A mother’s Story
Page of
Testimony
When I was 6 or 7, Hector, my favorite cat, we ever owned, was outside with me while I was playing. I remember looking over and seeing Hector on the roof of our basement.
There was a small roof that covered one part of the house and it was just one story up, but my parents house is also pushed right into the hillside that one could attempt to get on the roof by jumping off of the hill.
Anyway, I thought, that Hector needed saving. So I ran behind the house to get on the roof and save him, and in my carelessness, tripped over a tire and landed into a yellow jackets nest.
Being so young, the thought of getting up and running away from the bees was not a concept I had learned.
Instead I floundered there, unable to get up, stunned by the event, and crying as the bees began attacking me.
My mom was in the house, and when she heard my cry, something told her that, that cry... was none other than, the cry of her son in painful, horrible, agony.
She ran out of the house, ventured into the land of the beasts, risking injury even to herself, and pulled me out of certain death.
She got me to a safe place… and then, started slapping me around!
Actually she was slapping me to get the rest of the bees off… I know why she did it… I recovered… eventually.
But that moment was a defining moment. My husky little body was shaking all over, and we went to the hospital where they flushed out the bees that were enjoying the free ride in both of my ears.
When we go back, I turned my knowledge of the plan of salvation into a heartfelt cry for God to save me, because I knew I could have died, and I didn’t want to go to hell.
I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior because of the horrible event that happened that day, but I will never forget who was there to pull me out of the my misery and pain, it was my mother.
As I think about my Mother, many words come to my mind that could describe her.
She is Loving, gentle, kind. She is optimistic when no one else is.
She has endured under hardship. She has been found faithful to my Father. She has been found faithful to her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
And I could go on like this for the rest of our time together,
But I am very thankful for my mother.
My prayer... is that you are also very thankful for your mother today. Or perhaps you are thankful for someone who acted like a mother to you, or perhaps very thankful for the mother of your children.
What a gift it is to have someone there for you, like only a mother can be. Amen?
It occurred to me this week, that it must have been pretty tough for Eve though….
Think about it Ladies, Can you imagine being the first woman ever created?
Can you imagine being the first woman to ever be a mother?
Can you imagine being Eve and not having a mother to lean on for advice?
Who would she talk on the phone with for hours? Who would have been looking out for her, supporting her, and encouraging her? Seemingly no one, at least not like a mother would be.
Eve would have to figure out her own questions like:
I do not envy Eve, I appreciate the times when I can sit down with my mother and talk for an hour about anything.
Somehow a mother brings just the right kind of patience and kindness that is needed at just the right time.
I think Paul also was also convicted by the spirit of this need, as it pertains specifically to women teaching women, when he wrote in Titus 2
“3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children”
Older woman, and grandmothers, to you is given the responsibility to love on, and serve the younger women, by teaching them.
We can glean from scripture some wide applications to good living, but your story, your walk, the hard lessons you have learned are of great importance to the development of younger mothers.
Speaking of wider applications, I’ll aks you to turn with me to Exodus Chapter 2.
I would like to focus on the example of Moses’s mother. She displays amazing character traits that I would like to touch on this morning.
Verse 1: “Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.
3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it.
6 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.
7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
Let’s pray
I’d like to highlight just a few quick thoughts for us this morning, the first being in verse 2 where it says: “When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.”
In context, if we were to go back to Exodus chapter 1, we would see that a new Pharaoh takes the throne and decides the people of Israel are getting too large and have the potential of revolting against Egypt and in a sense take it over.
So the pharaoh makes a decree to have the new born baby boys killed after birth and or thrown into the nile river to reduce the population.
When Moses’s mom gives birth to him, she recognizes how fine, or how beautiful this little boy is and decides to disobey the orders of pharaoh.
Q: Mothers… when you gave birth to your child, was there any doubt in your mind how beautiful they were to you?
This verse seems almost silly, doesn’t it?
But the Bible records the same thing in three places. Here in Exodus, again in Acts 7 his beauty is described, and finally in Hebrews 11.
Turn there with me to Hebrew 11:23
Hebrews 11:23 New International Version (NIV)
23 “By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.”
Let me ask you mom, do you consider your child “no ordinary child?”
When I was growing up, I had a big problem with stairs. I would fall down them all the time… I was no ordinary child, no child should have fallen that many times, I was clumsy!
My mother would hear me fall down the steps while carrying trash out to the burn barrel and begin to laugh! She thought it would have been funny to see all that trash flying through the air as I fell… I was less than enthused.
But in this verse this is a positive statement. Moses was so different, so beautiful, that they decided to do whatever it takes to give this kid a chance.
Now I am sure you feel that way about your child.
They are special, perfectly created by our God, amen?
Your child is “not ordinary,” because they are specific to your heart, they are part of you, you can see how special they are, and you have begun the journey with them, to do whatever it takes to make them thrive.
Ordinary… normal… What is that anyway?
Is there a bunch of kids that are “normal” running around… I mean, what is normal anyway?
