A Gold Star For Mom

All Christians are instructed to love each other as Christ first loved us. Perhaps the best example we have of someone following Christ’s example is the sacrificial love of a mother.

God sacrificed that which was most dear to Him, His only Son, because He loved us so much. As a child of God we can never hope to repay Him for what He has done for us. The awesome thing is that He does not require us to. I cannot work to repay Him, I can only graciously and humbly accept this precious gift of salvation. On a lesser, more human scale, so many children have been blessed by a mother’s sacrifice for them. They will never be able to repay her for her nurturing and she would never want them to, for that would only diminish the joy she received in loving and training them up in the Lord.

A mother’s job is never done as her service is called upon endlessly. Looking to her example in Christ she remembers that “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Matt 20:28) Serving for a job takes some getting used to! It is difficult to go from working and going to school and having gold stars put on your chart for achieving goals to performing a job where most of your tasks go unnoticed and unfortunately often unappreciated. However, that is the nature of serving and so many mothers model it well.

Christian mothers are still susceptible to the lies that Satan tells the world, “your job is monotonous, there is no fulfillment, you should be making money, being a mom is not respectable.” However, godly mothers know they have something that the world does not and that is Jesus Christ and the hope that is in Him. They joyfully serve because they realize that they are serving Him!

From time and immemorial moms have wiped noses with their our own shirts, kissed boo-boo’s over and over again, done laundry while making supper and paying bills, and then do it all over again the next day. Tiresome, you bet, but they know the joy of serving and walking with the Lord, which eventually yields the privilege of watching that child grow into a godly young man or woman. They know that they had a part to play in shaping that child’s character and training them up in the way they should go.

These words were written by Mr. J.R. Miller in 1882 about the high calling of a mother:

“Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse into the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,- she would see that in all God’s world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other hands the sacred and holy trust given to her.” (Homemaking 106)

Mothers, rejoice at the sacred job God entrusts you with! If you are not a mother, then call your mother and thank her for all she has done. Have patience and tenderness for the mothers in your life. They all, with the help of Jesus Christ, are doing the best they can. Here is the gold star on your chart, the hope and glory of hearing, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master”. Happy Mother’s Day!

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