Rev. David Holwick B Mother's Day
Boothbay Baptist Church
Boothbay, Maine
May 9, 2021
Proverbs 31:10-31
WHAT'S A MOM WORTH?
I. Mother's day is an expensive holiday.
A. Gifts are in order.
1) I was shopping at Costco in New Hampshire this week and saw
a large container of Peanut M&Ms.
I called Celeste back in Boothbay and asked if I should get
it. I need permission for purchases like that.
She said, "Sure, it can be my Mother's Day gift."
That container is already half-empty and she hasn't had a
single one.
2) The most lavish thing about her Mothers' Day will be the
meal she has tonight, which she has to cook.
B. Are moms worth it?
1) It is a very loaded question.
2) The website Salary.com analyzed the 10 most time consuming
tasks listed by more than 6,000 mothers, and estimated
their mothering took 94 hours a week.
They calculated it would cost $113,586 a year to get
someone else to do all this.
Yet one out of 10 women value their own housework at just
$10,000 a year. [1]
3) In our current economic crisis, some have come up with a
solution.
They call it "The Marshall Plan for Moms."
The original Marshall Plan gave financial aid to countries
in Europe after World War II and was a huge success.
The Marshall Plan for Moms asks President Biden to make
mothers Essential Workers.
And then issue them $2,400 each month for the unpaid labor
they do.
What do you moms think about that? [2]
C. The Bible gives its own answer - moms have very high value.
1) It doesn't put a dollar amount on their labor.
2) It just says they are worth more than rubies [or jewels].
In 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland, a 25.59-carat blood-red
Burmese ruby ring sold for $30,335,698. [3]
So do you moms want $2,400 a month, or $30 million up front?
II. There is one small catch.
A. The Bible adds an important qualifier.
1) Only mothers of noble character are worth this much.
2) What is noble character? Proverbs 31 lays it out.
B. A unique section of Proverbs.
1) Most proverbs are short, pithy sayings.
2) This section is a long acrostic poem.
a) Each line begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
3) More remarkable than the structure is the content.
a) All of the facets of a woman's life are laid out.
b) I would like us to dig deeper into these qualities.
1> (Hint: they don't just apply to moms...)
III. A noble mom excels in relationships.
A. With her husband.
1) There is an old saying: "Behind every successful man is a
good woman."
The corollary is also true: Behind every strong woman is
a decent man.
a) Not every mom is a wife, and not every wife is a mom.
b) But it is easier to be a super-mom if you have someone
supporting you.
2) She is a positive force in his life.
3) He is assumed to be a leader in the community (v. 23 says he
sits at the gates) and she is just as respected.
a) Because of her, he has confidence and lacks nothing.
b) Husbands, if you want to get ahead in life, honor your
wives!
B. With her children.
1) She sees that they get the best.
Verse 15 - she provides food for them.
Verse 21 - All her household are clothed in scarlet (in
other words, nice clothes).
a) This takes a lot of time.
In England, they calculated that women with small
children devote 50 hours a week to child-care alone.
b) It also involves a lot of dirty work.
James Dobson tells the story of one family.
It was January 1992, 1 a.m.
One very tired Mom heard a cough.
She bolted from her sleep to a standing, running position,
and with one leap made it to the bathroom.
She flipped on the light to find her 6-year-old daughter
Sarah sitting on the edge of the tub.
Stuff from her tummy was all over the floor, the lid of
the toilet and all over herself.
The mom proceeded to clean the floor and surrounding areas,
then placed Sarah into the tub to wash down.
As she turned on the shower, Sarah said with a wrinkled nose,
"Mom! I threw up on Collette too!"
Collette is her 9-year-old sister who happens to share the
bed.
Mom closed the shower curtain and ran to see.
She met Collette in the hallway and was informed that Sarah
had thrown up on her.
Mom turned on the bedroom light and beheld the dreaded sight
of Sarah's dinner on 5 blankets, 2 pillows, 2 sheets,
a baby blanket and Collette's pajamas.
She bundled it all onto the bottom sheet and placed it at
the back door.
She put fresh bedding on the bed and placed a bucket beside
Sarah.
She then crawled back into her own bed at which time her
well-covered, half-asleep husband asked, "WHAT'S WRONG?"!
