The Value of Motherhood

Gloria Simmons. How many of you know Gloria Simmons? Most of you know her. She said something to me. She said, you know, I haven't heard for years a Mother's Day sermon. I said, well, yeah, you have. There's been... I've heard, you know, sermonettes and sermons on Mother's Day and basically came down that I hadn't given a sermon about Mother's Day. And I thought about it that week of Mother's Day and I had a whole different sermon prepared. I was going to talk about speaking in tongues, you know, because with the Pentecost coming up and I thought, well, that would be a good subject, just that doctrine and go through that.

But the more I thought about it, what she said, the more I started thinking, yeah, I need to give a Mother's Day sermon. So last week I gave a Mother's Day sermon in Nashville. And it took me some... it was surprising. I went through old Mother's Day sermons that I've given. And I said, no, that's not what I want to cover. And I really had to work and think about what I wanted to cover.

And it made me think a lot about... I started thinking about my own mother and the impact she had on my life and Kim, the impact she had on our children and on our grandchildren. I've always said that Kim had more of an impact, positive impact on our kids than I did.

I mean, I did too. I was close to my children. But she had a remarkable impact on them in a positive way. And I started thinking about my own mother and how her childhood was very difficult because her dad died when she was two. And of course, this is now during the late part of the Great Depression, early part of World War II. And she would tell me how her mother had to work long hours.

And she was left alone. We're talking about five years old, maybe, six years old. And she would come home from school and just wander around. They lived in a very small town. She'd wander around the town. And she said her favorite place to play was on the railroad tracks. She would just play in the rocks on the railroad tracks. Or her mother would take her to work, but she couldn't go in the building. So she had to... that was a big city of 18,000 people. So she took her to the big city.

And she had to go just walk around through the city by herself as a child. Because there was nobody to take care of her at times. And if she was left at home, she would just leave the house. She was supposed to, but she would. I started thinking about, as I was working on this, because I want to talk about mothers today. I started thinking about the hundreds and hundreds of times Kim and I have sat down and talked with mothers, facing all kinds of issues.

You know, how do I raise my children? What do I do? I have one child that's like the textbook perfect child, and I have one child that you wonder if they're insane. You know, I mean, they just... what do I do? How do I deal with this? And of course, every child is different. Every child has a different personality. And so, you know, how do we deal with this? And how do you juggle family and career? How do I juggle... or even if you don't have a career, but you know, you have a job and you're working, and it's like, how do I juggle that? And how do I juggle the finances?

And my husband and I are trying to, you know, make ends meet, and how do we do this? Feeling guilty, because I should spend more time with my kids. Occasionally, you'll hear a woman say, I really feel guilty, because raising the children is so hard, I enjoy the time on my job more than I do with my kids. I mean, the modern problems we face are very interesting. And then you have the women who say, okay, I'm going to stay a home mother. And they face a whole other set of problems. The stress of staying home all the time can be overwhelming, and many times it's not appreciated.

I actually did something when I was preparing the sermon. I went online and I found the biggest websites I could that were about mothers, you know, motherhood. Some of them were Christians, some of them weren't. And I looked up articles about, you know, should you stay at home or not? And you know what surprised me? You know, the comments afterwards. Some articles were women should go out and have a career because just raising a child is a waste of your time.

Other women said no. You know, the articles know this is what, especially in some of the Christian sites, women, if they can, should stay home. Not a lot can't, to try to raise children. Or if they do have a career, they need to make sure that the children are prioritized. What surprised me in the arguments, not the arguments, was the comments made afterwards and how ugly these women could be to each other.

How vicious they could be, you know. Well, you have a job, you're not being a Christian. Or you're staying home, you're just lazy. It's like, wow. You know, I was surprised at the level of just attack mode that they went in on these arguments. But stay home, mother. Sometimes they suffer depression and feel guilty about that. Well, I'm being a good mother by staying home and I feel depressed. Of course, guys, guys say, why would they feel that way? I tell you what, just take one day, let her go away, and take care of three kids by yourself for one day.

You may not depressed, be depressed, but you'll be tempted to start drinking, okay? So you're gonna you're gonna have a whole new set of problems here. So, you know, there are certain challenges to that. And then you have single mothers. I tell you what, being a single mother and doing it right is a remarkable thing. Or you have mothers who the guy, the husband, doesn't help like he should.

