The Gift of Motherhood

The Gift of Motherhood

And when we arrive there in Luke chapter 1 verse 35, let's begin the reading there. And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived the Son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word and the angel departed from her.

And may the Lord bless the reading of His word to our hearts this morning. It is a gift beyond compare to be a mother. I don't know that from experience but from observation and by the understanding that I have that God has given that gift. It's a gift beyond compare to be a mother. God has not chosen that gift for everyone just as God has not chosen that for every man. God has not chosen that for every woman and that's okay. God has a different role for each one but motherhood is a gift and we are all here because of the gift of motherhood, aren't we? We are all here because God gifted us with a mother. So not only is it a gift to be a mother, but it's a gift to have a mother.

But I see this great special gift that was given to Mary. Mary wasn't looking and expecting. You know, I believe the Lord is going to choose me to be the mother of Messiah. She was grateful for that but it was not as if, well, He's just going to have to choose me. She thought, little me? The Lord would choose me? I'm just from the equivalent of Elm City. You know, I'm from the equivalent of Oak Level Nazareth. This is just a little no-name place. And the Lord would choose me to be the mother of Jesus. What an amazing privilege that she had to bring this child into the world and yet what was also at the same time, we see that there was a burden that came along with it as well. A gift, but also a heaviness that she would carry even at the cross.

But we notice that her heart was just bursting at the seams when she begins to speak about how God has privileged her, if nothing else, to be a mother in the first place, but then to be the mother of Jesus. What a special privilege that she had. Nobody else gets that privilege, but at the same time, I think of mothers today, what a privilege that you have had to be called that. I think of ladies today that they'd like to have children. They just can't. They can't have children, or maybe not yet, they have not been able to have children. Does that mean that God doesn't love them? Absolutely not. Does that mean that God doesn't have a role for them or that God cannot still open their womb if they're wanting that child? No, it doesn't mean that. Absolutely does not, because even though we're not talking about the mother of our Lord here, with God nothing shall be impossible. With God nothing shall be impossible.

Now Mary experienced this joy of motherhood and was humbled by it. She was grateful. She was grateful as she says in this Magnificat here that my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior. I'm just rejoicing in the Lord. I'm grateful that He would choose me. I'm grateful that He would choose me to have a child in the first place, like Hannah. Remember Hannah? She said, Lord, if you'll give me a child, I'll give Him back to you. I'll give Him back to you because really, if you think about it, I look at our children here. I remember brother Ed telling me, you know, I know all of you probably have it sometimes, but he kept saying it several times. He says they're going to grow up on you before you know it. They're going to be grown and gone. He would say that. I think he said just about every other week, they're going to grow up on you. They're going to be grown and gone. Well, it's true. They're growing up. We have a teenager. We have our oldest on the cusp of becoming a teenager here and it's just mind-blowing to see how quickly they grow up. We're just stewarding them for a while, but they're going to have their own life. They're not going to be under our roof, I don't think, forever. And they're going to grow up and get gone. And so motherhood will never stop, of course. Mom will always be mom, but not in the capacity that she currently is. And so it's really a stewardship. It's really a gift and a stewardship, and Mary recognized that.

All souls belong to God, right? All souls are mine, God says. But He entrusts certain souls to our care. We might look back and say, I wish I had done this better. I wish that I had handled that better looking back as a mother. I wish that I had taught them these things. I've heard some of you say something to the effect that I wish I had rejoiced with them more in their successes and not just told them when they were wrong. Of course, we know that you did rejoice with them in some of those. But sometimes you might say, I wish that I had been more excited for them as much as I was when I told them they were wrong. There are things that we could always look back and say, you know, there are things that I would change looking back. But what a gift. What a privilege. What a privilege.

