10 May, 1998
Mother's Day
INTRODUCTION
It was a lady by the name of Anna M. Jarvis who first suggested the national observance of an annual day honoring all mothers. This was her dream because of the love and respect that she had for her own mother. At a memorial service for her mother on May 10, 1908, Miss Jarvis gave a carnation (her mother's favorite flower) to each person who attended. Within the next few years, the idea of a day to honor mothers gained much popularity, and Mothers Day was observed in a number of large cities in the U.S. And then on May 9, 1914, by an act of Congress, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day. He established the day as a time for "public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country." And it is on this second Sunday of May that mother's day has been observed since.
Now I am aware that Mothers Day can be a somewhat difficult, even painful day for some folks.
All of these kinds of challenges can make this not such a happy day. For those reasons I find it somewhat difficult to preach a specific Mothers Day message. But I do not have a problem with addressing the issue of parenting in general. There are many who, though they have no children of their own for one reason or another, may still be a parental figure in the life of a child. And for that reason, the challenge of parenting can be just as real for us all. And so I would like us to be challenged from God's Word, specifically from an individual that we are told about in the pages of Scripture. And though this individual in question is a woman and was in fact the mother of a very significant person in the history of the church, she will stand as an example of one who took the challenge of parenting very seriously.
BACKGROUND:
There is not very much mentioned about this woman, but her name we know was Eunice and she was the mother of that young pastor named, Timothy. When it comes to names, her's implies "conquering well" and was a name of a good and happy victory and in it's origin it is very likely that her being so named commemorated such an event. She was the daughter of woman named Lois - another woman who was obviously a devoted mother and one whom we know nothing about. Eunice is mentioned only one time in the Bible. But she is refereed to in two other places. And from these few references to the mother of Timothy, I would like us to be challenged from her life as the responsibilities that we have as parents (even if a parental figure).
Whether you are a mother, a grandmother, a father, grandfather, an uncle or an aunt or any other significant adult in the life of a child, this challenge is for you.
The first thing we can learn from the life of Timothy's mom is that we need to.......
1. BE AN EXAMPLE TO OUR CHILDREN OF GENUINE FAITH - 1:5
Paul reminds Timothy of the genuine faith that was in him. The faith that Paul is speaking of is defined as "true piety and genuine religion which for our literature means being a Christian." The word that Paul uses for genuine means "without hypocrisy - the opposite of a hypocritical or wavering profession.
Paul also reminds Timothy that it was a faith which first dwelt in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. So we can see that there were two very significant women in the life of this young pastor - his mother and his grandmother. And both of them modeled a faith to Timothy that Paul considered to be genuine.
Though Timothy did have a father, who, by the way, was a Gentile, it is believed that his father had died by the time that Paul recruited Timothy for missionary duty. So it is quite possible that much of Timothy's life was absent a father. But it is also obvious that his mother and grandmother made up for that absence by the life of faith and devotion to God that they lived. For it was their faith and piety that Timothy embraced and which became the foundation for his own life. These two women passed along a legacy of faith to this young man and it was a genuine faith that was obvious to those who knew him. It is written in Acts 16:2 that "the brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him." Timothy was a man of genuine faith in Christ because his mom and grandmother had modeled such in faith to him.
I wonder if our children see in us a genuine faith and devotion to God? Or do they see us as hypocrites. Do they see us as living one way at home and another way at church? Do they see us talking the talk but not walking the walk?
One blistering hot day when little Johnny's family had invited guests for dinner, Mother asked Johnny, who was 4-years old, to return thanks.
"But I don't know what to say!" the boy complained.
"Oh, just say what you hear me say" his mother replied.
Obediently the boy bowed his head and mumbled, "Oh Lord, why did I invite these people over on a hot day like this?"
What our kids need to see are adults in the home and in the church who are honest about their faith and have a genuine commitment to the Lord and His work. They need to see parents and adults who are real. There are so many compromises in this world. There is so much hypocrisy in our government and in the schools. They don't need to see it at home. They need to know that we are a people who live by what we believe to be the truth. They need to see us standing for what we truly believe.
We can also learn from the life of Eunice that we should...
2. FAITHFULLY TEACH OUR CHILDREN IN THE TRUTHS OF SCRIPTURE - 3:14,15 - cf. Deut. 6:1-6
Dr. Howard Hendricks once commented that "your home is the number one influence on the life of your child." And statistics tell us that the average church has a child 1% of his time, the home has him 83% of his time and the school for the remaining 16%. This does not minimize the need for churches and schools, but it establishes the fact your home is 83% of your child's world and you have only one time around to make it of maximum benefit to your child. So a parent's responsibility is not to his child's happiness; it's to his character. And that is done partly through the instruction of the Word. And that is obviously a responsibility that Timothy's mom took seriously.
