The first attempts to establish a "Mother's
Day" in the U.S. were mostly marked by women's peace groups. An early
activity was the meeting of groups of mothers whose sons had fought or died on
opposite sides of the American Civil War. There were several limited
observances in the 1870s and the 1880s but none achieved resonance beyond the
local level. In 1868 Ann Jarvis created a committee to establish a
"Mother's Friendship Day" whose purpose was "to reunite families
that had been divided during the Civil War", and she wanted to expand it
into an annual memorial for mothers, but she died in 1905 before the
celebration became popular.
Her daughter, Anna Jarvis, would continue her mother's efforts. In New York
City, Julia Ward Howe led a "Mother's Day"
anti-war observance on June 2, 1872,
which was accompanied by a Mother's Day Proclamation. The observance
continued in Boston for about 10 years under Howe's personal sponsorship, then
died out. In the early 1880s, the Methodist Episcopal Church set aside the
second Sunday in May to recognize the special contributions of mothers. Frank
E. Herring, President of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, made the first
known public plea for "a national day to honor our mothers" in 1904.
Mother’s Day as we know
it in the 21st century does not carry the same weight that it once
did. Recognition of the contributions that mothers make in the world has become
more commercialized and is celebrated by giving flowers, candy and perhaps even
by taking Mom out for lunch. Yet, honoring our mothers should be an every day
observance rather than a yearly one.
Recently, I watched a movie in which a mother
gave her son a watch that had been in the family for several generations. The inscription read, “A mother’s love can
never, never be replaced. Never.” The
love that Ann Jarvis wanted to memorialize is a verb and was demonstrated by
action. Webster’s defines love as a strong affection for another arising out of kinship or
personal ties such as the maternal love for a child, attraction based on affection and tenderness, affection
based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests, an assurance of affection, warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion, the object of attachment,
devotion, or admiration, the expression of feeling to a beloved person, unsefish
loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another: concern of God for
humankind, brotherly concern for others, person's adoration of God, the personification of love.
The personification of love is what this article is
really about. The Bible is called many things, The Word of God, Basic
Instructions Before Leaving Earth, and The Truth. In reality the Bible, in my
opinion, is all of that and more. It is
a love letter to us, God’s people. There
is everything that we need for life. From Genesis to Revelations the Word of
God is an example for us to live our lives by. From hygiene and dietary
instruction to moral and financial guidance we have clear instructions as how
to live a significant, successful life. However, world systems and culture have
replaced biblical principles. The consequences of living by those systems and
the dictates of culture are evident in every aspect of our global community.
Disease is rampant in the earth, economies are failing in nations all over the
world, our natural resources have been depleted, and the environment is in
decline. Drug abuse is at an all time high and the sex trade is flourishing.
Premature deaths and birth defects leave us with questions that seemingly have
no answers. The anguish that accompanies the unanswered often leaves us in
despair. The good news is that we may be hard-pressed on every
side and we may be perplexed, but we are not to despair. God is good and
His plans for us to live blessed lives, with great rewards, has not diminished
from the foundations of the earth being laid until now.
Deuteronomy 11:8-32
describes
God’s rewards for us, His people, when we love and obey His commandments. There are great rewards inherent in our
obedience, “Therefore you shall keep every commandment
which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the
land which you cross over to possess that you may prolong your days in
the land which the Lord swore to give your fathers, to
them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ For the land
which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you
have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a
vegetable garden; but the land which you cross over to possess is a land
of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, a
land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the
Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to
the very end of the year.
‘And it shall be that if you
earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,
then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early
rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and
your oil. And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may
eat and be filled.’ “Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and
you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, lest the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that
there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from
the good land which the Lord is giving you.
“Therefore you
shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them
as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You
shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house,
when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you
shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that
your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which
the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens
above the earth.
“For if you
carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him then
the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will
dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. Every
place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness
and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea,
shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand against
you; the Lord your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the
land where you tread, just as He has said to you.
“Behold, I set
before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you
obey the commandments of the Lord your God
which I command you today and the curse, if you do not obey
the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from
the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not
known. Now it shall be, when the Lord your God
has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the
blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are
they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land
of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinth
trees of Moreh? For you will cross over the Jordan and go in
to possess the land which the Lord your God is
giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it. And you
shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before
you today.
We are designed to demonstrate the
love of God. Children come into the
world as light and as we grow our lights should burn brighter and brighter
joining our lights to one another so that the darkness of the world system is
illuminated. As mothers we have a clear
responsibility to keep the Word of God ever before our children so that their
lights continue to burn brightly and their passion for the blessings and
rewards of obedience to God’s commands are their constant pursuit. Deuteronomy
11:8-21 reminds us as how to accomplish that goal, “Therefore you shall lay up
these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on
your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You
shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house,
when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you
shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that
your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which
the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens
above the earth.”
The key is to know the Word of God
for ourselves so that the power and passion of its Truth ignites and releases
the potential power within each of us.
