Quote from Forum Archives on May 10, 2010, 11:49 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

 

THE FAITHFUL MOTHER

May 9, 2010

 

 

Text: Proverbs 31:10-31

    

 

Happy Mother’s Day!  I hope you enjoy your day.  Being a Mother can be a challenge (so can being a Father).  But it can also be a tremendous blessing.  One young Mother with a full-time job and three young children listened regularly to Christian radio as an extra source of strength.  One day, the sermon talked about how children are God's rewards to parents.  Several days later a sibling skirmish broke out into shoving.  “Cut that out right now,” she scolded. “Or you'll go to your rooms until you can cool down.”  Immediately, her youngest piped up, “Now remember, Mom, we're your rewards.”  (Violet Hart, Lexington, NC. "Heart to Heart," Today's Christian Woman.)  Yes, our children are our rewards, but that still doesn’t mean they’re not a handful.  Thought one Mother, “If evolution is true, how come mothers still have only two hands?” (Donna Waldeyer, Paoli, Pennsylvania, Christian Reader, "Lite Fare.")  Yes, it’s amazing how much we can observe just by watching.

 

A few years ago, one of the members of our pastor’s fellowship was remarking about his Bible reading in Proverbs, which he had just finished.  Of course, the last few verses in Proverbs are those I read just a moment ago.  Our colleague surprised us by saying that he really didn’t care for those verses.  His reason, the best I can recapture in my thinking, had to do with a woman in a narrow role.  Maybe he was equating it to the stereotypical household of the 1950s portrayed on television or something.  Now you might think that my colleague was one of the younger pastors just out of school, but he wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination, and he is very well respected by those who know him.  Yet, he had this particular view of these Scriptures.

 

Last year I used these final verses from Proverbs as our responsive reading on Mother’s Day.  As I read them to prepare the projection, my colleague’s comments came back to me.  As they did, I compared what he said with what the Scripture says.  After a little reflection, I couldn’t help think, “Wow!  What an honor it would be for any woman I can think of to have these verses directed to her!  I don’t see anything in any of these verses that are demeaning or critically negative in any way.  In fact, I’m sort of jealous.  As far as I can recall, there is nothing like this kind of a description in the Bible for husbands.  What an honor to be spoken of in this manner!”  That’s what I thought of, anyway.  So you can see that I disagree with my colleague on this one.  In fact, I think that these verses go a long way to reminding us what roles we can have in repairing the damage to the world caused by satan and his sinful followers.

 

Has anyone else happened to notice that there have been quite a few high profile relationship disasters in the news lately?  There have been Tiger Woods and Jesse James (married to Sandra Bullock) and John Edwards to name a few.  The acknowledged issue in these relationship crises has been adultery.  Here’s a newsflash for them: the Bible has a solution for that problem – don’t do it!  Don’t commit adultery, and you won’t have that problem in your marriage!  Well, I don’t want to go any further down that trail this morning; the ones who need to hear it aren’t listening to me anyway.  But among all these high profile couples and families has been one incident that has become high profile: the “runaway mom.”  Did you hear about that one?  A nationwide hunt was triggered when Tiffany Tehan failed to return from a shopping trip.  Early indications pointed toward foul play.  Turns out, though, that she ran away with so-called boyfriend, Tre Hutcherson, also married.  Quite a mess, but one that could have easily been avoided had she chosen to remain a faithful mother.  There are not very many things that can overcome the consequences of sin like a faithful wife and mother.  I want to show you a few of the things I learn from theses verses about being a faithful and faith-filled wife and mother.

 

“Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.  She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.”  (Proverbs 31:11-12)  If this sounds to you like it sets a stage for only subservience, consider the context in which it was written.  It was not unusual in that period for the husband to secure any family valuables away from his wife.  Whatever the reason, it was not unusual for the wife squander valuable possessions.  Maybe it was lack of knowledge about value; maybe it was a desire to do something mean to her husband; maybe it was easy for her to be duped by a convincing salesman.  I don’t know, but whatever it was caused a lot of distrust between married couples.

 

Many, many years later, Paul was to write, “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:27)  This, too, can make it sound as if the woman is relegated to a position of subservience.  And it would mean exactly that if it were not for the last four words of the sentence: “…as to the Lord.”  We know from the testimony of the entirety of Scripture that the Lord, especially the second person of the Trinity, intends only blessings to those who submit to His loving will.  Being blessed by the Lord is hardly the type of slavery we experience on the human plane.  So in both of these verses, Proverbs 31:11-12 and Ephesians 5:22, the wife is making a choice to be a blessing to her husband and children.  More than that, she is making a choice to be a living example for God’s blessings upon an obedient family.

