In celebration of Mother’s Day, I decided to use the text of a Mother’s Day speech I gave two years ago in this week’s blog.
Real Mothers are special people. Real mothers are an integral part of our lives. We wouldn’t be who we are without our mothers.
Some of the greatest people in history and today will tell you how important their mothers were to their lives. Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls point guard, and the 2011 NBA MVP, for example, declared in his acceptance speech: “Mom, my heart, the reason I play the way that I play”.
This was also true of one of the greatest men in Old Testament history, a man named Moses. Moses became the kind of man he was because of the type of mother he had. In fact, who he was, was very much determined by the type of MOTHERS he had, because God gave Moses two mothers. And they were both good mothers because they both had some of the same instincts for their roles.
For example: They both loved babies -- now that may seem like a given… but not every woman loves kids. Not every woman wants kids. But these two did. And that WAS no small thing in their day because Moses’ two mothers lived in a culture of death.
Y’all know the story -- Pharaoh had ordered every male child born to a Hebrew was to be thrown into the Nile and drowned. And Moses’ birth mother – Jochebed – was a Hebrew woman. Thus, she had a choice to make. The society in which she lived made it virtually impossible to keep her child and she could have decided to simply allow her child to be thrown away. She could have chosen death (the easy choice)… but she chose life instead.
And this was not an easy decision for Jochebed to make. It required her to hide her child for 3 whole months always fearing that Egyptian soldiers would discover the baby… and not only would they kill her child but punish her entire family for disobeying the law.
Choosing life was not an easy decision. But then consider Pharaoh’s daughter. She knew this was a Hebrew baby. Exodus 2:6 tells us “She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. ‘This is one of the Hebrew babies,’ she said.” Her father had ordered all these children should die. It would have been so easy to let the child die. But she chose life instead.
Both mothers lived in a culture of death. Both mothers lived in a society that has decreed certain children shouldn’t live. And so do we – remember the Susan Smith tragedy, Shaquan Duley in Orangeburg – both drowning their children; and most recently, Hope Hawkins who was charged in the homicide of her four children who died in a house fire in Hartsville while left alone.
Moses lived because Jochebed and Pharaoh’s daughter never accepted that culture of death. They chose life. Moses lived… and became the kind of man he became… because his 2 mothers loved life, and loved babies.
Secondly – Moses became the kind of man he was because his mothers did everything they could for him. Jochebed did everything she could for her son. Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses’ adoptive mother, loved this boy - takes him into her home and makes him her son. She (like Jochebed) did everything she could for this boy as well.
Acts 7:22 tells us that “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.” Pharaoh’s daughter wanted Moses to have all the advantages her culture could supply. She wanted him to be more than a common laborer. She wanted him to be a leader of men/ a ruler of nations. And she succeeded in building him into a man who was powerful in speech and action. And so, she did everything in her power to give him an edge - an advantage fitting for the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
Both of Moses’ mothers loved him so much that they did everything they could think to do to give him every advantage he could have. But only Jochebed gave Moses the one thing that changed his life. Pharaoh’s daughter supplied Moses knowledge of the wisdom of Egypt. She got him into the best schools. She arranged to find him the best teachers. She had supplied him with the ability to be a man who was powerful in speech and action. She had supplied him with all the training and education he needed to be a success in this world.
And yet Hebrews 11:24 tells us that the time came when Moses “…refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” There was something Pharaoh’s daughter had not supplied him with. Something was missing from his extensive education in the universities of Egypt. But what could it have been? What was missing? What was missing was a different kind of knowledge… a knowledge of who God was.
As parents and grandparents and uncles/ aunts we need to realize that even with the most advanced education our society can supply - without God at the center of our children’s lives there will be an emptiness that nothing else can fill.
In the last verses of Ecclesiastes, Solomon looks at all the advantages a man can have in life -- Wealth, and education, and power, and success. Yet, toward the end of his book he declares "Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!" Ecclesiastes 12:8.
He later declares that “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man.”
He meant that – without God – life become meaningless and empty. Only God can help us to reach the potential. Only God can help us to realize our promise and possibility. Once we know who God is… then we can realize that we’ve been made in His image. We are part of His plan. We have been created for a purpose and we have a reason to exist.
And that’s what Jochebed gave her son. She gave that knowledge of God by sharing HER faith in God. She told him what she believed. She told him what God had done in her life. She told him what God wanted for their people. And because God was REAL to her… God became real for him as well.
Some of the greatest people in history and today will tell you how important their mothers were to their lives. Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls point guard, and the 2011 NBA MVP, for example, declared in his acceptance speech: “Mom, my heart, the reason I play the way that I play”.
This was also true of one of the greatest men in Old Testament history, a man named Moses. Moses became the kind of man he was because of the type of mother he had. In fact, who he was, was very much determined by the type of MOTHERS he had, because God gave Moses two mothers. And they were both good mothers because they both had some of the same instincts for their roles.
For example: They both loved babies -- now that may seem like a given… but not every woman loves kids. Not every woman wants kids. But these two did. And that WAS no small thing in their day because Moses’ two mothers lived in a culture of death.
Y’all know the story -- Pharaoh had ordered every male child born to a Hebrew was to be thrown into the Nile and drowned. And Moses’ birth mother – Jochebed – was a Hebrew woman. Thus, she had a choice to make. The society in which she lived made it virtually impossible to keep her child and she could have decided to simply allow her child to be thrown away. She could have chosen death (the easy choice)… but she chose life instead.
And this was not an easy decision for Jochebed to make. It required her to hide her child for 3 whole months always fearing that Egyptian soldiers would discover the baby… and not only would they kill her child but punish her entire family for disobeying the law.