So the whole issue of motherhood and the value of a woman in terms of motherhood. What I will look at today at God's place in where he places motherhood and what he does. Now, we're gonna go through and show that doesn't mean if you don't have a child, that somehow you're sinning. That's not that's not the point. The point is, if you have a child, how does that place as the woman in God's plan?

Because the question of having a career, not having a career, those are all individual decisions that have to be worked through in terms of your family, where you are in your life with your husband. I mean, this is all part of that just modern life. Those decisions have to be made. But what I want to do is get start with a large viewpoint here. Then we're gonna bring it down to some practical things. Large viewpoint of where is motherhood, if you will, in God's plan. Now, you know, as we do this, by the way, I realize I have to give a sermon now on about Father's Day.

Because where is fatherhood in God's plan? Because it's actually very much of God's plan. So where is it? So we're gonna start with some very general things you all know, but I want to bring this into focus on being mother. Okay? So let's go to Genesis 1, 27, because there is a lie that is being told that we have to stand up against.

Genesis 1, verse 27, God says, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. Okay, so male and female are created in the image of God. Now, that's not just a biological statement, because God is neither male nor female. It is in the way our brains are structured. You know, the difference between a male and female brain is very tiny, but it doesn't take much difference to create a difference.

Those differences are both aspects of the character of God. You have to understand that. Male and female are aspects of God, and the reason I bring that out, the belief that there is no real difference between men and women's, you know, brains and how we think, or one superior, one's inferior, is all that's that the whole discussion of that is packed with lies.

Understand that. You're being lied to. We are different for a purpose, and it's a remarkable purpose. Now, part of it has to do with the relationship and marriage between male and female, and part of it has to do with when we decide to have children. Now, once again, that is under attack. That's another thing I found on all these, even some of the Christian websites, that, you know, male and female really doesn't matter in raising children, and the truth is it does.

Females bring some things to the raising of children that is hard for men to do, and men bring some things to the raising of children that's hard for women to do, and I know that's not popular in today's world, but it's truth. It's reality. We're gonna get focused in on what God says, because look at what He says to them next. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it.

So, He made us male and female in order to populate the earth. So, having children is one of the reasons why. He could have done this a hundred ways, you know, in the 16th century, 17th century. It was a popular way of teaching children where babies come from by telling them the stork brought them.

Have any of you ever heard that? The stork brings them? Some of them. Okay. And I had heard this as a child, and I was surprised when I gave this in Nashville, because nobody had ever heard of it but one person. I heard, I had a book when I was a little kid, I mean I knew it wasn't true, but that somehow babies were found under the cabbage patch. Anybody hear that? Okay, so I'm not so... I guess you just gotta be really old to have heard that. So, if you go back far enough, what it is, the stork delivered children under the cabbage patch, and that's how you would find them.

Have you heard of cabbage patch kids? Now, if you were alive in the 80s, you know what a cabbage patch doll is, right? That's the idea. They're found under the cabbage patch. Okay, so, you know, well, actually God could have created this anyway, wanted. Now, there's something to really think about here.

God creates a male and a female in his image. Both have certain aspects of his mind, of his personality, of his character. And they are then to do what? Create other images of God. Now, think about... He could have said, you know what I'm gonna do is make every one of them individually out of dirt. And you go out in your backyard one day, and there's a baby, right? He could have done this however he wanted, but he created us in his image two halves of a whole, and then says, you create other images of me.

So, whether we have a male or a female baby, they're both in the image of God. Let's go down to chapter 2, verse 23. This is what Adam said when he first saw Eve. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of the man. The intimacy of that is beyond us sometimes. We rush through that statement.

He's actually saying, wow, because all you know, he saw male and female lions, and male and female cows, everything else, but he said, this is different. This is part of me. This is a completion of me. This is that shocking statement. You know, God let him found out that being alone wasn't, he wasn't happy being alone.

And then created Eve, and he says, this is part of me. Therefore, God says, verse 24, a man shall leave his father and mother be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. So, marriage is designed for a lot of reasons. But one of the reasons is if there are children brought into this world, they're supposed to be brought into this world by a married couple that are dedicated to each other for life.

You realize you can get kicked off of YouTube for saying that today. So, I'm interested in going to the National Religious Broadcasters Conference and hearing what lawyers have to say about that. Because, you know, if you believe in the Bible, you can't back down from certain things. But what's going to happen?

What's going to happen here? So, this is the purpose for us being male and female. Now, part of it too is when we get married, we teach each other things. Right? My wife has taught me a lot of things over the years and I've taught her things over the years. Sometimes I think she's taught me more than I've taught her. But we've learned certain things by being two people coming together as a couple.

