Someone once said, “If we are to ever beat the Devil, we must beat him with the cradle. How true! And since the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand of Motherhood, therefore mothers hold in their hands the supreme opportunity of moving the world for God.” Another person said, “Give me a generation of Christian mothers, and I will undertake to change the face of society in twelve months.” These quotes underlie the fact that mothers have a huge impact on the spiritual lives of their children.

We are celebrating Mother’s Day today. However, this day should be more than just recognizing all the mothers present. It should be more than having a dinner in honor of the mothers. It must be more than giving flowers and cards to the mothers. We must understand that it is more than saying, “Mom, I love you.” It must be realized and recognized that Motherhood is at the top of God’s list of importance.

Motherhood is an office appointed from God. It is a responsibility that each mother must take with all seriousness. To look at Motherhood with any other objective is to lower the position that God has given it. For one thing, look at the numerous roles a mother must play. “She’s got to be as insightful as a psychologist, tough as a Marine Corps Drill Instructor, gentle as a nurse. She’s got to be a labor and management negotiator, a teacher, an electrician, a plumber and a carpenter. It requires a massive amount of patience, endless energy, and iron will, and the ever present reality that if she gets sick, she’s got to get well before the end of the day.”

This is not just a message for mothers. Everything I’ll be mentioning today is equally applicable to fathers. However, in honor of Mothers Day, we’ll use the term motherhood. but really, we’ll be talking about parenthood. “You can do everything else right as a parent, but if you don’t begin with loving God, you are going to fail.” Parenthood is a partnership with God. Parents are given God’s most precious creation, a baby, all warm and helpless, and for 20 years or so they need to work with God to bring His work to completion.

Have you ever thought about why women want to be mothers? Looking at it in a coldly clinical way, motherhood is nine months of increasing discomfort which ends with hours of intense pain followed by years of expense, heartache, and worry. Mothers who are present will tell me that I just don’t understand. Well, you’re wrong. Even though I have no children of my own, I do understand. I understand that one is simply unable to look at motherhood in a coldly clinical way. Being a mother is a totally subjective experience that defies all logic.

Moreover, I also understand why motherhood is so important to almost all of the human race –because God commands it. In Genesis 1:28 God told the first humans, “Be fruitful and increase in number...” and people have been doing so ever since. The same is true of a different kind of motherhood – spiritual motherhood. Everything I have just mentioned is equally true for both physical and spiritual mothers.

What are spiritual mothers? Paul called Timothy (Philip 2:22, 1 Tim 1:2, 2 Tim 1:2) and Titus (Titus 1:4) his spiritual sons indicating he had raised and nurtured them in their faith. Spiritual mothers are just like physical mothers, except of course, they focus on spiritual matters rather than physical. Spiritual mothers plant seeds which lead to (re)birth. They help raise their spiritual children to maturity, often facing similar teething and growing pains, teenage rebellion, and heartbreaking worry that their physical counterparts face.

Everyone needs a spiritual mother. In most cases, God provides multiple mothers for different seasons (this is where the analogy breaks down some). Lack of spiritual mothers has led to apathy and lukewarmness in the church.

As each person often has many spiritual mothers, a spiritual mother can, and usually does, have many children. The Bible tells us that the children of a barren woman will be more than the children of a fruitful womb (Psalm 113:9, Galatians 4:27). A woman who has no biological children has more time and energy to spare in caring for spiritual children.

God has given this church an orphanage of spiritual children to care for. This neighborhood is full of people who are lost in their sins. They need someone to guide them to God and shepherd them into His kingdom. The one real vision LHF has is to be a light to the neighborhood surrounding us. We need to be adopting and mentoring our neighbors. Motherhood requires spending time with a child. How much time do we spend tending to this neighborhood? For this church to fulfill its vision, we must be more active and proactive as we interact with our neighbors.

Children are a gift and blessing from God (Psalm 127:3). They are not a bother, not a distraction, not a burden. We must be regard the people around us, especially the people God sends to us, as gifts and blessings. As our spiritual charges, we should make every effort to bring them to Christ (Mark 10:13-16)(, instruct them in the ways of God Deuteronomy 31:12-13, Proverbs 22:6), and judiciously trained (Proverbs 22:15, 29:17, Ephesians 6:4)

The training we give must be done properly to be effective. We must reach out in methods that are interesting and relative. We must find ways to show them their need for God and make it clear that only God meets their needs. So far we have proved strikingly unsuccessful in doing this. This is something that requires great prayer. I certainly don’t know what we need to do, but it is obvious that what we are doing isn’t working.

