Good weekend to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
In many parts of the world Sunday of this weekend is “Mother’s Day.” I wonder what that means to you and your part of the world. For me this “Mother’s Day” is significant in that May 14th is the 40th anniversary of the death of my mother. My wife and I were at her bedside often in her last few days, and our discussions together were so profound they caused a radical change in the direction of my life, our marriage and our family. Motivated by the Holy Spirit of God, through those deathbed conversations, I left the corporate marketplace, and we dedicated the rest of our lives to following Jesus Christ into any assignment God would give us, anywhere in the world, at any time. That lifestyle has taken us to three countries and 7 different US States and has resulted in our daughter and her husband adopting the same life purpose and they have been raising their five daughters in Africa, following God’s clear leading of them there!
Mother’s Day causes me to reflect deeply on life values, life purpose, life fulfillment, life direction. At her dying bedside, I had asked my mother these two questions and her answers to these questions changed my life. I wonder how you would answer these questions:
1. As you reflect back over your lifetime, what seems like wasted time, and what was time spent in ways that now, at your life’s end, seems like it was time well invested?
2. What are you thinking about, what are you feeling as you watch death approaching you?
In response to those questions my mother shared with us some profound reflections. In very brief here’s what she said…
“As I reflect over my life which is now nearing its end, what I now consider ‘wasted time’ was time I spent selfishly pursuing things that have very little value or meaning to me now. What I consider time very well spent was time I used to make a difference in my world.”
“As I now consider that death is approaching and this may be my final few days on earth, I admit I would be frightened if I was not convinced the Bible is God’s Truth; Jesus Christ is God the Son, and all the Bible tells us about the life, ministry, death and resurrection is True! And finally, because I have trusted Jesus Christ to be my Savior I am looking forward with great anticipation to being in heaven with God a moment after I breathe my last breath here. As I lay here, maybe within hours of my death, I would be terribly frightened if I was not confident of the truthfulness of those things.” 
The dying words of your Mother can be very powerful, can’t they?! I’d like to use this “Walking with Jesus” Mother’s Day weekend edition to reflect on four different mothers we find in the Bible whose lives made a profound difference and let’s use their lives to reflect on our own. First is a woman named Eunice. We really don’t know too much about her other than she was a Jewish woman married to a Greek man and they had a son named Timothy who became a member of the missionary team of the apostle Paul, Silas, Timothy and Dr. Luke. We discussed her a few days ago as Timothy joined Paul’s team in the town of Lystra in Acts 16:1,2. It’s probable she came to faith in Jesus Christ when Paul and Barnabas first visited Lystra about 3 years before. Acts 14:8-20 gives us that story and tells us Paul was nearly killed as a mob turned violent and threw stones at him!
Neither Timothy nor Eunice are mentioned in that account, but by the time Paul returned, 3 years later, Timothy has become such a young man of great faith, he joins Paul’s team, trusting God will protect him as he travels with Paul. Near the end of his life Paul wrote to Timothy reflecting on the great influence of the deep faith in God of both his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois which profoundly affected Timothy. (2 Tim. 1:5) Timothy eventually became the pastor of the Jesus movement in Ephesus and in so doing led that church with great faith.
Another mother who amazes me is Hannah, the wife of Elkanah and mother of Samuel. You’ll find her story in 1 Samuel 1,2. She was barren and as was the custom in those days, her husband was permitted to take another wife, through whom he had children. That woman persecuted Hannah, mocking her for her barrenness. Yet Hannah remained a gentle, prayerful, humble woman who made the pilgrimage each year with her husband to Shiloh where they worshipped, and she prayed for a son.
Finally, miraculously God opened Hannah’s womb and true to her promise to God, after a few years of caring for little Samuel, she brought him to live at Shiloh serving the High Priest. In that place, unknown to Hannah, there was great wickedness, yet Samuel’s heart remained pure and God raised him up to be the much needed spiritual leader of Israel at a very precarious time in Israel’s history. (1 Samuel 2:35) Hannah continued to visit Shiloh for their worship and spent time encouraging her son, each year. What a remarkable woman and mother she must have been!
And then there’s a little-known mother named “Athaliah” whose son was King Ahaziah, one of the kings of Israel. He was a wicked man and only reigned in Jerusalem one year and he was put to death. One verse summarizes his life and the influence of his mother: “King Ahaziah followed in the wicked ways of King Ahab and his mother encouraged him to act wickedly.“ (2 Chronicles 22:3) This mother, apparently, had as her life mission to lead her son into deep evil. Can you imagine having a mother like that? The story of Jerusalem at that time in history is full of violence, bloodshed and wickedness, much of it attributed to this wicked mother!
Finally, is Mary the mother of Jesus. What a remarkable woman she must have been. Such courageous faith to marry Joseph while pregnant by the Holy Spirit with the Son of God. What great faith to walk the daily journey of seeking God’s guidance in mothering the infant and young child Jesus when she was, I’m sure, surrounded in Nazareth by people who refused to believe her story about her pregnancy.
What great courage to be the supportive mother she must have been when Nazareth turned against Jesus as a man, (Luke 4) and later when Jewish leaders led the crowd in Jerusalem to call for the crucifixion of Jesus! (Matt. 27:22) What tender courage to stand by His cross and watch Jesus die. But what rejoicing it must have been as she watched Him ascend in the clouds returning to heaven and then anointed by the Holy Spirit she spent the rest of her life telling the story of Jesus as only His mother could!
On this Mother’s Day weekend, I have some questions for us to ponder…
1. What is the influence, the impact your mother has had on your life? Who are you because of her?
2. If you are a mother, regardless of your age, how have you influenced your children and husband?
3. If you know of a widow who is also a mother, on this Mother’s Day, how can you encourage her?
4. In our world which is making it so difficult to be a God honoring Mother, what can you do to be helpful, supportive, encouraging to mothers of every age?
Let’s pray for mothers all around the world today, and here’s a special song that calls us to consider the influence of God honoring mothers…
Today’s Scripture is 1 Samuel 1 & 2.
Choose below to read or listen.
Read 1 Samuel 1 & 2
Listen to 1 Samuel 1
Listen to 1 Samuel 2
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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