MOTHERS' DAY TRIBUTE

Of course, this is Mothers' Day! Whether you are mothering your own children, raising someone else's children, or speaking up for the protection of children, you are being rightfully honored today! Mothers, Step Mothers, Adoptive Mothers, Grandmothers, Great-Grandmothers, etc., you are all high in our admiration and gratitude, and we thank you for your work, dedication, sacrifices and indeed for your love. We are blessed and we thank God for you! I would like to honor my wife, Karen, on this day; she is the very heart of our family, a devoted Mother, Grand and Great-Grandmother and her love for her family is obviously clear through her words and actions! Today's blog is specifically directed toward women who have a heart for children!

Most often we call our mothers "MOM"! It's a personal term of affection, deep appreciation, close relationship and respect! I truly hope today is a good day for the Moms reading this. If your mother is still living, I trust you find ways to bless and honor her today. If you are a brand new mom, or you have a new mom in your family, I am quite confident you have been looking forward to this very special day. We have some of that going on in our family. Our granddaughter gave birth to a baby boy named Titus just two months ago, so our daughter is a first time Grandmother and my wife is a Great grandmother for the third time. What cause for joyful celebration!

If your mom has been promoted out of this earthly life to be with Jesus in heaven, I trust today is a healing mix of sweet memories and great appreciation for the blessings, contributions and lessons you have received from her, and of the hope of being with her again, if you know Jesus as your Savior!

Now, I am very conscious that there are some of you for whom Mothers' Day is uncomfortable at best and even painful at worst because you have tried, sometimes desperately, yet unsuccessfully, to have a child. I want to assure you that God knows your disappointment and hurt, and His comforting grace is available to you. I do understand that there may be some who are struggling with this topic and even about reading the rest of this blog. And so to you I say, thank you for opening up this blog, and if you are so inclined to read it through, let me say you are in my prayers as it publishes. And I hope you are encouraged by one simple fact from Exodus, Chapters 1 and 2. Here we see three great examples of what it means to be a mother, or three different models for mothering. Strangely, only one of these examples is that of a biological mother.

1) First, let's consider JOCHEBED, Mothering by Biology. She was Aaron, Miriam and Moses' Mom . (See Numbers 26:59) We are first introduced to her in the second chapter of Exodus. Some remembrance of the background is appropriate. At the end of the Book of Genesis, a man by the name of Jacob left the Promised Land of Canaan with his eleven sons, and 70 family members, to live in the land of Egypt, where his twelfth son, Joseph, was the governor. A great worldwide famine was experienced, but under Joseph's watchful eye and careful planning, Egypt had plenty of food stored up to be distributed as needed.

Then, 400 years later, the decendants of Jacob, now called Israelites, had grown in number to a large nation of around 600,000. They had become slaves to the Egyptians who were very hard taskmasters. The new Pharoah was afraid of the numbers of Israelites and ordered all the male Hebrew (Israelite) children to be killed the minute they were born. "Then Pharoah commanded all his people, 'Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile River, but you shall let every daughter live.' " (Exodus 1:22) In the midst of this great delimma, Moses is born to Jochebed. Her name means "The Glory of Yahweh". "Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen (an asphalt type substance) and pitch. She put the child into it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him," (Exodus 2:1-4) Let's also find out what happened to Moses. "Now the daughter of Pharoah came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, 'This is one of the Hebrew's children.' Then his sister said to Pharoah's daughter, 'Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?' And Pharoah's daughter said to her, 'Go.' So the girl went and called the child's mother. And Pharoah's daughter said to her, 'Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.' So the woman took the child and nursed him." (Exodus 2:5-9)

Don't you love God's providencial care and love here? Moses was nursed and cared for by his own mother, protected by Pharoah's daughter, AND . . . Moses' mother was even paid wages for caring for her own son! Jochebed was blessed with caring for her own son until he was weaned. In that culture, it could have been for a period of four or five years. One can't help but wonder how much of an impact did it make on Moses' identity, to have had that much time with his own mother and then be raised by his adoptive mother in Pharoah's household. Quite an impact, for in the next scene we see Moses identifying with a fellow Hebrew as Moses killed the Egyptian who was beating up a Hebrew slave.

