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Godly Mother (1 Samuel 2 Timothy)
May 8, 2005 (Mother’s Day)
The Rev. Kong Namkung

Today we celebrate Mother’s Day.  It is the day we honor and revere those who not only gave us life, but who formed us by their teaching into what we are today.  I want you to think about three mothers in three different generations.   I am thinking of my mother, who is over 80 and my wife who is over 40 and another American typical around 20 years old.  I’d like to ask you to think about what these mothers’ roles in their generation.

80 years old: stayed at home, cooking, cleaning, spending time with family, respecting husband and children, checking her children’s homework.

40 years old: some have college degrees and have a job, spending some time with her children, still cooking and cleaning, seeking some independence from her husband, seeking career.

20 years old: most have college degrees and above, independent, seeking freedom, some cooking and cleaning, no time for her children.

Mothers’ roles have been changed throughout the years.  Today’s mothers are busier than ever.  Today’s mothers do not have time for themselves, for their children, and for their husbands. 

The Bible is not sociology or science, economy, or a genealogy book.  So if you want to find accurate information about these fields, you will be disappointed.  The Bible is the book of salvation in Jesus Christ.  However, it contains the importance of every aspect of motherhood: it talks about Eve’s conception (Genesis 4:1); Bathsheba’s pregnancy (2 Samuel 11:5; Luke 1:24); Rachel’s pain of childbirth (Genesis 35:16-18), and Hannah’s nursing on Samuel (1 Samuel 1:23).  The Bible also tells mothers what God wants mothers to be and to do.  As long as you, mothers, identify yourselves as a Christian, I’d like to encourage you what the Bible says about being a godly mother.

I. Subject yourself to Your Husband (Ephesians 5:22)

 

A. If you are loved by your husband, then you subject to your husband.  The marriage relationship takes priority. Ephesians 5:22-33 lays down the principles that should govern the home where the husband and wife desire to love each other in the will of God.  To subject to your husband is not what pastor, Kong says, but what God says to God’s people.  God has created an order which includes a masculine ’headship’; not of authority….but of responsibility and loving care. (John Stott). "Where love and mutual respect rule the home there will be little problem with submission on the part of the wife…The husband is not a dictator, but he exercises his headship primarily by service. This is the same way that Jesus expressed his headship over the church." (Bruce Stewart)   All things that you do to your husband, you do like you do to Jesus Christ. Why?  That’s what God wants you to be.  You are designed by God to subject yourself to your husband.  No farmer would go out into the field to plow while driving a high powered sports car. The little car might be able to go fast on the highway - you might even be able to win races with it - but only a fool would try to pull stumps or plow furrows with it. The sports car is not designed to do this, but a tractor is. And anyone whose followed a slow moving tractor down a country road knows that the tractor certainly isn't designed for highway travel. Again, it's a matter of design. So you seek the relationship between you and your husband as God teaches you.

B. When the marriage relationship is priority according to scripture, the following things will happen.

I.         The wife and husband will be the most fulfilled in your marriage.

II.      The children will learn how to have successful marriage.

III.    The wife and husband will both be aware of the dangers of placing other pursuits as priorities above the marriage relationship.

 

II. Have compassion and love for your children.   Isaiah 49:15, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”

A. Loving our children does not mean that you give them everything they want.  It means to “demonstrate what God had done Jesus Christ on the cross and help them to be in Jesus Christ.”

 

B. Loving children requires:

I.        Discipline. Proverbs 23:13-14 "Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death." Discipline is a sign of love.  Mothers, teach your children. Turn off the television, and plant that seed. Your children may not know Jesus, but if you lay the foundation they are more likely to come to Christ than if you haven't.

II.     Teaching them to love Jesus Christ. Proverbs 1:8, “Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching.”  Proverbs 31:1, “The sayings of King Lemuel--an oracle his mother taught him.”   These verses indicate that even in ancient times mothers shared with fathers the responsibility for instructing and disciplining children while husbands are the head of families.

III.   Caring for their spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. Psalm 127:3-5. 2 Timothy 1:5 "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well."

III. Develop Christian Character

 A. Be Pure.

 

I.        This relates to a commitment to your marriage vows. You vowed to show commitment to your marriage before God, people, your spouse, and yourself.  You, mothers and wives, need to keep that vow. 

II.     This relates to spiritual influence in the home. (1 Peter 3:1-2 "Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives- when they see your respectful and pure conduct.")

III.   This relates to the image of purity. Christian women are to be chaste, modest, pure in heart and mind. Think in terms of speech, dress, all relationships. Christian mothers need to pass these on to children. 

Mothers, wives, and women, I have been talking about a godly mother, who subject yourself to your husband, to have compassion and love for your children, and to live pure and holy life.  Why do mothers live this way? Because we are living in a supremely ungodly, violent, dishonest, and immoral society. In 1973 the Supreme Court said that it was fine for mothers to abort their children. Since that time the number of abortions have grown in this country till some 4000 children are killed each month. In recent a Christian Press news release, they stated that the average child spends 6 minutes a day talking to their parents, while watching hours of television. There have been several instances where teenagers have had children out of wedlock, then threw these newborn babies in the trash. 

In this ungodly world, motherhood is no easy job.  We also know that our mothers have done their best for keeping us safe and secure. Today I want to tell you that motherhood or being a mother is a ministry. It is the ministry that God has given it to you.  It is a ministry of subjecting yourself to your husband, teaching your children with the word of God, preparing children to follow God’s pathways, and being an example of the love of Jesus.

The Christian, young and old, married or single, women were trying to be godly in an ungodly world.  I know that there are many godly mothers, who transformed their children’s lives.  Samuel was a prophet, who had a dedicated and committed mother.  Timothy was a faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who had a mother Lois, and had a grandmother, Eunice.  St. August was one of the greatest theologians, who had a praying mother, Monica.  John Wesley is the founder of United Methodist Church, who had a spiritual mother, Susanna Wesley.  600 college students were asked to write down the most beautiful word in the English language. 422 of them wrote the word "mother."   Being a Godly Mother in an Ungodly World isn’t an easy task. All mothers you are called to be God’s ministers.  Godly Mothers are needed. Be a godly mother 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year.

About two thousand years ago, there was a man on the cross.  His name is Jesus Christ.  One of the seven words that Jesus spoke on the cross is, “Here is your mother.”  Jesus sees the importance of being mother.  The same Jesus says to you today, “Here is your mother.”  To be a godly mother is ministry, it is a great privilege, it is God’s call in your life.   Let Jesus Christ be proud of you being a godly mother.  Glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.  Amen

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