The Power of Mothers

A message summary of May 8, 2016 from Pastor Gus Brown:

Mothers sacrifice their own life, their own happiness, and sometimes their own well being for their children. Children sometimes don’t understand or appreciate the sacrifice, but over time, the child when they grow up, begins to appreciate everything that was done to help them through the years, and even how their mother protected them from the enemy. Mother in laws do this, as well. A woman, such as a foster parent, a grandmother, an aunt, or any person who steps into the care of a child’s life, is acting as a mother.

Being a mother is not an easy task. It is a 24-hour job, for sure. It may even involve a stepmother, for example, who steps in to assume the responsibility of caring and nurturing children.

Mothers don’t get a manual to learn how to raise their children. A lot of it is trial-and-error, and there are times when a mother gets advice even from her own mother on how to handle a difficult situation.

Mothers are the people who plant the impossible dreams in our lives. They give the children the ability to imagine, hope, anticipate, expect, and to dream big. One of the things that a mother wants to remove from their child’s life is a prevailing mindset of the words, “I can’t do it.” Mothers are to build in the reassurance that God is the One who will be the strength and provision that fulfills those dreams.

Moms create the climate in which faith and hope can take root and grow. Hope shapes the direction of out lives. A child with a vision becomes a bold reason for living. It becomes a badge of purpose that the bearer wears proudly and courageously.

Two examples of a mother–one is biological and the other is not:

Eunice and Naomi: two different women in two different situations.

Timothy’s father was Greek. Being a Gentile in a Jewish world was not all that pleasant. Timothy may not have been highly thought of. His mother was Jewish. Even with this, Timothy’s name means, “honoring God.” He was also well respected. Why?

Acts 16:1-5

Then he went on to Derbe and Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman, but his father was a Greek. The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke highly of him. Paul wanted Timothy to go with him, so he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, since they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they traveled through the towns, they delivered the decisions reached by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem for them to observe. So the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily.

Timothy was the child of a Greek man, but his mother is the one who taught her son the Scriptures. She wanted her child to know wisdom and salvation. She also entrusted her child to those who were looking after him, and was agreeable to have Timothy circumcised in order that he could be a positive testimony before others in his ministry.

2 Timothy 3:14-15

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. You know those who taught you, and you know that from childhood you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to give you wisdom for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Proverbs 1:7

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline.

Raising Timothy was a team effort.

2 Timothy 1:3-5

I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as my ancestors did, when I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day. Remembering your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy, clearly recalling your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois, then in your mother Eunice, and that I am convinced is in you also.

• Have a team help you to raise your children.
• Find a good teacher for your child.
• Find a person who wants to help develop your child.
• Find a person who knows that while your child is not their own, the person still accepts your child as their own.

1 Corinthians 4:17

This is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is my dearly loved and faithful son in the Lord. He will remind you about my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

2 Timothy 1:1-2

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, for the promise of life in Christ Jesus: To Timothy, my dearly loved son. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Naomi

Why would anyone want to stay with Naomi? She had nothing. Her husband and sons had all died.

Ruth 1:19-20

“Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara, she answered, “for the Almighty has made me very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has pronounced judgment on me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

The name Naomi means “pleasant.” Mara means “bitter.”

Why did Ruth decide to stay with Naomi?

Ruth 1:6-7

She and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to His people’s need by providing them food. She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah.

Ruth 1:16

But Ruth replied: Do not persuade me to leave you or go back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.

The name Ruth means “friend.” She was willing to forsake everything to be with Naomi.

Ruth determined that she wanted to be with Naomi through thick and thin. Naomi was indeed bitter, but it never was carried out on the remaining daughters-in-law. She was able to still provide wisdom and godly counsel.

Ruth 2:19-22

Then her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you gather barley today, and where did you work? May the Lord bless the man who noticed you.”

Ruth told her mother-in-law about the men she had worked with and said, “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz.” Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, who has not forsaken his[a] kindness to the living or the dead.” Naomi continued, “The man is a close relative. He is one of our family redeemers.” Ruth the Moabitess said, “He also told me, ‘Stay with my young men until they have finished all of my harvest.’” So Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “My daughter, it is good for you to work[b] with his female servants, so that nothing will happen to you in another field.”

Ruth 3:1-4

Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, shouldn’t I find security for you, so that you will be taken care of? Now isn’t Boaz our relative? Haven’t you been working with his female servants? This evening he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash, put on perfumed oil, and wear your best clothes. Go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let the man know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, notice the place where he’s lying, go in and uncover his feet, and lie down. Then he will explain to you what you should do.”

Naomi provided good advice to Ruth with ongoing communication in the way that a mother would give her own child, and Ruth willingly accepted it. That trusting relationship was built throughout their lifetime together.

It takes love, knowledge and wisdom from God to raise a child. The child will know and understand that he or she is the heart of a mother’s life.