Is normal, fitting into the mold? Is normal learning at just the right time? Is normal perfectly healthy with just the right BMI?
I’ll tell you what normal is:
All children need love, it is normal for them to want it and need it.
All children need forgiveness, it is normal for them to mess up.
All children need our time and effort, it is normal to want to be felt valued.
All children need a chance to have success in this life, it is normal to learn and grow, the pace does not matter!
All children have emotional baggage and faults and sins as much as we have those things, it is normal for them to struggle within themselves to find identity and develop self confidence.
And all children need the Lord.
But here in our text, it says these parents, this mother, buckled down, strapped in, and took care of her precious child for as long as was safely possible.
I hope you can see her as an inspiration.
It was no easy task hiding a baby from a town full of nosey neighbors.
I mean, babies are a lot of work right? Can you imagine what kind of sacrifices it took to keep that baby hidden for three months?
I wonder if Moses’s mom couldn’t do it anymore after three months because everyone was like, has anyone seen Jochebed? I haven’t seen her in like 3 months. She disappeared, we need to find her! Something must be wrong!
Jochebed must have been at Moses’s side, night and day, 24/7 to keep him busy, happy, and quiet.
But isn’t that what makes moms so special. They dig in, they go deep, they never give up… they have the qualities of compassion, mercy, and of deep love.
They always want what’s best for their kid even at their own expense.
I would encourage you mom, to keep being faithful, keep the faith in all things.
Keep believing that God will give you what you need as you enter into the adventure of life with your beautiful children or grandchildren.
Secondly, I like to point towards hope.
When Jochebed had to say goodbye to Moses because she could no longer hide him, she did so still moving towards hope.
Well...What is hope?
Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.
When Jochebed put Moses in a basket and placed him in the Nile, she did not just go anywhere to do it.
She deliberately found a place she knew the pharaoh's daughter would be, and she even staged her 15 year old daughter by his side to see what would happen to him.
Let’s read that:
3 “But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.
5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him.”
I think what mothers do better - than most dads - is that they are willing to take action t o w a r d s hope in their kids life.
In other words, Dads can be pretty laid back in regards to expecting good things to happen to their kids.
Don’t get me wrong, they want to see their kids flourish, but they are taking less steps towards that expectation, that hope - than mothers.
Mothers are the worry-ers. Mothers are the ones typically more involved with school. Mothers are often driven towards their kids goals.
Remember Jacob and Esau’s Mother Rebekah? She was driven to see her favorite son get the birthright, but the point is... she took steps to fulfill her hope to make it happen.
I find myself asking, am I doing enough for my kids?
Or am I getting complacent because I am so tired?
Or perhaps another trial associated with them, is not something I want to tackle?
Let me ask you, where in the Nile are you setting your children? Are they set near the Lord?
He is the only great salvation for your kids destruction. He alone has everything that is needed for that child to develop what really matters!
My encouragement to us all, is to remain the course and pray - have expectant hope in the future of your kids through prayer and wisdom, and set them with purpose in life’s Nile.
James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
Lastly, Moses’s mom gave it all with self sacrificial love.
Let’s keep reading…
7 “Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
Question: How hard would that be for you mother’s to give up your child permanently to the care of someone else? Could you really do it?
As if it wasn’t hard enough the first time when she put him in the Nile, but after she raises him for probably three years, she has to return him to pharaoh's daughter where she immediately changes his name.
I think the name thing would be difficult for me. Margo and I poured over names for our two children, hours went into selecting them.
I think it took Margo and I all of about a week or so to begin using nicknames on top of that. To hear his name changed immediately would be hard for me.
But Jochebed sacrificed her wants for his needs.
That is the love of Christ, who died to give us life.
There comes a point where you must turn over your child to his own will and desires. It may be 18… but it may be sooner.
But the point is that many mothers desire success for their kids so much that you are inclined to control them and what goes on around them in a fury of well intended worry.
I would encourage you, that if you make a habit of turning your worry over to the Lord while they are young, when the trials are seemingly smaller, it will be easier when they are older.
You can’t hold on to them forever mom, give them up to God daily for his will to be done in their lives, and just ask to be found faithful in your duty as a mom for however long you have with them.
Jochebed only had months… what a blessing to have them in your reach for longer than that.
I’d like to leave you with a little poem I found called:
What is a Mother?
Author: Katherine Nelson Davis
A mother is someone to shelter and guide us,
To love us, whatever we do,
With a warm understanding and infinite patience,
And wonderful gentleness, too.
How often a mother means swift reassurance
In soothing our small, childish fears,
How tenderly mothers watch over their children
And treasure them all through the years.
The heart of a mother is full of forgiveness
For any mistake, big or small,
And generous always in helping her family
Whose needs she has placed above all.
A mother can utter a word of compassion
And make all our cares fall away,
She can brighten a home with the sound of her laughter
And make life delightful and gay.
A mother possesses incredible wisdom
And wonderful insight and skill-
In each human heart is that one special corner
Which only a mother can fill!
Let’s pray