Choosing life was not an easy decision. But then consider Pharaoh’s daughter. She knew this was a Hebrew baby. Exodus 2:6 tells us “She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. ‘This is one of the Hebrew babies,’ she said.” Her father had ordered all these children should die. It would have been so easy to let the child die. But she chose life instead.
Both mothers lived in a culture of death. Both mothers lived in a society that has decreed certain children shouldn’t live. And so do we – remember the Susan Smith tragedy, Shaquan Duley in Orangeburg – both drowning their children; and most recently, Hope Hawkins who was charged in the homicide of her four children who died in a house fire in Hartsville while left alone.
Moses lived because Jochebed and Pharaoh’s daughter never accepted that culture of death. They chose life. Moses lived… and became the kind of man he became… because his 2 mothers loved life, and loved babies.
Secondly – Moses became the kind of man he was because his mothers did everything they could for him. Jochebed did everything she could for her son. Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses’ adoptive mother, loved this boy - takes him into her home and makes him her son. She (like Jochebed) did everything she could for this boy as well.
Acts 7:22 tells us that “Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.” Pharaoh’s daughter wanted Moses to have all the advantages her culture could supply. She wanted him to be more than a common laborer. She wanted him to be a leader of men/ a ruler of nations. And she succeeded in building him into a man who was powerful in speech and action. And so, she did everything in her power to give him an edge - an advantage fitting for the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.
Both of Moses’ mothers loved him so much that they did everything they could think to do to give him every advantage he could have. But only Jochebed gave Moses the one thing that changed his life. Pharaoh’s daughter supplied Moses knowledge of the wisdom of Egypt. She got him into the best schools. She arranged to find him the best teachers. She had supplied him with the ability to be a man who was powerful in speech and action. She had supplied him with all the training and education he needed to be a success in this world.
And yet Hebrews 11:24 tells us that the time came when Moses “…refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” There was something Pharaoh’s daughter had not supplied him with. Something was missing from his extensive education in the universities of Egypt. But what could it have been? What was missing? What was missing was a different kind of knowledge… a knowledge of who God was.
As parents and grandparents and uncles/ aunts we need to realize that even with the most advanced education our society can supply - without God at the center of our children’s lives there will be an emptiness that nothing else can fill.
In the last verses of Ecclesiastes, Solomon looks at all the advantages a man can have in life -- Wealth, and education, and power, and success. Yet, toward the end of his book he declares "Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless!" Ecclesiastes 12:8.
He later declares that “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man.”
He meant that – without God – life become meaningless and empty. Only God can help us to reach the potential. Only God can help us to realize our promise and possibility. Once we know who God is… then we can realize that we’ve been made in His image. We are part of His plan. We have been created for a purpose and we have a reason to exist.
And that’s what Jochebed gave her son. She gave that knowledge of God by sharing HER faith in God. She told him what she believed. She told him what God had done in her life. She told him what God wanted for their people. And because God was REAL to her… God became real for him as well.
Jochebed loved her son so much that she wanted him to know the most powerful force in her life. And she wanted Moses to know this God. She did that because she knew this was a hard and difficult world. And there would be times when Moses would doubt whether he was loved by anyone. When that time came, she wanted him to remember that he WAS loved by at least one: God. She wanted him to remember that God always cared for him and would watch out for him.
And that’s the reason our children/ grandchildren/ nephews and nieces need to know Him as well. There will be times they won’t feel worthy, lovable, needed. And they’ll need to know that God will never leave them nor forsake them.
So Moms: WHY do you love your newborn child? For months this baby has brought you pain. They’ve made you break out in pimples and waddle like a duck. (black necks, big nose). They punched you in the tummy. They occupied a space that wasn’t theirs and ate food they didn’t fix.
You kept them warm. You kept them safe. You kept them fed. But did these lil rugrats say thank you? NO! They start crying before they get here good. They don’t even tell you when they’re coming. You get all these pains, you scream, you swear, you bite bullets. Need I remind you?
And now look at us. Back pains, headaches, washed down in sweat. Muscles sore. We should be angry. But are we? No. They’ve brought pain to our bodies and nausea to your morning, yet you treasure them. They wake us up every night for the next 6 weeks, but that doesn’t matter.
Why does a mother love her newborn? Because the baby is hers? Even more, because the baby is her blood, her flesh, her hope, her legacy.
It does not bother her that the baby gives nothing. She knows a newborn is helpless, weak. She knows babies don’t ask to come into this world.
And God knows we didn’t either. We are his idea. We are his. His face. His eyes. His hands. His touch. We are Him!
The love of a mother for her child is only a small taste of the love God has for us all – He gave his only begotten son so that we may live. Just like we mothers feel when we look at our newborns, our toddlers, our pre-teens, our teens, our adults. When God looks at you, He sees His finest creation. As I’ve mentioned to my princesses in Sunday School – AND HE KNOWS US BY NAME.
Why does a mother love her newborn? Because the baby is hers? Even more, because the baby is her blood, her flesh, her hope, her legacy.
It does not bother her that the baby gives nothing. She knows a newborn is helpless, weak. She knows babies don’t ask to come into this world.
And God knows we didn’t either. We are his idea. We are his. His face. His eyes. His hands. His touch. We are Him!
The love of a mother for her child is only a small taste of the love God has for us all – He gave his only begotten son so that we may live. Just like we mothers feel when we look at our newborns, our toddlers, our pre-teens, our teens, our adults. When God looks at you, He sees His finest creation. As I’ve mentioned to my princesses in Sunday School – AND HE KNOWS US BY NAME.
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