Jochebed accomplished much as a mom. She raised her daughter, Miriam, to take both the responsibility to watch Moses from a distance, and the initiative to approach Pharoah's daughter with a ready-made solution that would allow Jochebed to stay deeply involved in Moses' life and up-bringing. As an adult, Miriam was a prophetess. (Exodus 15:20) She was the first worship in song leader in Scripture, as she led praise and worship, through song and dance, following the Israelites' miraculous escape through the Red Sea. (Exodus 15:20-21) The song said, "Sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea." Jochebed raised a strong, assertive, and spiritually atuned daughter! Her son Aaron, was a prophet and the first high priest, the mouthpiece of Moses in delivering the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage. And as an adult, Moses was entrusted to speak directly with God and to record the Law of God and wrote the first 5 books of the Old Testament. Many parents are trying to figure out how to get their kids to read the Bible. Jochebed's kid wrote a good portion of the Bible! Are we training our children like Jochebed trained hers?

2) Pharoah's Daughter, Mothering by Adoption. She took the child from the river, and then following his weaning by his biological mother, to live in her household. She was willing to defy her father's orders for all male Hebrew babies to be killed. In fact, she took the child into Pharaoh's Court to raise him as her own, and she named him Moses as she said, "I drew him out of the water." (Exodus 2:10) In this example given us by Pharoah's daughter, we have the very first international adoption in history. She disappears from the story after this account, but through her act of selflessness and sacrifice, she left an indelible impact. Adoption is so much better than abandonment; adoption is so much better than abortion. Sometimes pregnant women, married or not, in dire circumstances might consider placing their child for adoption. I would strongly encourage these mothers to pray and trust God in locating and selecting a loving family and home for their child. The heartbreak of giving up their baby can be somewhat offset by moms and dads who have the character, integrity and means to provide a good and caring home for their baby. It honestly seems like Jochebed saw in Pharoah's daughter a person of character and who would provide loving care for her son.

3) Shiphrah and Puah, Mothering by Advocacy. These are hard names to pronounce, and we don't hear or speak of them often. But what an impact they had! "Then the king of Egypt said to the midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 'When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.' But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live. So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, 'Why have you done this, and let the male children live?' The midwives said to Pharoah, 'Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous (forceful) and give birth before the midwife comes to them.' So God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives feared God, He gave them families." (Exodus 1:15-21) These two women were not Hebrews, but they honored, feared and believed God. They defied the king's order, only because the king's order defied God's law. Women in our culture can "mother by advocacy" by serving in a Crisis Pregnancy Center, by mentoring young mothers who do not have a family or friend support group, providing financial or clothing assistance, helping those organizations that are seeking to end child sex trafficing, assisting home schoolers, helping out at church children's classes and a host of other ways to lend your influence and your expertise.

So many lessons can be profitably drawn from these examples and models of mothering we have found in Exodus, Chapters 1 and 2.

1) Moms must trust the Providence of God. He knows what He is doing and He makes no mistakes! His timing is right all the time.

2) Moms must raise their children with age-appropriate responsibility. Our children grow up and need guidance, direction, training and discipline early on, equipping them for taking on personal responsibility.

3) Sometimes man's law defies the Law of God. When we are called upon to disobey God and obey man instead, we must choose to obey God. That being said, we must be sure that the law of man does indeed defy God's Law. When Peter and John were ordered to refrain from speaking or teaching at all the name of Jesus, the apostles responded, "But Peter and John answered the religious authorities, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to obey you rather than God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:18-20)

4) There are times when adoption may be the best course of action. We need to seek God when making choices concerning the welfare of children and choose life for babies, rather than forms of termination.

5) Moms need our love, understanding, loyalty, support, encouragement, blessing and help. There is no greater job, responsibility or calling than that of motherhood!

6) Praise God today and everyday for your Mom! You are blessed!