William Barclay reminds us in his commentary on the letters to Timothy that "it was the glory of the Jews that their children from the earliest days were trained in the law. They claimed that their children learned the law even from their swaddling clothes and drank it in with their mother's milk. They claimed that the law was so imprinted on the heart and mind of a Jewish child that he would sooner forget his own name than he would forget [the law]. (Barclay, The Letters of Timothy, Titus and Philemon, p. 199)
Obviously Eunice and her mom had followed kept this tradition in their home. For Paul recognized that Timothy had learned and become convinced of the scriptural truths he had learned from these two significant people at a very early age. From the wording of Paul's statement it is obvious that Eunice began teaching the Old Testament scriptures to Timothy from the time he was about 5 years old. And it was that instruction in righteousness that stayed with Timothy throughout his days as a young pastor. And because Eunice had fulfilled this responsibility, Timothy was had a certain and definite assurance in and of the things which he had learned. He was convinced of the truth of the Scriptures that had been instilled in him at such an early age.
Proverbs 22:6 "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."
This is a truth that tells that generally speaking, if we instill the ways and the word of God into our children, there is a good chance it will stay with them for the rest of their lives and will guide them in the way they should go.
For so long, so many of us have left it up to the church to do what was always intended to be the responsibility of the parents. We have left it exclusively up to the Sunday school teacher or the junior church teacher or the pioneer clubs teacher to instill the truth of the Scripture in the lives our children. The reality of it all is that the parents are the ones who will be held accountable for that responsibility and not the church.And there are some who kind of leave it up to their children to find their own way - figuring that they have a mind of their own and can decide for themselves.
A British poet by the name of Taylor Coleridge tells of a discussion he once had with a man who firmly believed that children should not be given formal religious instruction, but should be free to choose their own religious faith when they reached maturity. Coleridge did not disagree, but later invited the man into his somewhat neglected garden. The man said to him, "Do you call this a garden? There's nothing here but weeds!" Coleridge replied to the man, "Well you see, I do not wish to infringe upon the liberty of the garden in any way. I was giving the garden a chance to express itself."
We cannot leave it up to our children to express themselves and find their own way. And we cannot leave it up to the church alone what God has made us responsible for.
From the life of Timothy's mom, we can also learn that we need to..........
3. BE PREPARING OUR CHILDREN FOR FUTURE SERVICE - ACTS 16:1
It is assumed that Eunice and her mother Lois had become followers of Jesus under Paul's ministry when he visited this city on his first missionary journey. And now, approximately five years later, he returns Lystra to find that there had emerged this young man Timothy as genuine follower of Jesus. We read in Acts 16:1 that Paul "came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was a Jewess and a believer, but whose father was a Greek."
In Paul's eyes, Timothy had become a true disciple. The word disciple that Paul uses here is the same word that is used of the 12 disciples and of a disciple of Jesus in general. It means "a learner or a pupil or adherent." So it is obvious that Timothy was already being discipled and nurtured to be a follower of Christ. He was already being prepared to do what God would later use him to do. And he had come to a such point in that process that Paul would ask him to become a part of his missionary team.
In what ways are we preparing our children to be used of God in the work of the kingdom. Your child might not be called to be a missionary or a pastor or any other "full time Christian worker." But as a follower of Jesus, your child is one who at some point in his or her life who should be serving the Lord in whatever he or she is does. How is your child being prepared or discipled to do the work of the kingdom in whatever way God calls him or her?
And then finally, we can learn from the life of Eunice that we as parents need to.......
4. BE WILLING TO RELEASE OUR CHILDREN TO THE SERVICE OF GOD
It is assumed that Timothy was still living with his mom and grandmother when Paul invited him to join him and Silas and be a part of that missionary team. What an honor this would have been for Timothy and even his mom. But what a sacrifice it would have been for his mom. We can only imagine the mixture of emotions that this mother experienced as she released her son into the service of God. And it would have been easy for Timothy's mom to try and manipulate her son to be who she wanted him to be rather than who God wanted him to be. She could have easily tried to step in the way and discourage him from venturing out to do such a job with so many unknowns. She could have discouraged him from doing something that would entail so many sacrifices and even dangers. But it is assumed that she was in support of him obeying God's call to missionary service.
Our children may not choose to follow our dreams for themselves. But God certainly has a place for each one of them in the service of His kingdom. The question is, will we let them go with our blessing or will try and hold them back. You may want your son or daughter to be a missionary but God may want him or her to be a teacher. You may want your son or daughter to be a teacher or a lawyer or some other very significant career in life but God may call him or her to do something else.
The fact is that whatever our children do, they can do it as unto the Lord and can serve Him in whatever they do. The challenge for us is to do our part in preparing them for the world and the work and then to let them go and trust that they are following the Lord in obedience and that God is sovereignty working in their life.
CONCLUSION:
In his book The Quest for Character, Chuck Swindoll offers some practical advise that none of us should follow and I'll tell you why. He offers 12 steps on How to Train Your Child to be a Delinquent.
Parenting is probably one of the greatest challenges that anyone could ever face and accept. There are so many risks involved - and there are no guarantees that we will do it right everytime. We hope to learn from our mistakes and trust that God will use us, and yes, even our mistakes, to accomplish His purpose in the lives of these ones He has placed in our care. We must never think we can do it apart from His power and grace. And we must never think that we can do it by leaning on our own understanding.Hopefully we are a people who have and will accept the challenge and responsibility of parenting that God has placed before us. And by His grace and power we will persevere in that challenge regardless of the world of evil that we live.