We might be able to look at our mother and say, you know, there are some things I'll look back on and they weren't always the best. Thank God you have a mother that loves you and that cares for you. Thank God that you had a mother that brought you into this world and gave up a chunk of her life to do that. Sometimes when I look back at teenagers now and I see, I mean, I saw a real old something, but 38 years old and I'm looking back at an 18-year-old, a 16-year-old, and they look so young comparatively. And I think how quickly, where did that 20 years go? Where did the last 20 years of my life go? And yet as you look at us, some of you here look at us today, you think that's going to go by quick too. That's going to pass us quickly too. It's a gift and we have to take advantage of the gift that God has given to us. As those that are children, we need to take advantage of our mothers because we will not always have them, at least here on this earth. We'll not always have them here with us.

But if you recall with me, let's look at Isaiah 54, verse 1. Isaiah 54 and verse number 1. We have the mother of our Lord. She's rejoicing. Her soul was magnifying the Lord that she's been given, not only the privilege of motherhood, but that she's been given the privilege of being sort of a nobody from nowhere, so to speak, a young woman having the blessing of bringing this child into the world. Here we have in Isaiah 54, there was this idea of barrenness that we see here at Isaiah 54, verse 1. And in this verse, in the beginning verse of this passage, we're seeing Israel depicted here as a barren woman. And yet there's a call for her to rejoice in the Lord. Though Israel is barren, so to speak, because of the captivity, because of the judgment that's come, yet she is to rejoice in the Lord. Isaiah 54, verse 1 says, sing, O barren, thou that did not bear, break forth into singing and cry aloud, thou that did not travail with child. For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.

We certainly see that with Hannah, don't we? Hannah didn't have any children. She was the one that was really trusting God. And then we got Peninnah that was like, she was walking around with her head stuck out saying, look at me, I've got all these children. I'm the blessed one. I've got all these children. And we have Hannah pouring out her heart to God, give me children. We certainly see that with Jacob's wives as well. But we notice that there's that same spirit in Mary's words. Even though I'm a nobody, God has blessed me. Hannah might say, even though Peninnah was blessed or Peninnah had all these children, and it looked like she was really the one that was blessed, yet she used that, and she flaunted it. She flaunted it at me and made me feel bad about not having children. That's not what a godly mother does at all. Really, the one thought in their heart is, thank you, Lord. I just rejoice that you've given me these children. It's not, look at me and what I've done. It's a gift. It's a privilege. It's a stewardship.

And the Lord says that even though Israel was barren, that He would cause them to rejoice in Him again. Even though, because of, in this case, Israel's sins, she was fruitless, so to speak, and many had died as a result of the sins of Israel, and it's been taken down to the captivity, yet there's a time that was coming where they would rejoice in the Lord. And even now, with faith looking forward to that, there was to be a spirit of rejoicing in the Lord.

In fact, Hannah, and we mentioned her, but in 1 Samuel 2, she must read her words in verse 1. 1 Samuel 2 in verse 1. What does she say specifically here? In verse number 1, 1 Samuel 2, verse number 1. And Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoices in the Lord. That's what we just read in Isaiah, right? My heart rejoices in the Lord. My heart is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord for there is none beside thee. Neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogance come out of your mouth for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.

And so the spirit of Christians in general, but of mothers, when God has blessed you with the gift of motherhood, is not to be pride, right? It's not to say, I have more children or I have all of these things. No, I believe what motivates, in fact, what ought to motivate mothers to keep going forward with their children and keep loving them sacrificially is that very understanding of gratitude to God. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard bringing the child into the world, but then there's that joy of a child that's born. What's there here? It's hard giving birth, harder for some than others. Maybe some mothers say, I wish I was a little bit more like that person, so it didn't, you know, that lady could, because she just very quickly brings, you know, gives birth or whatever the case may be. But God appoints what He wants for each one. And the thing is, a humble gratitude is the spirit that God is looking for here, a humble gratitude to recognize the gift.