#4260
2) She gives her family faithful instruction.
Verse 26 - "She opens her mouth with wisdom
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue."
a) Moms have always been the most important source of
wisdom for children.
b) They spend the most time with their children, and
answer most of the questions.
c) Do you have a good enough handle on life to be able to
give helpful answers?
1> And especially, considering the current climate,
answers that emphasize kindness?
3) Spiritual instruction may be the most critical.
How one woman did this.
Susanna Wesley lived in the 1700s and had 19 children.
Among them were John Wesley, the founder of the
Methodist Church, and Charles Wesley, the writer of
great hymns like "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing."
Susanna was determined that her children would know and
love Christ.
With each child she reserved a specific day and time
each week to sit and discuss matters of God and things
on their hearts.
They cherished it so much some of them continued it into
adulthood, through letters.
John Wesley once asked his mom for a definition for sin
and received a response worthy of a theology textbook:
"Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of
your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes
off your relish of spiritual things; in short,
whatever increases the strength and authority of your
body over your mind, that thing is sin to you,
however innocent it may be in itself."
There was a time when her husband was off preaching and
their church had a guest preacher for that period.
This guy preached the same theme each week - don't get
into debt. It was very tedious.
Susanna decided to go to her house and read sermons to
her kids.
Others soon joined them and they ended up with 200 people
each week!
#28524
IV. She excels in industriousness.
A. Amazingly, this biblical super-mom doesn't stay at home.
1) She has business interests all over the place.
a) She is a real estate agent.
Verse 16 - "She considers a field and buys it"
b) She is a farmer. (vineyard)
Verse 16 goes on,
"with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard."
c) She manufactures clothes.
She gets wool and flax in verse 13.
She turns it into thread in verse 19.
She makes clothes and bedspreads in verses 21 and 22.
d) She is an entrepreneur. 31:18
In verse 18, she gets a profit from her merchandise.
Verse 24 shows it is the extra clothes she has made.
e) There can be many advantages in being a stay-at-home
mom, but having kids and a career is not unbiblical.
1> You just have to be disciplined with your time and
priorities.
2) It takes a lot of time: her day runs from dawn to dusk.
Verse 15 - she rises while it is still dark.
Verse 18 - she keeps working past sunset.
B. Not much has changed.
In the Third World, women in Tanzania, Africa, spend 4 hours
each day carrying water.
The task consumes between 12% and 27% of her daily calories.
In rural Mexico, a woman spends 4-6 hours a day grinding grain.
In Indonesia, women spend 3 hours a day just preparing meals.
In the rich world, Australian women do between 50 and 80 hours
of housework each week.
One survey in the United States put the figure even higher, at
almost 100 hours a week.
#26614
1) What kind of credit do they get for all this hard work?
They get a nice phone call and maybe some flowers on this
special day!
2) Some think attitudes are improving around the world.
Several years before the first Gulf War, Barbara Walters
did a story on gender roles in Kuwait.
She observed that women traditionally walked about 10 feet
behind their husbands.
After their war she returned and discovered the women were
now in front and the men followed behind.
Always the investigator, Walters approached a woman on the
street.
"This is marvelous!" Walters said. "What enabled women
here to achieve this reversal of roles?"
The woman replied, "Land mines!"
#5560
[I should note that I do all the dishwashing in the Holwick
household, so I am carrying my weight...]
V. She excels in godliness.
A. Godly values: her heart has compassion for the poor. 31:20
1) She was running a massive household operation but still
considered the needs of those less fortunate.
2) We are often challenged in this area.
a) We may think, they are poor because they are not working
as hard as I am, or they have made bad choices.
b) These things may actually be true. But the Bible still
calls us to help people and try to raise them up.
c) Godly women do this.
3) "Raymond" star Patricia Heaton found the power of helping:
Patricia Heaton became very well-known playing the wife on
"Everybody Loves Raymond."
She grew up Catholic but became bitter with God after her
mother died.
Ironically, it was in Hollywood that she reconnected with God.
She had her epiphany while on a church mission trip to Mexico.
They laid a sewer pipe and played with orphaned children.
Back at home, Patricia says she felt something she hadn't felt
in her past years of struggle - peace.
The weekend trip had changed something inside her.
She had been involved in something that wasn't about her.
