What to say on Mother's day

                                       
"When all is said it is the mother, and the mother only, who is a better citizen than the soldier who fights for his country. The successful mother, the mother who does her part in rearing and training aright the boys and girls who are to be the men and women of the next generation, is of greater use to the community and occupies, if she only would realize it, a more honorable as well as a more important position than any successful man in it. The mother is the one supreme asset of national life. She is more important by far than the successful statesman, or business man, or artist , or scientist." President Theodore Roosevelt Today being the second Sunday of May, is Mother’s Day. A day which Congress, in 1914, dedicated to be an annual holiday in which we are to honor our mothers. I guess that what bothers me about the government instituting it is that I don’t feel like we should have to be told to honor our mothers. At the risk of bruising Congress’s collective ego, I have to tell them that they weren’t the first to establish a law that requires children to honor their mother. God gave Israel the Law of Moses and it’s the 5^th Commandment that preempts Congress by telling us that we are "to honor our father and mother."

Now I don’t claim to be an expert on mothers, but I did live with mine for the first 18 years of my life and then I’ve lived with the mother of my children for the past 49 years. The U.S. Air Force served as my "mother" in between the two of them. But, I do know some things about mothers and one of them is that, they never stop being mothers. Maybe it’s a requirement of their union, but I suspect that it’s just their nature put in them by God. I’ve seen the evidence of this in the actions of women who physically were not mothers, yet they "mothered" everybody.

Another thing I can attest to about mothers (especially after our recent transfer of residences) is that they are prolific art collectors. I moved boxes of "refrigerator art" collected from both "child artists" and "grandchild artists." Not to mention the "pie tin" sculptures and plaster of paris animals. Yes, they’re stored in boxes, but more so, they are stored in the mother’s hearts.

And, you know what else is observable about mothers? It doesn’t matter how old her children are, she will always be concerned about them and fret over them. I really appreciated something I once read, penned by a woman named Florida Scott-Maxwell that befits my point here. She said: "No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement." Do I hear an AMEN on that one?

There’s a bit of irony seen in the history of this holiday, this Mother’s Day. It came about by the efforts of a woman named Anna May Jarvis who wanted to honor her mother and wanted all mothers also be honored. The reason for the selection by Congress of it being observed on the 2^nd Sunday of May is because that’s the day Anna’s mother passed away. The irony though relates to Anna as she herself would never be so honored because she never married and was never a mother. That’s somewhat sad, isn’t it?

Many famous people have praised their mothers for whatever measure of success they’ve attained in life. People like Abraham Lincoln, John Q. Adams, Andrew Jackson and various others. And, of course, the words of President Theodore Roosevelt which we started this lesson with. When you consider just the Presidents that I’ve mentioned, it brings home something written by William R. Wallace: "The hand that rocks the cradle, is the hand that rules the world."
One of the things hated by Anna May Jarvis and the thing that she campaigned against after the establishment of Mother’s Day is the commercialization of it. I join her in that effort. It just seems to me that whenever a holiday is created, a whole industry is also created to make money off of it. About the only one that I can think of that’s not exploited commercially is "Ground Hog Day." Cards, candy, flowers and clothing just doesn’t seem to apply there and that’s good.

In my vast collection of things that "speak to me" I have the personal effects of a World War 1 soldier and in those effects is a little card issued to him and all other soldiers that contain several reminders of home. One of those reminders is this little poem regarding Mother’s Day:

            Hundreds of stars in the pretty sky; Hundreds of shells on the shore together;
            Hundreds of birds that go singing by; Hundreds of bees in the sunny weather;
            Hundreds of dew-drops to greet the dawn; Hundreds of lambs in the purple clover;
            Hundreds of butterflies out on the lawn; But only ONE MOTHER the wide world over.

Well, let’s spend the last portion of our time and space looking at the One most knowledgeable about mothers - God - because He created them. Having said that, we might as well go back to the first mother on earth. Let me first preface our thought here with something said by Napoleon of France in response to being told that the best thing for the education of the youth of France was "good mothers." He remarked, "Here is a system in one word - mothers."

That leads us to the Creator of that "system." We see this "system" of mothers bearing children in the 3^rd chapter of Genesis. One of the interesting things seen in this chapter is that, before they sinned, Adam had a name but he simply called the "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" WOMAN. (Gen. 2:23). After they sinned and was told by God that the woman would have "sorrow" in conception and Adam that he would have to earn his keep through the "sweat of his face" is when Adam named his wife Eve "because she was the mother of all living." (3:20)

That "system" has populated the world from that time on and when mothers follow the wisdom of God, the children benefit and so does the world. That method is seen in the words given us by Solomon where, speaking from God, says: "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Prov. 22:6)

As to the condition of the world today, I’m of the opinion that too many mothers have abdicated their responsibilities in regards to "training" their children in the way they "should go" and they have gone the way they shouldn’t have. That’s just my opinion though.

Yes, I think that the "system" works best when "godly mothers" are involved. Someone once said that "The mother’s face and voice is the first conscious objects that an infant is aware of, and that she stands in the place of God to the child." There’s a passage in Isaiah 66, verse 13 that goes right well with that statement. Notice there these words by God: "As a mother comforteth, so will I comfort you..." Doesn’t that supply us with a great picture of how much God loves us and cares for us? We’re His children.

For our last look at mothers in the Bible, think of the horrible scene on the Hill of Golgotha, outside of Jerusalem. Can you imagine being a mother and watching your son being crucified. I’m sorry, but I can’t. Please read the account given us in John 19:25-30 as I close with some words penned by the poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

                "Even He that died for us upon the cross, in the last hour, in the unutterable
                 agony of death, was mindful of his mother, as if to teach us that this holy
                 love should be our last worldly thought, the last point of earth from which
                 the soul should take its flight for heaven."

Ron Covey