Practicing His Presence keeps us Presence driven instead of problem purposed. We have become far too familiar with God Whom
we barely know. Culture dictates what we
eat, wear, and what we worship. Idol
worship of our society, what we see and hear, is far easier to embrace as it is
constantly being downloaded to us via the media, marketing and our own lack of
discipline to pursue God’s Presence. We have become a nation of culture
worshippers. Many religions keep their deity in their homes, on an altar and
worship there daily. Others stop what
they are doing three times a day and pray on their face. In our Western culture
we expect our schools to educate and our churches to save. Yet, as parents we
have an inherent responsibility to keep the light of God’s love alive in our
children long before they ever reach school or the age of understanding that
their soul needs salvation.
Several years ago I was preparing
a message for a conference. I began to
study the Word Holy Spirit spoke to me so clearly that the love of God was to
be the topic. These are a few of the scriptures
that stood out to me, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life John 3: 16, the LORD loves the righteous, He loves him that
follows after righteousness Proverbs 15:9, Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loves us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins
1 John 4:10, I will love them freely: for Mine anger is turned away from him,
Hosea 14:4 He will rest in His love, He
will joy over you with singing, Zephaniah 3:17, I have loved you with an
everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you Jeremiah
31:3, but God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even
when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, by grace you
are saved; and He has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus Ephesians
2:4-7, we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and
he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him 1 John 4:16.
Ephesians 3:20 demonstrates how we can
accomplish being obedient, teach our children and not bow to culture, “To him
who is able to do immeasurably more.” There
are words in your Bible which have so much power in them that they are more
effective than any therapy. God can illuminate a Scripture that goes back into
the past and heals your wounds, gives you direction in the middle of despair,
and provides hope for the future. Satan will try to fill your mind with so much
junk that you do not have an appetite for God’s Word. That is because he knows Scripture
unmask him, and releases the potential lying dormant within you. Before
Jeremiah rose to national prominence as a prophet, God told him two things: (1)
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” Jeremiah 1:5. Your parents did not
get the first look at you, God did. Nothing about you surprises Him. In spite
of what you have been through, He has not changed His mind about who you are or
what you are destined to become. (2) “Before you were born I set you apart”
(v.5). You may say, “I have always felt different.” That is because you are.
Celebrate it. Stop looking for acceptance where you do not belong. You are on a
mission for and from God. That is why the enemy has tried so hard to take you
out. Once you understand that, your struggle will begin to make sense. As you
study God’s Word you will begin to experience the mind-renewing, life-changing
power He has deposited within you. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably
more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within
us.” We have to be like Joshua and Caleb as they led the other ten spies into
the Promised Land. They are a type and
shadow of who we are in the spiritual realm.
They came back with the report that there was more and they were well
able to take it. Every time we enter
into the spiritual realm we should come back into earth’s atmosphere with the
report that there is more.
There is
more love, freedom, healing, and deliverance.
There should be no limitations placed on what our great God can and
wants to do for us. In that meeting I shared that God’s love manifests just
like salvation, healing or deliverance.
The powerful download of God’s love that followed that declaration was
life changing. Let me remind you of Psalm 71:17-18, “O God,
You have taught me from my youth; and to this day I declare Your
wondrous works. Now also when I am old and gray headed,
O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this
generation, Your power to everyone who is to come.” God has downloaded only good things in us and
as we keep our faith, trust in Him, stay obedient to His Word, teach our
children and demonstrate His love those good things will come to the forefront
and we will overcome. Faith is duration
of time and what makes us successful is that when we resist the enemy (the
world system, the dictates of culture, carnality, and idol worship) and persist
in faith we will break through and prevail.
Psalm 77: 2-3 and 10-13
describes what that could, and should look like, “In the day of my trouble I
sought the Lord; My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing; My
soul refused to be comforted. I remembered God, and was
troubled; I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. And
I said, “This is my anguish, but I will remember the years of the
right hand of the Most High.” I will remember the works of the Lord; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will also meditate
on all Your work, And talk of Your deeds. Your way, O God, is
in the sanctuary; Who is so great a God as our God?”
Every
single one of us mothers, father, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles all make
mistakes in life. We are none perfect
and God knows our parenting skills are less than. It is never too late to renew our minds,
pursue His Presence and become godly examples. Moreover, Proverbs 20:3 points
out that, “It is honorable for a man to stop striving, since any fool
can start a quarrel.” The key to that
momentum is keeping on hand a memorial and remembrance of what God has already done for, and brought you
through, so that we can share our progress with the next generation. We do not want to find ourselves in the same
situation the Israelites did in Numbers 32 because we have forgotten what God has
done for us.