Have you ever given a gift to somebody? Maybe a child and it wasn't something they wanted and they just kind of throw it to the side. They didn't really, you know, or maybe let's say it this way. They got two gifts from you and they got socks and they got some kind of electronic toy, you know. I can almost guarantee they're probably not going to go, yes, when they got the socks, put the socks over to the side and they're going to go after the toy, right? Well, the thing is, that gratitude, what a blessing it is to be grateful. What a blessing it is to realize what you have before you don't have it anymore, right? To realize what you have while you have it instead of waiting till down the road and saying, I wish I had appreciated more the gifts when I had it.

And so now we see that Proverbs 31 says her children arise up and call her blessed. They recognize the gift that they have. Her husband also, he praises her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. She excels all of them in the sense that she has put in the time. She has not only put in the time, but she's put in the effort and is part of the main part of why they are where they are today.

Now, we notice that this attitude of the children is one where they recognize the gift that's been given to them, right? They recognize the gift that's been given to them. Let's look over there in Proverbs 31. If you will, in verse 30, Proverbs 31 verse 30, it's there in that verse that we read this. Let's turn over there and we'll read it together. Proverbs 31 verse number 30 says favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.

A woman that takes God at His word like Noah took God at His word. He believed that God was telling Him the truth. Even if it was not the popular thing to do, he believed. And the woman that fears the Lord, the woman that takes God's word seriously, even in the warnings, she will be praised. A virtuous woman sees her family as a gift, a gift entrusted to her by God. Her love to God is seen in her actions toward her family. Her love toward God is seen in large part in her actions toward her family. Because a mother's love is very much, very busy with her family. She's very busy in her love toward her family.

I can see that, yes, I love my children, but my wife loves them in a different way than I do. I don't know. I am slightly emotional, okay, but I noticed that with my wife, she just, she's the one that birthed these children into the world. I had to leave the room at one point, so I wouldn't pass out because when they were doing one part of the process, because I didn't want to become a liability in the room. Because I had become a liability at one point. If you ever want to see the picture of my wife and I in a hospital bed next to each other, I'll show it to you. But, you know, she's the one that gave birth. She's the one that was up, you know, nursing the children. I can't do that for her, so of course sometimes there were situations where I was able to help out, but I can't always do the things that a mother is doing.

So anyway, we see that this mother that loves her family, much of her love to God is seen in how she treats her family, how she cares for her children. This is an expression of her love to God. Her thankfulness to God. Not only, what does the scripture say, we're not only to love, whoever we are, we're not only to love in word, but in deed and in truth, right? We're to love in deed and action and we're to love in truth, not just in our words, but as we do it. So this woman that we read of here in Proverbs 31 is one of the things we can say about her is that she expresses her gratitude to God for giving her those children, for giving her the home, the family that she's got, she expresses that gratitude to God in the way that she is trustworthy in verse 10. If you notice in verse 10, look back there. Well, verses 10 and 11, who can find a virtuous woman for her price is far above rubies, the heart of her husband safely trusts in her so that he shall have no need of spoil.

So, I thank the Lord that I have a wife that I can trust, you know? I mean, I'm not saying I'm perfect or she's perfect. I'm just saying that I know that she has my best interest at heart. I'm saying that I know that when she says that she's going to keep her word, she's going to keep her word. And that's a blessing. It is a blessing. And this is that picture of a trustworthy woman here that she's not going to say one thing and then deceptively do something different to undercut what she's already said. Of course, there's room for misunderstandings and failures and mistakes, things that happen that we didn't intend to do, but I'm just talking about the character of the person here, the character of this woman. She was not going to flatter her husband but love and respect him. She's going to help build the home instead of tearing it down. She's going to support her husband, but she has, if you look at this woman here in this, she doesn't say, honey, go do everything for me. She doesn't say that. She has her own world that she is the best at what she does in those things.

A husband that tries to compete with his wife in these things is not wise. A husband that tries to say, I'm better than you at this. No, you just need to stay, not stay out, but you need to support her in that, and you need to let her fulfill her role and you fulfill your role. Don't try to be her and we don't need her to try to be you. There's complementary supporting each other, not superior, but roles that God has established that are to be helpful for the home, right? And so we see here that she is trustworthy. You know, if you don't have trust, you can't have love. If you can't trust somebody, if they say they're going to do something or they're not going to do something and then as soon as they get out of sight, they do the very thing they said they weren't going to do or they don't do the thing they said they were going to do, how can love be built? And so we see that this is the character of this woman.

