Honor Your Mother
Scripture Reading — 2 Timothy 1:1-7
Your sincere faith … first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice …
2 Timothy 1:5
The well-known theologian Karl Barth was asked by a reporter, “Sir, you have written huge volumes about God. Tell me, how do you know it is all true?” According to the story, he answered, “My mother told me.”
That’s a rather simple answer to a profound question. But this answer says a lot about the influence mothers have on the home and on their children. While both parents have an important role in early childhood nurture, it is usually the mother who makes the home and shapes the minds of little children. The mother is often the first one to tell her children about the Lord.
As a child, the first person I looked for when coming home from school was my mother. After she passed away, our home life changed radically. My father did what he could to keep our home special, but it was never the same without our mother.
If your mother is still living, tell her how much you love her and respect her. In the nine years I knew my mother, I never once told her that. Thank her for who she is, and for how she has shaped your life. And if she is gone, thank God for who she was in your life.
If perhaps your mother is or was not the mother you wished you had, ask God to help you forgive her even now, and to give you the grace to love and accept her as she is or was.
Lord God, we thank you for our mothers. Help us to love and respect them. Help us to be loving children as well as loving parents and spouses, for your sake. Amen.
About the author — Arthur J. Schoonveld
Rev. Art Schoonveld is a retired minister in the Christian Reformed Church. Before retiring in 2001, he served churches in California, Illinois, and Michigan. Since his retirement he has worked part-time for the denomination and has served as an interim pastor. Art and his wife, Anita, have four children and nine grandchildren.
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