels is missing and for guiding her to me. You must have known how much I would need her, so You turned your head for a minute and allowed her to slip away to me. Sometimes I wonder what special name you had for her. I call her "Mother." Bernice Maddux
The child, in the decisive first years of his life, has the experience of his mother as an all-enveloping, protective, nourishing power.
Mother is food; she is love; she is warmth; she is earth. To be loved by her means to be alive, to be rooted, to be at home. Erich Fromm.
Ellen G. White quotations
The Savior understood the care and burden of the mothers who were seeking to train their children according to the word of Cod. He had heard their prayers. He Himself had drawn them into His presence." -The Ministry of Healing, p. 40.
"Jesus knows the burden of every mother's heart. He who had a mother that struggled with poverty and privation sympathizes with every mother in her labors. He who made a long journey in order to relieve the anxious heart of a Canaanite woman will do as much for the mothers of today. He who gave back to the widow of Main her only son, and who in His agony upon the cross remembered His own mother, is touched today by the mother's sorrow. In every grief and every need He will give comfort and help.
Let mothers come to Jesus with their perplexities. They will find grace sufficient to aid them in the management of their children. The gates are open for every mother who would lay her burdens at the Savior's feet. He who said, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not," still invites the mothers to lead up their little ones to be blessed by Him. Even the babe in its mother's arms may dwell as under the shadow of the Almighty through the faith of the praying mother.
John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his birth. If we will live in communion with Cod, we too may expect the divine Spirit to mold our little ones, even from their earliest moments." The Desire of Ages, p. 512.
Antenor Cruz writes from Brazil. He is a retired pastor and enjoys writing sermon for elders.