There are a lot of things that we read about this woman from verses 13 through 24. My intention this morning is not to go through this passage because we don't have the time to go through each verse. But verses 13 through 24, I believe generally are talking about how she is resourceful and she's diligent. She's resourceful and she's diligent. She's not waiting, she's not lazy and waiting for somebody else to come up with a solution. She's out there, figuring it out and doing it herself. She's not doing that so she can say, look at me, I'm the best, any more than she's saying, look at me, I'm the best because I have these children. No, she realizes she has a stewardship just as the husband has a stewardship, and she's wanting to faithfully fulfill that in the best way that she can.

What does that look like? Well, she provides the best things that she can for her family. I think about Mary of Bethany and how she took that alabaster box, the ointment, the spikenard, very precious, and she took it, she poured it out upon the Lord. She gave her very best. Why? Because of love. She gave her very best because she loved, and you know, you can tell, what is it, a little term we'll use, TLC, that needs some TLC, or you can look at a home and you see a loving mother lives there. If you eat a home-cooked meal or you have something that's been made and you just look at that thing and think that probably wasn't a guy that arranged that. It was probably a mother that loves her family. I'm not saying some men are not capable of that, but usually it's a mother that does that, a woman, a wife that is doing it out of love for her family.

Now, we notice that in verse 26, I know I'm skipping over a number of verses here, but I want to get to this in verse 26. She, in verse number 26, we notice here it says that she openeth her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She values words. She understands the importance of words and she wants to use the words she speaks with the time that she has to help her children and point them to God, to teach them about life, teach them about good things and bad things to watch out for. She teaches them these things. She uses wisdom in her speech as it says here. And in her tongue, there is the law of kindness. Oh, yes, a mother may be firm, but she's also kind in the way that she speaks. She is not using her words as Proverbs 14:1 says, every wise woman buildeth her house. You know, we build each one of us in the church. We build each other up or we tear each other down with our words, don't we? We can use words, weaponize words against each other, can't we? Or we can use words to edify. We can use words to exhort. You know, we talked about that word recently in the Greek. It says to call to one's side. There's something about a mother that's caring, right? A good mother is caring for her children. It's kind of like, come here, son, come here, daughter. I want to talk to you. I may even have to tell you something you might not want to hear. But I love you, and I'm telling you this because I love you. I'm telling you the truth about this because I do love you. And I'm also going to answer to God for what I've told you, the words I've spoken to you because I realize what a privilege I have and what an opportunity, a blessing I have in having children in the first place. I might not be the mother of Jesus, but I am a mother that God has gifted with these children. So I want to use my words well.

This woman is, we read in verse 27, she's a hard-working individual. We already said she's diligent. There's a lot of things we could see if we took the time to go through the verses there, 13 through 24. But we notice that she is hard-working, verse 27, where it says she looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness. She's a good manager. I mean, she's much more than a manager, but that's one of her roles. She manages it well. You know, she's, and where she's not managing it well, she's always wanting to improve and wanting to learn how to better manage things. Not because somebody's standing over her and saying you better do this, no, because she wants to do it. Because she loves her family. Because she loves what God has blessed her with.

So like we're all told in Romans chapter 12 verse 11 that we're not to be slothful in business, but fervent in spirit serving the Lord. That's how this woman does. She's fervent in spirit. You know, she's not the type that's going to rust out. She's going to wear out, right. She's going to spend and be spent, kind of like that pouring out that precious spikenard. Think about Jesus. Jesus gave His prime and died in His prime for us. A mother generally spends most of her prime years when she could have been doing a lot of other things. If God has gifted her as a mother, she spends a lot of it with her children. What a gift. What a blessing that God puts that love in the heart to do that.

