Mother’s Day is the day our culture does what the Bible teaches we ought to do every day – honor our mothers (Exodus 20:12 * Ephesians 6:1-2). I hope Mother’s Day is a good day on your calendar and in your heart. It is not good for everyone. This little article has a two-fold aim: #1, encourage women who have children to live so that their child / children have no difficulty honoring them. And #2, to remind children, young and old, to esteem and honor your mother as God’s Word directs.
Let’s be real – whether raising one child or 10 of them, motherhood, done correctly, is a “round-the-clock” job! Roseanne Barr once said, “If it’s five o’clock and the children are still alive, I’ve done my job.” Funny – but very, very false.
The idea that motherhood is a “9 to 5” job was shot dead three thousand years ago by the wise man Solomon. In describing ideal womanhood and motherhood in Proverbs 31 (carefully notice I said “ideal,” not perfect) he said, “… She willingly works with her hands rises while it is yet night, And provides food for her household … She girds herself with strength, And strengthens her arms … her lamp does not go out by night … She watches over the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness” (verses 13, 15, 17, 18, 27).
Read the entire passage and you learn she was a woman of incredible stature and influence and strength, working both inside her home as well as outside. She traded for profit in real-estate (vs 16), and was involved in producing and marketing fine clothing (vs 24)! But clearly her home – her husband, children, and household – were the central focus of her life. Her husband trusted her fidelity in matters related to marriage and money (vs 11).
Like most mothers, this woman played multiple roles. She clearly was a “working woman!” In 1980 Dolly Parton wrote and sang a song titled “9 to 5” for a comedy film by the same name. The movie saluted “working women” – that is, women who worked outside the home. Nothing new about women working outside the home.
My own mother was a “working woman” in the 1960’s. She worked hard in a garment factory eight hours each weekday. When “quitting time” came she “clocked out” and went home where her second shift began! Four kids aged 2 to10 saw to it she always had plenty of work inside her home. She was one of countless millions of women / mothers over the years who have done and continue to do similar things. Motherhood is many things, but a “9 to 5 ” job it is not!
Think about it. Mothers are “bears.” They bear the load of pregnancy for nine months. They bear hours of labor. At last, they bear the child and give birth. But the “bearing” has only begun. After the baby is born, a mother bears the child in her heart for 60 or sometimes 70 years. The umbilical cord is severed soon after birth, but the cord of love that binds a healthy mother’s heart to her children is never cut. As somebody said, “Mother’s hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever.” It goes without saying that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was present at His birth in a manger in Bethlehem. But a gripping verse of Scripture in John19:25 tells us that as Jesus died, “there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother.”
From His first breath to His last one, Mary loved and stood by Jesus. It was love that held Jesus on the cross, and it was love that held Him in Mary’s heart. Love brought Mary to the cross. That’s how far a mother’s love will go. God give the church and our world more mothers like Mary.
By: Dan Gulley, Smithville TN