One area that we can improve upon immediately is prayer. The Bible has numerous examples of children given in answer to prayer. Esau and Jacob were the product of 20 years of faithful petition on the part of Isaac and Rebekah (Genesis 25:21). Samuel was given to Hannah after she desperately poured her heart out to Him. Even John the Baptist arrived in answer to Elizabeth and Zechariah’s prayer (Luke 1:13). We need to be praying more fervently for this neighborhood. The eternal souls of our neighbors must be a daily burden on our hearts. If we faithfully and persistently pray, then I believe God will answer in due time.

We can also be praying for wisdom as to how best be the light that we are called to be. A light must be visible to be effective. Is our light visible or is it hidden by the walls of the church building. How can we have a more visible presence in the neighborhood?

Mothers have an incredible influence on the spiritual lives of their children. Many of the great saints have credited their mothers with building a firm spiritual foundation during their childhood. The biblical Timothy was given an excellent start in his spiritual life by his mother and grandmother

2 Timothy 1:5 “I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in your also.”

Lois and Eunice are good examples of the powerful influence that mothers can have. Lets us learn from some more examples of biblical mothers. We’ll look at two good examples that we should emulate and two bad ones that we can learn from what to avoid.

Mary, the mother of Jesus is an excellent example of how we should live to be a positive role model to our spiritual children. She gave us a great example of proper attitude toward God. Mary understood and accepted her position as being utilized by God for His purpose (Luke 1:38). She realized that she was a being created for God’s pleasure. Hoe He chose to make use of her was up to Him.

Though being a young virgin, she submitted willingly despite the risk of losing her reputation and possible danger to her very life. It is unlikely many of her contemporaries believed Mary’s story of being impregnated by the Holy Spirit. Everyone she knew assumed she had been loose and/or unfaithful. Mary not only risked losing her betrothed but could have possibly been stoned to death for adultery. Mary Submitted because she realized that whatever happened to her was for God’s glory –not her own. As long as God was pleased, nothing she lost really mattered.

Mary was the vessel to bring God’s promised Savior into the world. We are the vessels God uses to bring new believers to Him. Sacrifice on our part is often a part of this process but nothing we give up is worth comparing to the rewards and the privilege we receive for being available.

Next let’s look at Jochebed –mother of Moses. Jochebed models for us how to be a trusting mother (Exodus 1:22-2:3). Jochebed trusted God to protect her son when the situation looked hopeless. She knew He would take care of her son in the most fearful and dreadful times. There are times we just have to give our children to God for His protection.

This mother was also courageous. She did what was right despite the danger to herself. Sometimes we forget that as Christians God will let us face danger. In fact, I believe that danger is a common part of the Christian life. After all, what is courage but a complete trust that God is sovereign and nothing will happen to you that is outside of His control. On the other hand, cowardice is the lack of trust. It is basically saying that God is too weak or capricious to protect us. God considers cowardice to be such an affront to His name that Revelation 21:8 lists it as one of the attributes of people sent to hell.

The Bible has examples of the kinds of spiritual parents that we should not be. Sarah, the mother of Isaac teaches us the danger of being a carnal mother. Carnality means to have a worldly mind. Nothing in the biblical record ever shows Sarah thinking or acting from a Godly perspective. She was willing to participate in Abraham’s deceptions (Genesis chapters 12 & 20), unwilling to wait on God’s timing (Genesis 16:1-3), didn’t believe God could keep His promise (Genesis 18:9-15), and even willing to laugh at God and then lie about it afterwards.

When God’s plan didn’t fit her own schedule Sarah took matters into her own hands. She got tired of waiting for the promised son so she gave Hagar to Abraham to bear a child on her behalf. Whenever we try to play God, only trouble and sorrow result.

Carnality is a condition that leads to irrational thinking. It always opposed God, laughs at God, exalts self-will above God, and attempts to overrule God’s plan. We must heed to warning and avoid a carnal mind.

The final mother we will look at is Eve – mother of Cain, Able, and Seth. Eve was a deceived mother (Genesis 3:1-5). Now to be honest, I think Eve is somewhat unfairly criticized. Everyone remembers her one failure. And it is a failure that we are all guilty of. We all sin, most of us on a regular basis. But yet we hold Eve accountable for her sin, simply because it was the first.

In the scheme of things though, her sin was a pretty dramatic failure with significant repercussions. Her failure cost her children greatly. Our sins can have serious consequences to our children, spiritual or physical. Especially the sin of accepting another interpretation of God’s Word. Eve listened to Satan when he told her what God’s word meant. Satan convinced Eve that she could not understand the Word of God without his (mis)interpretation. The devil caused her to think that he could improve upon what God had said. When doubt concerning the truth and principles of the Word of God comes - then trouble always follows.

Eve was deceived about the Sovereignty of God. Satan caused her to believe that God might be wrong in His demands on them. She was deceived concerning the wrath of God. She was fooled into believing that God would not carry out His promise of death.