And 1 Corinthians 10:31, we know it well, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God, whether it's purchasing a field or whether it's making clothes for the family as we read this woman in this context does here. Not maybe all of these things we would do today in our time, but some of these things are applicable. You know, she wants to make sure that her family is clothed with the best. She's going to make sure that she's got the best food that she can possibly get and provide the food and find the food, grow the food, whatever it is, a vineyard. She plants the vineyards for the family. This is her heart. This is her heart. I'm sure that even though we may not be able to apply these specific things to our mothers, we can look at our mothers' lives and see sacrifices they've made for us because God, they love us.

Godly mothers who walk by faith and not by sight become a model of grateful sacrificial service to God by serving others, by serving others. They become a model to us and how we all, each one of us, are to be toward one another. Not serving one another by love, serving one another because, well, I guess I got to do this, you know, no. Because I love my brother. I love my sister. I love my wife. I love my parents. Whatever the case may be, and I want to do all to the glory of God because they're a gift that God has given to me. They're a gift.

But first, that's the only answer, chapter two. Let's turn there before we conclude this morning. First Thessalonians chapter two. Let's look there in verse number seven. First Thessalonians chapter two and verse number seven. You remember if you were in that first lesson that we did as introductory material leading up to the first lesson. In verse number seven, we were gentle, Paul says, among you even as a nurse or like a nursing mother, cherisheth her children. So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls because you were dear unto us.

Paul says, Paul is giving an illustration of how a loving, caring mother serves as an example, even of how he wanted and he conducted himself toward the church. The way that a mother loves her children and cares for them and pours out her soul for them because they're so dear to her, so you are to me. So you are to me and therefore I want to tell you everything that's on my heart and tell you that God has placed on my heart and tell you, I don't want to hold back anything from you because I love you. I love you. Sometimes mothers have to say, I know my mother has had to say hard things to me over the years. She's had to say things at times and it wasn't always easy to hear, but I knew. I knew it came from a place of love for me and wanted what was best for me. You know, forsake not the law of thy mother, we read in the book of Proverbs. A mother may not always 100% of the time be right, but if a mother is rejoicing in the Lord, grateful for the children that God has given to her and she wants to do right, we need to respect our mothers. We need to love our mothers that God has given to us. We wouldn't be here without them. We wouldn't be here if it were not for the gift that God has given us in them.

So today may we, just as Mary was grateful, just as Hannah was grateful, just as we can clearly see by her actions and her words, this virtuous woman is grateful for the family that has been given to her, may each one of us, whether we're mothers or not, be grateful for the gift that God has given to us in a mother. And if we have a Christian mother, thank God for how she has served the Lord in the way that she served us. What a blessing. I pray that your time together with your families will be special. I know some of you may have already had that time together, but may it be a time of just reminiscing, a time of remembering, a time of even looking forward, but a time of remembering the good times, maybe not all the times were good, but as we look back to just recall the blessings that we do have in our mothers.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for these moments we've had in your word. We thank you for the sacrifices, the late nights, the behind-the-scenes things that were done for our good. The way that love was put into action. And even now it's continuing to be put into action in the things that don't make headlines, the things that don't get the notoriety of the news, but we remember. And perhaps we remember better now than we even recognized it then as we look back. So thank you, Lord. We pray for each of these mothers here today that you'll help them to continue in love for their families, to continue to just pour out their souls and their lives to them because they are dear unto them. And most of all, because you've given with gratitude to our God because you've given us this privilege. We pray for those who may not be mothers, but it may not be your calling for their life to be a mother, but help them to recognize the blessings you've given them uniquely as well, even in having a mother, but also in perhaps being like a mother to someone that is in their life, that they can mentor or help bring under their wing, call to their side just to reach out to them and to be a blessing to someone, perhaps someone who doesn't still have their mother or maybe never knew their mother. There are many opportunities of service that you have to you and to others. Help us to recognize them, Lord. Help us to live out this faith that we have, this love that we profess to you in a very practical way, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.