May 11, 2008                                            

Title – “A Mother’s Love”

Scripture - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

© Rev. Joseph Liddick

Introduction:

        The Girl Scouts were in “summer camp.”  On her first tour of inspection, the Scout leader found an umbrella neatly rolled inside the bedroll of a small scout.  Umbrellas were not listed as necessary items to be brought to camp.  Consequently, the Scout leader asked the little girl to explain.  “Ma’am,” answered the little girl, “did you ever have a mother?”  Mother!  That explains the presence of umbrellas and many other things that happen in a person’s lifetime.  But most of all, it explains what life itself is all about.  It explains why it all is worthwhile.  You see, “Mother” is the word for love.

        I scouted through the Bible this week searching for a text about mothers to use for Mother’s Day.  I looked at Eve, the mother of the human race and Sarah, the very elderly mother whose soul leaped for joy when she found out she was pregnant with a child of promise.  I discovered Jochabed, the Israelite mother who protected her son Moses from the impending infanticide of the Egyptians and Naomi, the Israelite mother who showed great love to her widowed daughter’s-in-law.  Then there was Hannah, the barren wife of Elkanah, who after conceiving dedicated her young son Samuel to the service of the Lord.  King Solomon once judged the depth of love between two different mothers who both laid claim to a young child.  Then in the New Testament I took special note of the love and dedication of Mary, the mother of Jesus and also observed a wonderful reference to Timothy’s mother regarding her love and faith.  All through history mothers have been making their mark as people who reflect the loving image of their Creator God.

        If you were to ask any child to describe his mother, chances are that the description they give will sound a lot like “love.”  J. Emmett Henderson remarked, “Look inside of you.  Count the best things in your life: character, love, unselfishness, forgiveness, kindness, gentleness.  They were all planted by that tender hand so long ago, the hand of that wonderful woman who cuddled you and held you and said, ‘This is my child.’  The Bible teaches us to call God ‘Father,’ but God simply cannot be limited by gender.  So much of what God is can only be described by the word ‘mother.’”  Well, since the words “mother” and “love” are nearly synonymous, I thought it would be fitting today to look at the description of mothers that is found in the love chapter of the Bible.

Mothers are patient and kind.

        Nobody needs the attributes of patience and kindness more in life than mothers, especially mothers of young children.  Who but mothers can endure the endless barrage of questions from the curious mind of a preschooler?  Who but mothers can survive the onslaught of years of messy diapers and sleepless nights, of colic and terrible two’s, of bloody noses and deep cuts, vomit and vapo rub?  Then, when they finally reach school age, who but mothers have the tenacity to make sure that homework is finished, music lessons are practiced, lunches are prepared, clothes are clean, fractured egos are mended, and everybody gets to the right place at the right time.  By the time they are teenagers who but mothers can...well, OK, maybe nobody survives this one very well.  But even teenagers, when they are looking for patience and kindness know where to find it - mother.

        One of the reasons mothers have more patience and kindness than others is that they pray for it. Let’s be honest - they have to!  But praying for patience, as most of you know, is a dangerous thing.  God usually answers that prayer by giving us a lot of opportunities to practice it.  Erma Bombeck used to tell a favorite story about a “supermom” who did everything right: she kept a perfect home, kept her husband happy, always had a copy of Bishop Fulton Sheen’s latest book on the coffee table, and always answered the door pregnant when the priest came by.  When she was asked what her secret was, she replied, “Every evening, when the children are bathed and tucked into their clean little beds, and the lunches are lined up and labeled and packed into the refrigerator, and the little shoes are racked up, and the driveway is waxed, and I’ve heard all the prayers of the children, I fall down on my knees and say, ‘Thank you, God, for not letting me kill one of them today.’”

Mothers are not envious, boastful, or proud.

        I remember very distinctly the day I took my new baby to church for the first time.  I was the epitome of a “proud father.”  After long months of anticipation, a premature delivery, and then several months of trips to the hospital until he was big enough to bring home, the day finally arrived.  And at first I was not disappointed.  A member of my church choir approached me and, after looking at Michael for a few moments, said, “My - he really has his father’s good looks.”  I really couldn’t find anything to disagree with in that statement, so I beamed with pride.  Then he continued, “Yeah - his mother still has hers!”  So much for pride.