 

I’m going to jump to Proverbs 31:27, “She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.”  This adequately sums up verses 13-26.  When we read all those passages, we know that this faithful mother is far from idle.  It can wear us out just reading it!  Don’t be discouraged by this list of skills for which this woman is being praised.  The point is not whether we are good at all these things; the point is whether we take these skills, or their equivalents in our own time, seriously enough to see in them the substance and purpose that God has placed in them.  The faithful Mother is established to be the steward over the entire household.  Today’s world may not hold that in great esteem, but it was crucial in the Biblical world.  Remember in Genesis that after Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, he found himself in service to the Egyptian official, Potiphar.  Because of his faithful response to this situation, Genesis 39:4 tells us that “Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant.  Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.”  Being in charge of a household is nothing to scoff at.  It is important, and wives and mothers – as well as husbands and fathers – need to keep that in perspective.  They are important because God has placed us as stewards over His creation.  Families are an important and vital part of His creation.  Many blessings from God are derived from the proper attitude of a steward.  The faithful Mother is a blessing from God.

 

Among the verses included from 13 to 26, my attention is drawn especially to 20, “She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.”  This is not a “show” from the wife of noble character and faithful Mother.  She is not like the hypocrites who Jesus warned about in Matthew 6:1-4, “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them.  If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.  So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men.  I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.  But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴so that your giving may be in secret.  Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”  The faithful Mother is genuine.

 

As a result, her children witness and learn about real compassion.  Acts of compassion are an important part of the stewardship God has entrusted to us.  We can learn this from various sources, but where better than from a faithful Mother?  These are important characteristics of a mother’s love for God and for her family.  No woman has any reason to have any doubts about her self-esteem when she is engaged in such acts of compassion in the name of Christ.  That is the call and privilege of the faithful Mother.

 

Verse 28 gives us this testimony: “Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.”  Sometimes we wonder when this ever happens.  Many of us know that as our children grow, they want to try some things that we as parents do not think are all that fitting or good for them.  There will always be those conflicts and struggles, but they are not the end.  Proverbs also reminds us to “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)  It sometimes takes forever for them to get that old, but it often happens.  As the young child reminded his mother, “Now remember, Mom, we're your rewards.”

 

Nothing exceeds the value and importance of a mother praying for her children and training them in the way they should go.  The fruit that has grown from this characteristic of a faithful Mother has been tremendous over the ages.  Testimonies abound from numerous servants of God who have made tremendous impacts for God’s Kingdom about how their Mother’s faith and prayers either kept them focused on God or drew them back from a wayward path.  The story of Anthusa illustrates this quite well.  Anthusa lived from about 330 to 374 A.D. in Antioch.  Widowed at the age of 20, she is remembered for her influence in the life of her son, John Chrysostom, one of the greatest preachers and leaders of the 4th-century church.  Her contemporaries tell us Anthusa was cultured, attractive, and from a wealthy family.  Yet she chose to not remarry after her husband's death, deciding instead to devote herself to rearing her two children, John and his sister.  John later wrote that his mother not only taught her children to know and love the teachings of the Bible, but also that her very life was a model of biblical teaching.  A student of law, rhetoric and the Scriptures, John was ordained by Bishop Meletius and later became bishop of Constantinople.  A zealous missionary himself, he inspired numerous others to serve as missionaries.  And he always emphasized that a crucial factor to effective evangelism is for Christians to be living examples of Christ-centeredness.  Surely he learned something of this from his mother Anthusa. (“Women in the Early Church,” Christian History, Issue 17.)  There is a testimony to a faithful Mother.

 

As I listen to all these high profile relationship disasters upon which our modern media can feed, I think sadly that, as far as I know, none of them are seeking the peace of Jesus Christ in these matters.  I wish that I could be completely wrong, but that’s what I see.  And I happened to think that as I have had opportunity to minister with couples and families in difficult situations, I have come to learn that God cannot save a marriage or a family.  Now before you think I’ve come a little unglued like my colleague over Proverbs 31, let me tell you what I mean by this.  Of course God saves families and marriages and lives.  But when a person or a couple tells me that they want God to save their marriage, they frequently mean that by some magical means that does not require their obedience and devotion and diligent work and change of behavior, they want someone else, even God, to fix their marriage.  God does not save marriages and families, but when husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, and children commit their lives to God and purpose to serve Him willingly, completely, and joyfully, then marriages and families are saved.

 

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.  Giver her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.” (Proverbs 31:30-31)  And, I discovered one more secret for a happy family, which I will share after our closing hymn so that the children can come up from children’s church and also hear this wonderful bit of wisdom.

 

 

 

(John Maxwell tells the story two boys going to school and talking about their families.  One boy said he had figured out a system for getting along with mom.  He said, “It's very simple.  She tells me what to do, and I do it.”  What a thought! -- John Maxwell, "What Children Owe Their Parents (and Themselves)," Preaching Today, Tape No. 140.)

 

 

 

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

179 W. Broadway

PO Box 515

Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

bhfbc@bhfirstbaptist.com

www.bhfirstbaptist.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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