But the other part is, this is how I've chosen. God says this, this is how I've chosen to create more beings in my image. Now, once you think of that, you realize how important motherhood is because you are the vehicle by which God is recreating or creating His family.

You're the vehicle by which He's creating His family. Understand motherhood. The moment you are pregnant, you have a divine purpose and a divine mission given to you by God. You're not just having a baby. You have a divine purpose and a divine mission given to you by God because you are the vehicle by which He is creating beings in His image.

Where have you ever heard that before? That's just... you can't find that mentioned in... you know, who says that? Oh, you're... you're pregnant. That's wonderful. Is it a boy or a girl? Whoever says, wow, you are the vehicle for God creating another being in His image. But that's what motherhood is. Fatherhood was stripped from this country through the Industrial Revolution to a certain extent when father was taken out of the home.

Motherhood was just was removed and you see where this society is going and you had to remove mom and dad first. That's already been done. So the divine purpose, the holiness of motherhood, is no longer accepted, talked about, or even understood. In fact, it's interesting... this is going to Malachi too. Once again, this is just the introduction.

We're talking in broad terms here, but I want you to really understand as a mother and if you're a grandmother, you actually have a divine purpose in God's plan. So do we guys as husbands, as fathers too? But I'm talking to the mothers today. You have a divine purpose in God's plan.

And don't let anybody take that away from you with a lie that it's not special. Now, I have actually known of mothers who had a baby simply because they said, you know, I'm getting older and I want to have the experience. They have the baby and then they don't even raise the child. You know, as soon as the child's big enough, they go into daycare because... not because they have to, but because, well, I had the baby. I fulfilled my experience.

Not realizing having the baby is a divine commission from God because he's producing his family through you. There's an eternity in that child. There's an internal possibility in each child. Amalekai, when we have, of course, the Jews have returned. Some generations of goodbye. They've rebuilt the temple, rebuilt Jerusalem, and they've become complacent. And because of that, sin has reentered into their society. And one of the problems they have is in Malachi 2, verse 10. Now, it's interesting how God says this. Have we not all one Father, has not one God created us? Now, he didn't introduce himself here as Yahweh. He didn't introduce himself here as Heloim. He didn't introduce himself as El Shaddai. He introduced himself as Father. When God does something like this, when he introduces himself with a title or a name, he's making a point. And he's making the point is, I am the Father of humanity. And I am the Father. It's a parental position. I am the Father of Judah. And I created, you know, all of humanity. He says Judah has dealt treacherously and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign God. And what you see what was happening is, if you read through Malachi, is that large numbers of the Jews had just went ahead, gone outside Judaism, and had married pagans, and then allowed the pagans to bring them into paganism. So they become a semi-pagan society. They just become a semi-pagan society. Because instead of bringing pagans into the worship of God, the opposite had happened. They had taken them out of the worship of God. And he said this institution that he loves, marriage was created by God because he loves it. So let me ask you, what does God think about gay marriage? He created an institution for the re-creater to the creation of his family. I keep saying re-creation. It's the creation of his family. The creation of his family, and he created an institution by which it should be done. He created male and female. Remember what he said after he created male and female? He looked at the angels and said, this is really good. This is really good. I have created this compliment that contains part of me in each one. And boy, can they be something special.

And they will be the ones I use to bring about the next group, and the next group, and the next group.

See, we have to see this from God's viewpoint.

He goes on, verse 13, this is the second thing you do. You cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and crying. So he does not regard the offering anymore, nor receive it with good will from your hands. Yet you say, let's stop for a minute, because what's happening here is, the people say, well, you know what? God doesn't even listen to our prayers anymore.

We're bringing our offerings, and He's not blessing us. He's not taking care of us. What is the problem here? God's not upholding His end of the bargain. So God's going to say, well, let me tell you why I'm not doing these things. Why I'm not interacting with you the way you want me to.

Yet you say for what reason? Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously.

Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. And that covenant is made with God. The marriage covenant is not just made between the two people. It's made with God. And He says, she's your wife. Now, He's talking to the men here, because in this environment, women had almost no power to divorce. So the divorces are being made by the men. And He's furious over this. He says, I won't even answer your prayers. Don't even come to me, because of the way you're treating your wives and the way you're breaking the covenant you made with me.

And then He says, verse 15, but did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit, and why?

