I Timothy 3:14 These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
The Apostle Paul finished issuing the qualities of the church officers, leaving Timothy with this statement: ‘But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God’ How many remember words growing up such as: ‘behave yourself’, ‘mind your manners’, ‘watch your P’s and Q’s’ and the ever infamous ‘keep your nose clean’?
Today we honor mother’s for their great and wonderful work they provide in the life of children across the world, in the life of the next generation of leaders, pastors, presidents and preachers and preacher’s wives everywhere. The teaching from mom has kept us on track. However the opinion of ‘Mom’ seems to vary as life moves forward:
- 4 years of age: My mommy can do anything!
- 8 years of age: My mom knows a whole lot!
- 12 years of age: My mother doesn’t really know quite everything.
- 14 years of age: Naturally, Mother doesn’t know that either.
- 16 years of age: Mother? She’s hopelessly old-fashioned.
- 18 years of age: That old woman? She’s way out of date!
- 25 years of age: Well, she might know a little bit about it.
- 35 years of age: Before we decide, let’s get Mom’s opinion.
- 45 years of age: I wonder what Mom would have thought about it?
- 65 years of age: I wish I could talk it over with Mom.
Our parents made a difference in our life with words of admonition from our fathers and the guiding grace of our mothers, without them where would we be? There was a time when mothers made such a difference in their child’s life, Dad would go to work and mother would work even harder to raise the children. The mother, we find, would teach the children how to behave themselves in life, be it at home or community. Friend, our mothers taught us about Morals Paul wrote: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6.10) These are the values the aged women of old taught their children; to treat everyone and anyone as they would like to be treated, but ladies and gentlemen, ESPECIALLY those of the of the household of faith! You may be saying to yourself: “preacher, you mean I should give special treatment to those in the church, my brothers and sisters in Christ?” Absolutely! Sam’s club members have benefits, Kroger gives you a discount and even coffee shops will give a free coffee after you buy 10 cups. There are some benefits to being a member of the bride of Christ!
Even though, today, we live in an age of moral decay making morality to appear as an attribute of the past, a fore gone lifestyle of old fashion desire. Yet, the word of God still reigns true.
We need to remember the words of our great mothers saying: ‘speak no evil’ or ‘if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t anything at all’.
Our mothers taught Morals…they also taught us Manners Solomon wrote: “Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? there is more hope of a fool than of him.” (Proverbs 29:20) Do you remember the days as a child? Who taught you proper manners of what to say, but more often of what NOT to say? It was our mothers. Paul said:”…evil communications corrupt good manners.”(I Corinthians 15:33).
Paul also penned: “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29) We know these verses as Biblical truths, yet most if not all of our mothers taught us manners with the same underlying intentions.
“I learned more about God from my mother than from all the theologians in England.”—Charles Wesley
So where are we today in the church, community, county and country? It means in order for our Morals to be sound and our Manners suffice, we are going to have to have some God fearing Mothers “Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.” (Proverbs 14:1)
That mother of yesterday built her house with wisdom, wisdom in her hands (works), wisdom in her feet (walk), wisdom in her speech (wishes) and wisdom in her life (ways).
“Praying mothers are America’s greatest assets.”—Theodore Roosevelt
There is nothing in this world as strong as a mother’s love with no tragedy or disaster great enough to separate it…
On August 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just after taking off from the Detroit airport, killing 155 people. One survived: a four-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, named Cecelia. When rescuers found Cecelia they did not believe she had been on the plane. Investigators first assumed Cecelia had been a passenger in one of the cars on the highway onto which the airliner crashed. But when the passenger register for the flight was checked, there was Cecelia’s name.
Cecelia survived because, even as the plane was falling, Cecelia’s mother, Paula Cichan, unbuckled her own seat belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia, and then would not let her go.
America needs mothers that are willing to train up their children in the right ways of Christ – despite the age we need mothers to set a good example, we need morals to maintain what Christ has given us in a church and we need manners for the sake of the church of tomorrow. Thank God for Mothers!
Psalm 144:11-12 Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood:12 That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:
“I cannot tell how much I owe to the prayers of my good mother.”—Charles Spurgeon
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