        In contrast, look at Jesus’ mother Mary when she took him to church for the first time.  If anybody had reason to be proud, she certainly did!  She was asked by God himself to be the mother of his own Son. And wouldn’t you know that there was both an elderly man and woman there who immediately recognized the baby as Israel’s Messiah and pronounced a blessing on him.  Mary had already witnessed a group of shepherds worshipping him as well as eastern Magi who presented him with costly gifts.  But notice Mary’s response in Luke 2:19 - “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”  No envy, no boasting, no pride wrongly placed in one’s self.  How like a mother, not to see herself as great but instead as being truly blessed because of this child.

Mothers are not rude or self-seeking.

        It does not take many months of pregnancy before a mother-to-be realizes that her life is no longer her own.  For nine months her body is shared with another life.  Everything she eats and drinks, every medicine she takes affects not only her but the life inside her as well.  Even though up to this point she may have established some bad habits in her life, now a powerful instinct kicks in that causes her to begin living her life for the sake of another human being. She starts eating a balanced diet, she quits smoking or drinking, etc.  Her life is now lived for the sake of another. Larry Snider’s one daughter developed breast cancer during her recent pregnancy, but she actually refused treatment because she knew that the chemotherapy she needed to save her own life would probably kill her baby.

        That’s what love is.  It looks beyond one’s own life and rights and lays them aside for the sake of another.  Mothers see the nurture and happiness of their children as taking precedence over their own.  Think about it for a moment. When was the last time you saw your mother take “the last piece” of anything?  She would rather do without than deprive her children of that joy (unless it’s our house and we’re talking homemade brownies – then of course it’s “every man for himself!”)  Love is like that - not rude or self-seeking.

Mothers are not easily angered and keep no record of wrongs

        All of us have heard the expression that a particular child was one that “only a mother could love.”  In fact, all of us have probably known a child who fit that description and wondered if their mother really did love them.  One critical characteristic of love is the ability to accept another person in spite of what they’ve done.  Here is where mothers shine.  Their ability to feel compassion and have empathy for a child’s struggles fosters an environment of love and acceptance where anything can be discussed, or confessed, without fear that the other person is going to “blow up” or reject you.  Love is not easily angered because it understands that there is a critical difference between loving and liking.  Liking, you see, is a kind of evaluation regarding the things that we perceive with our senses.  Loving, by contrast, is what flows out from you to another person.  That is why you can actually love someone you don’t especially like.  Mothers know all about that.

        And mothers don’t usually remember the bad things, either.  I remember one time talking with my sister at a family gathering about something we had done as kids.  Mom couldn’t even remember it (much to our relief). She had long forgotten, because she had long forgiven.  Love does not keep a record of wrongs.  It forgives, and then it lets go so that the relationship can begin anew without any baggage.

Mothers do not delight with evil, but rejoice with the truth.

        I remember it well.  It slipped out, innocently enough, but I let loose with a mild profanity that I knew was not accepted in our home.  Mother was not pleased - in fact, I think she was deeply hurt, not so much that I had disappointed her and broken one of her rules, but that something might be wrong in my soul that would cause that word to even come out.  Nobody grieves over a wayward child more than his mother.  Jesus told a parable that celebrates the love of the father toward his prodigal son, but we all know that behind him there must have also been a deeply grieving mother.  From a child’s earliest days she has accepted the primary responsibility for the child’s moral and spiritual development.  When they sin, it does not merely affect them - it deeply hurts her as well.  That is a mark of love - it hurts whenever someone strays away from God.

        And love rejoices with the truth as well.  As kids my sister and I knew that it was OK to tell the truth to mother.  She always told the truth herself, and she expected the truth in return.  She might be disappointed in what we told her, but she would ultimately be happy that we told the truth.  Our character and integrity counted more than anything.  Love is like that - seeing the best, and wanting the best in someone else.

Mothers protect, trust, hope, and persevere.