He seeks godly offspring. Therefore, take heed to your Spirit and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. He says, don't you understand? God created marriage so that He could have more beings in His image. Now, we all know that, unfortunately, we're all very corrupt images of God, and our children become very corrupt images of God. But they're still made in the image of God with the possibility of salvation. So every child has value. Every child has value to God, even if they're brought about in the most horrendous of situations. You know, I've heard it argued, well, if a girl becomes pregnant through rape, abortion should be allowed. And I heard something once said by a woman that it shocked me when she said it, the way she said it. And I thought she made such a great point. She said, I am the product of rape. My dad, some horrendous man I've never met, my mother gave me up for adoption. She said, well, she was an amazing woman to do that. Girl, she was a girl, the teenager. She said, but you know what? Think about it. What right did I have to die for the sins of my father? That was a remarkable statement. Because I've heard it said sometimes, well, if she was raped, which is horrible. A woman being raped, of course, I know men in prison who have been raped, it leaves scars on them, too. The scars of women, mental, emotional scars from being raped, is just horrendous. Only God can heal that. But her point was, why would I have to die because my father was a horrible person? And I thought, wow, what a powerful statement. Because even though this was done in a horrible way, God didn't cause it, God didn't want it, but God says, you know what? That child now will be in my image. He makes something good out of the horrible thing that happened. He makes something good out of it. That child will be in my image, even though some horrible... And believe me, rapists don't get away with anything. God hates rape. There's... No, they don't have a chance to repent, just like everybody else, but that's not... It's not how God intended for beings as His image to be created. It appalls Him. So motherhood has this purpose and mission from God that's given to your life. So you're a single mother. Or what if you were a mother from rape? It's okay to give that child up for adoption. You give it to someone who can raise it. Maybe you can't. But the bottom line is, you are honored for carrying the child by God.

Not other people, but you will be honored by God. The woman is honored because she fulfilled a role that was forced upon her in a horrible way. We begin to understand how God looks at this. And it is. You are special because you get to carry someone who's in my image.

So mothers, of course, are very important in the emotional and spiritual and social mental development of children. Child development is fascinating to me. Just absolutely fascinating. And mother and father are both important. It is not an experience just to be chalked up like, let's see, my bucket list is, I went to Paris, I got my master's degree, I had a baby. Okay, that's not what this is. Going to Paris is not a divine mission and purpose. Having a baby is a divine mission and purpose. And once you choose and you are now pregnant, you are commissioned by God. Now once again, I have to go back and say, well, what if I decide not to have children? Well, Paul told Corinth, you know what, considering the state of the world we live in, and considering he thought Jesus Christ was coming right away, he said, it's probably best you don't get married. He says, I can't tell you not to do that. He said, but I'm just saying it's probably best. In other words, he was telling them not to have children. He felt it was best for them. But he did say, I can command you to do that. So once again, there's a place where Paul said, decide not to have children, that's okay. But once you decide, understand where your calling comes from. It's a calling from God. Now that's why when you read in the Bible, story after story of the woman who couldn't have a baby and what it meant to her. Because you have to understand through the whole time period of the Bible, among the people who were chosen by God, having a baby was considered a blessing from God and a duty to all of society. You contribute the honor given to a mother was enormous.

I mean, it was looked up to as, wow, God himself has blessed you because you're having a child.

But we don't always look at that today, do we? We don't say, oh wow, God has blessed you.

When our daughter said she had number six coming along, it was like, wow, how many blessings do you want? But you know what? That number six is just a bunch of blessings is number one.

They're blessings from God and you are the carrier of the blessing.

I want you to look at motherhood, all you women, a little different and understand the value God puts on it in his plan. When Christ comes back, motherhood will be honored.

It will be honored. And you were designed for that. I wasn't. I can't carry a child.

It's not what I was designed to do. You were. Now, let's look at this in terms of, wow, now that I know that I'm this special vessel of God, boy have I failed. You know, I'm failing now as a mother or I failed in the past as a mother.

Okay, let's step back and what does it mean if it's God's commission to you? What it means is only God can do certain things. You can't do certain things if it's a commission from God. Only God can do it. You cannot convert your children. You can't. Then think about this.

God calls himself father. There is no more perfect parent ever in history. I mean, how could you be a better parent than God? And yet he knows in the end there will be children that hate him and will not respond to him. And all he has to do, he has the power to take away their free will, and he won't do it. If God, the most perfect parent, won't force conversion on a child, you and I can't force conversion on a child. We don't have that power.