She is now a member of an evangelical Presbyterian church.
Patricia says, "If you give your life to God, he doesn't
promise you happiness and that everything will go well.
But he does promise you peace.
You can have peace and joy, even in bad circumstances."
Heaton wants her own children to know that peace.
She says, "More than anything, I want my children to have a
personal, daily relationship with the Lord.
We read Bible stories, and I try to introduce Jesus into the
conversation as much as possible to make it a part of their
thinking - a God-and-Christ consciousness."
#26819
B. Godly perspective.
1) Verse 30 - the only thing she fears is God.
a) The fear of the Lord is a major theme in the book of
Proverbs.
b) It is not a cringing terror at what God can do to you.
c) Instead, it is a daily acknowledge that God is in
control and we must obey him and trust him.
2) What is your personal relationship with God?
a) Earlier, I mentioned Susanna Wesley.
She spent a great deal of time focusing on her
children's spiritual welfare.
But she wasn't always that sure of her own salvation.
Shortly before she died, she had a long talk with her
son John.
She admitted to him that she labored with doubt and
confusion in regards to her own salvation.
She had scarcely ever heard that forgiveness of sins
was something offered in the present.
You had to die to find out whether you were forgiven
or not.
Even so, she told him that one day she found herself
suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of peace.
Susanna had been taking communion and the pastor
announced, "The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which was given for you."
The words pierced her heart. She realized God, for the
sake of his son Jesus, had forgiven her all her sins.
This made such an impression on her family they engraved
it on her tombstone.
#28524
b) Do you have the assurance your sins are forgiven?
1> Salvation is not just a future hope but can be a
present possession.
2> Jesus has paid the price in full.
3> You cannot be good enough or holy enough to save
yourself - only Jesus can do it for you.
A> Confess your failings to him and ask him to
forgive and save you.
B> Then accept his promise and thank him.
C. We live in an age where there is no settled truth or values.
1) We are terrified by changes in the climate, ravages
of pandemics and economic meltdown.
a) (Maybe we are not concerned about economic meltdown
- but we should be.)
2) If you are a Christian, you should know what is true,
where we are headed, and who is in control.
3) Therefore, as verse 25 says, "She laughs at the time to
come."
D. Superficial things like charm and beauty will fade.
1) Sure, you can get Botox and facelifts and dye your hair
orange, but time will still roll on.
2) Only our faith lasts forever.
3) Do you have that kind of deep faith?
4) Are you passing on your spiritual and moral values to your
kids?
VI. Give her the praise she deserves.
A. All in her household call her blessed.
B. You should tell her she's the best of them all. 31:29
===========================================================================
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
This sermon was adapted from one I originally preached on May 9, 2004.
[1] “Here’s How Much It Would Cost To Replace Your Mom,” by Mandi Woodruff,
<https://www.businessinsider.com/value-of-stay-at-home-moms-2013-5>,
May 8, 2013.
[2] “Should mothers get a monthly $2,400 stimulus check? ‘The Marshall Plan
for Moms’ is making waves,” by Erin Delmore, <link>, February 4, 2021.
[3] “This 'pigeon blood' ruby sold for a record $30 million,” AFP, <link>,
May 13, 2015.
# 4260 "Who Has To Clean Up The Vomit?" by James Dobson, contributed by
Rev. Glenn Gunderson of First Baptist Church in Pomona,
California, 1998.
# 5560 “Reversing Gender Roles,” Rev. John Gillmartin, Gillmartin's
Sermon-illustrations-each-week (SIEW), May 29, 2000.
#26614 "Housework - The Facts," in New Internationalist, issue 181,
March 1988; http://www.newint.org/issue181/facts.htm.
#26819 "How Everybody Loves Raymond's Patricia Heaton Keeps The Faith," by
Dan Ewald, edited by David Holwick, www.christianitytoday.com;
Christian Reader, Jan/Feb 2004, page 18.
#28524 “Susanna Wesley: A Faith Unobscured,” by Jill Carattini, A Slice
of Infinity: Ravi Zacharias International Ministries;
http://rzim.org/a-slice-of-infinity/, November 3, 2004.
These and 25,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html.html
===========================================================================
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
Created with the Freeware Edition of HelpNDoc: Full featured Documentation generator