Mother's Day Challenge

I Teach a Sunday School class at our church.

I wrote a challenge for all the Grandmothers, Aunts & Mom's who were in that class yesterday....

and I am posting it here for you to read if you wish.



Mother’s Day Challenge

Ladies, when God created man, He did not want him to be lonely, nor did he create man to pro-create on his own! We as women were created FOR our husbands. To love and honor them in our marriages and to pro-create with him…and we all have had the most beautiful children ever!!! But with those amazing creations come a responsibility…..modeling a godly marriage and relationships for our daughters.

That is not something we should do without great reverence for our Lord and Savior. And thankfully, God has given us many scriptures to help us out on this road that we are to walk and also do it on a stage before our daughters, to enable them to walk this road in their future that will give God all glory and honor for His accomplishments in not only our lives, but our daughters. God did bless us with the ability to have children, but that is not the main reason for our existence. We can be a good mother and fail God…. be the best mother who ever lived and still fail God…when we do not prioritize as God desires for us to.  We, of course, do not want this to happen!

So, let’s look to scripture to help us…..starting with the proverbs 31 woman,

¹⁰ An excellent wife, who can find?  For her worth is far above jewels.

¹¹ The heart of her husband trusts in her, And he will have no lack of gain.

¹² She does him good and not evil All the days of her life.

²⁶ She opens her mouth in wisdom, And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

²⁷ She looks well to the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness.

²⁸ Her children rise up and bless her; Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:

²⁹ “Many daughters have done nobly, But you excel them all.”

³⁰ Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

Ouchie! I know when I read this, it sometimes makes me cringe. I know how short I have fallen from this instruction, to many times for me to feel comfortable acknowledging.

Ephesian’s 5 instruction says…1-2 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; ² and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

¹⁵ Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, ¹⁶  making the most of your time, because the days are evil. ¹⁷ So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

²² Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. ²⁴ But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.

God knows our circumstances. God KNOWS our circumstances! Whether stress filled or complete joy, hard or easy, loving or annoying…..HE knows! One thing that I have found through my 30 plus years of marriage is: God does not change because it is 2012 as opposed to 150bc! His word and commands are the same today as yesterday; His wants for our lives are the same as they were when scripture was penned as it is today. We are to model a life of Christ, with the same restrictions, grace and mercy as those biblical examples given to us that show us how to do it!!!

Submission is not a forced slavery where a wife must make herself conform. It is not a loss of individuality or personality. True biblical subjection is a woman’s creative and challenging pleasure of discovering how she can show her husband that she respects him, and admires him. Her new prayer should be, “Lord, give me a simple and unselfish desire to be led by my husband as I am led by You, and thereby bring glory to Your name!......(quote by Richard L. Strauss)

*Something that never goes out of style is: “a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price! Meek means gentle, considerate, willing to surrender one’s right. “Quiet” means peaceful, restful and un-disturbed. We often instead model moodiness, irritability, nagging, grumbling, and complaining.

When a marriage is going well, nothing is sweeter! And I’ve seen that when a marriage is miserable, there is hardly anything more miserable. God’s plan is for us to experience nothing but perfect, deeply satisfying relationships of harmony with HIM, our husbands, our family, also in our church life and in our friendships…but, that was life on the other side of Eden! That plan was un-done by human sin, self-will and selfishness.

 A cheerful atmosphere in the home depends largely on us as the wife. If we accept our responsibility to create a joyful atmosphere and yield ourselves to the indwelling Spirit of God, HE will produce in us His fruit of joy; life will become an exciting challenge rather than an exasperating chore!

As much as it depends on us, we CAN live at peace with others. Of course, our husband and children won’t always choose to live in peace and joy with us….their choices are out of our control. And when we are hurt by them, the natural reaction is disappointment and frustration.

OUR choice is: we can stand and react to others out of our disappointment & demand our way OR we can seek God’s comfort, love unconditionally, and embrace hope. And remember, our daughters are watching our choices, listening to our words and seeing how a bitter spirit is a poison and will bring more pain than the original hurt or demand…OR they see and hear our words of encouragement, love and passion for the Lord’s desire for our lives. Will we always be on the right page at the right time? NO WAY…..but that is when we have the opportunity to seek forgiveness, show forgiveness and train through our failures and not just our victories.

Life and marriage is not and has not been compete and total bliss. There have been times when I am quite sure that my daughters have seen my failures…but I also know that they have seen (hopefully more often!) my successes, joys, submission, love, love and love. Love for their Dad, love for them, and most of all Love for our Heavenly Father. When I am successful in the later, the other areas are second nature, easy, wonderful and without condition. You see, God’s love and acceptance is without condition. HE loves unconditionally, and I am, as filthy rags, so not deserving of this. I disappoint HIM every day, many times a day, over and over again. Yet God loves me. Jesus died for me. The Holy Spirit lives in me. I am loved, without deserving it. I am accepted without deserving it. I am looked upon as someone very special, without deserving it. Who am I? A child of God, His princess, the one who took His breath away. I am His.

My marriage,  my family,  deserve that kind of love and acceptance from me. As I quoted from scripture before: Eph. 5:1-2 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; ² and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Being a submissive wife, modeling for our daughters, ­­­is not a chore. It is not a demand. It is not a “less than human, subservient, belittling life”.

What it IS, is a reflection of Christ in me.

 A light in me.  A sweet fragrance.  One that I want to share with those I love….those who see me, day to day, living life­­­. It is what I want my daughters to learn, what I want our son to expect and what I want my husband to be able to brag about to his co-workers and friends. (ok, I AM human after all!!!)

How bright are you shining day to day?

How sweet do you smell day to day?

What or Who are you reflecting today?