We can only prepare them. So we're supposed to do something. I mean, it's not like, oh, I have a baby. I fulfill my role. As father, as mother, we have tremendous responsibility because we're fulfilling a role that God gave us to influence someone made in his image.

So we have to influence them, but we can't convert them. So here's the first point. I have a couple points I want to make here about the practicality of this. Since motherhood is a divine mission and a divine purpose, then it is God who must give you the wisdom and strength to fulfill it. Right? If it was just a matter of, oh, like my job, I go to my job and I have these tasks I do, and I have the manual. Okay? I have the manual. You know, when that baby was born, there wasn't a little, you know, plastic bag attached to the placenta that comes out, and in that bag is, here's the divine instruction sheets on how to raise this thing. Right? That doesn't happen.

So understand, we have to go to God. As mothers, you have to go to God and ask God to give you help. It is God's love that will help you love your children. It is God's joy, you know, love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, mercy, self-control. It's that in you that will help you do your parenting.

In the midst of its fun and joy and disappointment and depression, all the things that go into being a mother, right? And they can be all over the place. I mean, just the chemical things that happen to you during pregnancy and after pregnancy. I am so glad I'm a man.

I am so glad that I would have to go through some of the things that they have to go through at times.

So you have to go to God and realize if it's a divine mission, God has to help you do it. And there's things, only things God can do, you can't do.

Now, there is so much guilt we carry as parents. My wife and I have talked about this. Oh, we've just done this better. We've just done this better. But you can't go back and relive your life. Understand there are no perfect parents except God.

Here's what motherhood is. And this is my second point. You're not perfect. You never have been. You never will be. What motherhood is, here's what real mothers are.

They bring these children into the world and through learning and experience and suffering and joy and hard work, they spend their energy and their time loving imperfect children.

So it's imperfect mothers loving imperfect children. That's what motherhood is.

And you learn it and you experience it.

And, you know, we're children having children, right?

You think you're an adult, you have a child, and then you're scared to death. Like, what do I do? I'm amazed when I look back at ancient Israel. You look at Bible times, average age probably for a girl getting married was 16.

It was maybe 18 for a man, maybe a little older in his 20s, depending on his status.

But you know what was different? From the moment in Israelite society, especially Jewish society, time of Jesus, at the moment those children were old enough to talk, they were being taught what it meant to be a wife, a mother, a husband, a father. They were being taught that. It was ingrained into them. Absolutely ingrained into them. Our society is all different.

Oh, you know, you married a man, not just because back then, of course, a lot of us arranged marriages. You didn't just marry a guy because he was good looking. He better be a good father.

He better be somebody that's going to help you raise those kids.

So it's a different world they lived in, but it's children having children to a certain degree.

Remember, life is just a work in process. What you know at 25 and 35 and 45 and 55 and 65 is totally different. And at 65, I am absolutely overwhelmed at what I don't know.

You know, 45, I thought I had it all figured out. Now I think, do I know, do I have anything figured out except what God says? What God says works. What God says works.

So they're God's children. Remember, you are the means by which he brings them into the world, and then you are as the mother, especially in those very early ages. You are the primary way that they learn about life and about God. That's your role.

That's your role.

So when you face that, you say, well, what do I do? Well, here's some things to pray about.

Remember, if it's a divine mission, you have to have divine help. So here's some things as a mother or even a grandmother to pray about. Pray that God will love them and guide them and lead them to know him in Christ. Pray that God will love them. And you see that in the Scripture.

Praying for their children. Now, God calls people when God calls them, and if he decides not to call your children now, that's the decision he makes. He calls what he wants, right? But remember, it's his child. It's ours too, and we love them, but they're his ultimately, just like you are his ultimately. And so pray for them. Pray that God interacts with them. Pray that God guides them.

Pray that God keeps others from hindering them from his call.

The world we live in, the school system, everything, will try to hinder your child from responding to God. So you have to pray to keep that, to keep that from happening.

You have to pray to God, keep that from happening. But it's not only that.

I've talked to literally scores of people who have left the church and come back later, because as a child they were offended by people in the church. And the thing is, is that the people who are offending them sometimes didn't even know they were doing it. One thing I really thank my parents for when I was a child was that somebody in the church upset me. They'd say, well, they're just a person. Come on. You're at the center of the universe here, kid. Just because someone didn't treat you right. Okay. Let's go to Matthew 19. I want you to think about this in a different way. We read this all the time when we do the blessing of the little children.