1 Corinthians 10:6 is
very clear that God meant for us to remember the lessons that the Israelites
should have learned, “Now these things became our examples, to
the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.” Numbers
32:1-31 gives an account of the rebellion that still plagued the leaders of the
tribes after all of their forefathers had died in the wilderness, “Now the sons
of Reuben and of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle, and they saw the
land of Jazer and the land of Gilead [on the east side of the Jordan], and
behold, the place was suitable for cattle. So the sons of Gad and of Reuben
came and said to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the leaders of the
congregation, the country around Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon,
Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon, the land the Lord smote before the congregation
of Israel, is a land for cattle, and your servants have cattle. And they said,
‘If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants
for a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan.’ And Moses said to the sons of Gad and of
Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here? Why do you discourage
the hearts of the Israelites from going over into the land which the Lord has
given them? Thus your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to see
the land! For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they
discouraged the hearts of the Israelites from going into the land the Lord had
given them. And the Lord's anger was kindled on that day and He swore, saying, “Surely
none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward,
shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, because
they have not wholly followed Me, except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite
and Joshua son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord. And the Lord's
anger was kindled against Israel and He made them wander in the wilderness for
forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the
Lord was consumed. And behold, you are risen up in your fathers' stead, a brood
of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the Lord against
Israel. For if you turn from following Him, He will again abandon them in the
wilderness, and you will destroy all this people. But they came near to him and
said, We will build sheepfolds here for our flocks and walled settlements for
our little ones. But we will be armed and ready to go before the Israelites
until we have brought them to their place. Our little ones shall dwell in the
fortified settlements because of the people of the land. We will not return to
our homes until the Israelites have inherited every man his inheritance. For we
will not inherit with them on the west side of the Jordan, and beyond, because
our inheritance is fallen to us on this side of the Jordan eastward?
Moses replied, If you
will do as you say, going armed before the Lord to war, And every armed man of
you will pass over the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven out His
enemies before Him and the land is subdued before the Lord, then afterward you
shall return and be guiltless in this matter before the Lord and before Israel,
and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if you will not do
so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find
you out. Build settlements for your little ones, and folds for your sheep, and
do that of which you have spoken. And the sons of Gad and of Reuben said to
Moses, Your servants will do as my lord commands. Our little ones, our wives,
our flocks, and all our cattle shall be there in the cities of Gilead. But your
servants will pass over, every man armed for war, before the Lord to battle, as
my lord says. So Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest and
Joshua son of Nun and the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of Israel.
And Moses said to them, If the sons of Gad and Reuben will pass with you over
the Jordan, every man armed to battle before the Lord, and the land shall be
subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession.
But if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions
among you in the land of Canaan. The sons of Gad and Reuben answered, “As the
Lord has said to your servants, so will we do.
Once again, another
generation found themselves doubting god and willing to forfeit his blessings
rather than flowing in the gifts that God had abundantly given them so the
entire nation could unite for a common purpose.
Psalm 90:10 tells us, “The years…pass quickly, and
then we are gone.” Eileen Silva Kindig writes, “We
talk about lack of time…when what we lack is backbone to take responsibility
for how we spend it. Instead of coming home, we escape to the office and
assembly line to get away from household chores, childcare, and the demands of
relationships…work gives us a buzz. Besides money and freedom, it provides the
satisfaction of a job well done, an outlet for creativity, breezy, low-demand camaraderie,
and intellectual stimulation. All this may be keeping us financially afloat…but
the less time we spend with family, the messier our home life gets.” Time is so
precious that God gives it to us a moment at a time. “The years…pass quickly,
and then we are gone.” So what will you have to look back on? Hours spent
working overtime or hours spent with your loved ones? Kindig recommends seven
things: (1) Remember who is in charge. Manage your time, do not let it manage
you. Think through commitments before you make them. Decide what is important.
The urgent seldom is. (2) Schedule in reverse. Put your real priorities on the
calendar first, then add the rest. (3) Drop one thing from your schedule and enjoy
lunch with your spouse. (4) Be, rather than do. Think. Pray. Relax in a chair.
(5) Get your spouse’s perspective on how you are spending your time, and what
may be stealing it. (6) Be honest about your limitations. You cannot
manufacture time; we all get the same amount. (7) Do not idly commit to everything. Choose carefully where your time is spent.
If you love God’s Word then you are more than halfway
there. “Matthew 24:35 encourages us to
remember, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”
One
of the first books to come off the printing press was the Bible. It is still
the world’s best-selling book. An anonymous author has written: “It contains
the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the fate of sinners,
and the happiness of believers. It is a light to direct you, food to nourish
you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler’s road map, the pilot’s
compass, the soldier’s weapon, and the player’s game plan. It’s a mine of
incredible wealth, and a river of genuine joy. Its doctrines are holy, its
precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable.
Christ is its grand subject, your good its design, and the glory of God its
end. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, practice it to be spiritually
healthy. Read it slowly, frequently and prayerfully. Let it fill your memory,
rule your heart, and guide your steps. It is given to you in life, will be
opened at the judgment, and be remembered for ever. It involves the highest
responsibility, will reward the greatest labor, and judge those who trifle with
its sacred contents.” 1 Peter 1:25 reassures us that, “The Word of our God
shall stand forever.” Most of us respect
the Bible; the trouble is we do not read it daily and put it into practice.
After hearing a discussion on various translations of the Bible, one man said:
“I prefer my mother’s translation, because she translated it into everyday
life.” Are you doing that?