But I want you to think about something here that we don't usually center in on because we're talking about what he did, what Jesus did. Verse 13, the little children were brought to him that he might put his hands on them and pray. But the disciples rebuked them. Now, I want you to think what it's like to be a parent or a child that's old enough to understand that I'm being told, stay away from the rabbi here, the great teacher, because he doesn't have time for you. You think, wow, what rotten people these these were. No, they were Peter, James, John, Thomas. They were the people we read about as the greatest disciples of Jesus Christ. That's who they were.

Now, their intention was to protect and help Jesus. What they ended up doing was they could have been offending children or parents of children.

And of course, we know what he said. No, send them to me. No, please. These are special. Can you imagine being a mother and hearing them say that? Boy, I know some mothers that would have just picked up their child and said, well, this Jesus is a false teacher. If this is the way his disciples act, I don't want anything to do with him. You probably all know a mother that would do that, to defend your child so much. So we have to teach our children that, you know, and pray that God keeps them from being pulled out and influenced and hindered from the call that he has for them, not only from the world, but just from each other in the church. Once again, a lot of that's not intentional, but it happens. We have to take their specific issues and their troubles and their shortcomings to God. We need to take and pray for them as individuals. And we need to take that to God. I remember reading one time a man who went back to his mother, envisioned his mother as an adult, and he noticed for the first time that she had a bookshelf, and each shelf contained books that were all about the interest of each son that she had. So she had read all this stuff, customizing her interaction with that child.

And he said he realized why she was so effective as a mother. Well, you go and pray for that. You know, your child has weaknesses. Your child has strengths. Your child has shortcomings, and you bring those to God in prayer. You pray that they will not be unequally yoked in intimate relationships, marriage and friendship. That's hard.

That's hard because they get thrown out into the world in school systems and so forth. Once again, that's not what it was like in the first century. The first century church in Jerusalem had no problem because children were raised in a different way, in a different environment, and the boys were all taught by a rabbi. You know, so they were taught in a different way today because we live in a republic, which is a form of democracy, that all things have to be taught. All things are equal.

That's why Proverbs 12 verse 26 talks about being very careful who you pick as your friends. And you know, you can't pick all your children's friends. My parents couldn't pick all my friends, and most of my friends, for my teenagers, weren't in the church.

And the ones that were, I got to see basically every Sabbath.

So, you know, they can't pick your friends, but teach them to be very careful about who they teach as friends, or keep as friends, because that can really draw them away from God. Remember now, what are you doing here? Your understanding, their purpose is that they're a child of God made in the image of God. Your purpose is to bring them into this world, teach them, and teach them. And that's what you're going to do.

You know what? Pray about this in front of them.

You know, it's always interesting, you know, with say our kids are there, and they're going to be going to camp or something, and whoever's praying for the meal, because we take turns, even the kids, you know, who wants to pray for the meal today? You want to raise their hands. And I know invariably it'll be, and we're going to camp, and we're going to camp, and we're going to camp tomorrow, so please protect all of us, and please make sure that, you know, the four of us, because there's four of them going to camp, the four of us are going to be okay, and protect daddy too. I know, since this year I'm going, please protect grandpa. That old man is in trouble, you know. It won't be quite that blunt, but that's what will be said. We should pray for them. They should hear us say, this child is facing a test at school tomorrow, they're nervous about it, God, please help them. They should hear us pray for them. Wow. I guess I am a little bit important here. It's a difference between self-esteem and worth from God. Those are two different things.

That's a whole sermon in itself right there. I am valued to God enough that my mom or dad's praying to God about me and my little problem.

Pray that they can follow Jesus' example. I'm going to give you one verse that I've actually given a sermon on this, but not here. Luke 2. This is the center of child development.

Scriptural, biblical, child development.

And it's Luke...

Let's see, what am I looking for? I did this before.

Luke 2.

Okay, 52.

The life of Jesus Christ between the age of 12 and late 20s.

12 and late 20s is summed up in one verse.

Well, you'd think there'd be all kinds of things about Jesus at 15 or Jesus at 22. No!

One verse. And this is the basis of child development and what we should be doing as parents.

He says that Jesus increased, okay, he grew. He grew at wisdom, not just knowledge. It's the problem with a Western basis of education and a biblical basis of education. Biblical basis of education is wisdom, first, knowledge, second, and our Western world is knowledge. We just flood your head with knowledge and now you're smart. But there's lots of smart people that can't fix the simplest of problems because they have wisdom. He grew in wisdom and stature. In other words, physically he grew. Physically he was healthy. So once again, teaching our children to be healthy is very important. And in favor with God, his relationship with God. So we are to try to help them develop a relationship with God and with men. He was socially able to interact with other people. Wow! Okay, so if we teach our children wisdom, teach them how to take care of their bodies and their mental health, we teach them how to grow in a relationship with God, and we teach them how to interact socially. You have a pretty stable person in there. There is child development. Pray for your children. Pray for them in this way. Now, I will tell you something. If you're praying for your children this way, you know what's going to happen? You're going to start to think this way and you're going to start teaching them this way. So praying actually changes you. If you pray for your child this way, guess what? If God's given you a divine mission and you're praying for this to happen and you're part of the divine mission, guess who's going to help teach them this? You are. So if you pray, God, please give her wisdom. Don't be surprised if you start to grow in wisdom.

Because this is your divine mission, but you have to go pray for it.

Pray for their health and protection and well-being. Pray that God will give them a wonderful future.

And you know the most important thing for a wonderful future?

Relationship with God? Well, it's the four things we just mentioned.

It's character that has been developing in you through God's help. You know, it's like how many times over the years I've heard someone tell me, I just had it this week. I had someone call me from the other part of the country and say, I'm getting married, a young woman that I've known for years. She said, you know what happened?

I stopped praying, God, give me a husband. And I started praying, even if I never have a husband, help me to be the remarkable wife you would want me to be.

And she said, not long after I started praying that this man came into my life.

And she said he had sort of given up on getting a wife and he was praying the same thing.

Wisdom. Help me be what I'm supposed to be and then bring somebody along as you see fit.

That's not an easy place to get to, right? And yet, it's amazing how many times that happens. And then sometimes someone will say, I've prayed, God, help me to become the best husband. And you know what? 10 years have gone by and not one person's come into my life.

And I've now come to the conclusion, God, what is it you want me to do with my life? The prayer changes because God's involved. We have to teach children this.

You know, life is messy. It's never exactly what we want it to be. It's always messy.

We're always disappointed at something.

And so we teach them to weather this and we pray that God will give them a wonderful life in spite of all the bad things that are going to happen. You can't pray for your child to have a perfect life in Satan's world. That is an impossibility and it is not God's intention to give any of us a perfect life. It's not his intention to do that.

But we can have a wonderful life. So we pray for it.

And then the last point I want to make here is that motherhood is a sacrifice, but not a loss.

It's a sacrifice, but not a loss. What I mean by that?

Everything you achieve in life that has value takes sacrifice of time, of energy. You give up some of the things you want.

Right? I've known many a man who lobbed the hunt and fish, had children and haven't hunted and fished in years because he didn't have the money to do it anymore.

Right? Or the time to do it. They had to give it up for their kids, for their family.

That's a sacrifice. Women give up a lot of things in your lives.

A lot of things.

And in some ways more than men do at times.

For that child. For those children.

But that's not a loss.

Because what that does in your life and their life is worth it.

It's worth it.

So yeah, there's a sacrifice.

And that's what surprised me once again when I go back to the those sites I looked at. How many said, well, you've stayed home to raise your children. Or you've raised your children but reached the ceiling in your career.

Okay? Because you won't go beyond that because you won't take away from your kids. That just shows that you're hurting other women by doing that.

And you lost, you know, think of how you wasted your life. Some of them actually said that about others.

Because your career stopped at some point. Or not stopped, but you know, you know what so far? You couldn't become the CEO because you wouldn't take that step. Well, as men we do that, too.

For our wives and children sometimes we have to say, oh, I will never accomplish in my career what I could accomplish. We have to do that. If we have our priorities right. Yeah. Because that's more important. And you say, well, I've lost something. No, you didn't. You just sacrificed something. You didn't lose anything. You actually gained.

You actually gained something. You gained a better life.

You gained a better life.

Well, I was going to stop there, but I actually have a fourth point, and I'm going to take five minutes to cover.

Mothers, embrace your responsibility to teach your children and model to your children God's way.

You have such influence on children to teach them God's way and to model it, to live it. Now, once again, I know a lot of women are saying, oh, I'm so bad at that. Well, you're imperfect. But yes, they're imperfect. They're going to figure out someday you're not perfect. And you're going to say, no, I'm not perfect. Only God's perfect.

But we're all trying here. Okay. And that doesn't give you an excuse to be imperfect because I'm not perfect.

We're all moving in this together. We're all moving forward. We're all growing. And you can't...

The purpose of life isn't to stay imperfect.

But you have to teach and model that.

And that can be formal. It can be spontaneous.

But it has to be intentional. You have to know, I'm going to teach. I have this moment to teach. And then there's other things you just do because you model it and they follow you. They do it.

You know, I forget that sometimes, I didn't have any children around anymore except my grandson last year. And it was the one that's 12 at the time.

I'm doing something. And I can't remember what I was doing.

And I looked over at the corner of my eye and he was mimicking every motion I did.

So then I sort of look at him.

He looks the other way, just like I did. I mean, he's like imitating everything I do. And now that was out of fun.

But then you realize, you know, they're doing that all the time.

You get mad and kick the cat. Guess what he's going to do?

He's going to kick that cat.

I've never kicked a cat.

That does not mean I have not been tempted to kick a cat.

Well, the neighbor cats bit me the other day.

And I was tempted to kick that cat, but I did not.

But I just sort of went just a little yell. Ow!

That cat won't even come close to me.

I walk outside. You see it running across the street.

So I didn't have to kick the cat.

I just looked at it.

But you know what I mean? They imitate us. And so you as a mother set this example.

You know, let's go to 2 Timothy 1.

Like I said, I wasn't going to cover this point, but I want to.

We have to understand the importance of what you do, even though you're not perfect.

But nobody is.

2 Timothy 1, verse 3.

And once again, this is an interesting letter for 2 Timothy because it's not written to a church. It's written to a person.

Paul is writing to a young man who he admires, he loves, and he's training to be in the ministry.

And he says in verse 3, I thank God who might serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing, I'm sorry, as without ceasing, I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, so there was, Timothy was going through some problems, that I may be filled with joy.

And when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and am persuaded, it's in you also.

If you read in the book of Acts, it says his father was Greek, which meant, the way it's worded, he was a pagan, and there is no implication that Timothy's father ever converted.

The Bible doesn't say it did.

So it's quite possible that his father, his whole life, we don't know, was a pagan, not a Christian.

And yet, what he tells him is, I know where you got your faith.

You got it from your grandmother and your mother.

He says, I saw that in them, and I know where you got this from.

Have you ever had an experience where someone says, oh, you're just like your dad, or you're just like your mom.

He's saying that to a man about his faith.

They modeled that, even though he had his father as a model of paganism, Timothy responded to God's call, and modeled, was modeled after his mother and his grandmother.

Chapter 3.

Here's how part of this was done.

Verse 14.

He says to him, but you must continue into things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them.

Okay?

Now, you think he'd be saying here, look, what you learned was from me. Remember, I, Paul, taught you.

Notice the rest of the sentence. And then from childhood, you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Remember who you learned it from. Who was it?

His grandmother and his mother.

Remember who taught you this.

From a child, you learned the Holy Scriptures.

Mothers teach, and of course, fathers too, but mothers, your mission from God is to teach them the Holy Scriptures.

To teach it to them, and both formally and formally, by modeling it to them, so that they are prepared to respond to God when God calls them as much as we can prepare somebody.

You can't make them do anything.

You can't. It's impossible.

You can only prepare them.

And remember who they are.

They're a corrupt human being made in the image of God, and you have a unique mission from God to do something.

Today, the concept of family is being just ripped the shreds, but the concept of husband and wife, husband and wife, fatherhood and motherhood had to be ripped apart first.

You had to destroy those concepts, and then you destroyed the family. So even marriage doesn't mean anything anymore.

Bigamy is becoming more and more common in the United States. The age of consent is going to drop, I'm sure. I wouldn't be surprised to see it down to 14 or something at some point.

All this is going to change if it keeps going away. It is. And we're going to remember one of the things I said we're going to have to do over the next year.

We're going to have to make sure our families are together.

Our marriages are together.

That we're working with our children. I don't care what age they are.

You know, sometimes they may need your help as a parent or grandparent.

And we're there for each other.

We're there for our families. Without strong families, the church will have a hard time surviving.

Because this is part of the way God made things.

God honors mothers.

And Mother's Day, that's a man-made thing. Okay? That's just a man-made day. We're talking about something way beyond that.

We're talking about the purpose for your particular design as a human being. That's one of the purposes. It's not the only purpose. So not being a mother, once again, doesn't mean you're not God's daughter. It just means that that purpose is there.

And so that is an honored purpose.

It's a divine purpose.

And remember this.

Through all the trials and heartaches and work and joy and fun. I mean, having kids can be really fun.

All that that you do, the ups and the downs, remember, when you're doing it, you are fulfilling a personal call from God.