A Happy Mother’s Day
Ephesians 6:2-3 “Honour your father and mother”— this is the first commandment with a promise: “so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”
All the advertising and hype that surrounds Mother’s Day – well, it’s about soft fluffy slippers, pink dressing gowns, happy, well-adjusted children bouncing in on Mum’s bed on Sunday morning, with the very present that she’s been absolutely longing for. And that’s all great.
But what if your relationship with your mother ain’t all that the advertising industry tells you it should be? What if your relationship with your mother, is a difficult one; a fractured one; a hurtful one?
You know the saying don’t you? You can choose your friends but you can’t choose your relatives.
And that right there, is the starting point for many a mother-daughter or mother-son relationship. There are many, many adults who don’t have a fond memory of their childhood; who don’t have a warm place in their hearts for their mothers. Perhaps your Mum was far from perfect … or maybe you and your mother just clash, with wildly different personalities that just never, really seemed to “click”.
So, in the face of the advertising industry’s soft-pink-fluffy blitz, what, if anything, useful does God have to say to us today about Mother’s Day?
“Honour your father and mother”— this is the first commandment with a promise: “so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” (Ephesians 6:2-3)
Now, that may, on the surface, not appear all that helpful, if your relationship with your mum is far from perfect. But listen up.
Nobody ever gave her a manual on, “How to be a Perfect Mother” … and even if they had, the trials, the uncertainties, the challenges, the fears, the hurts that she had to deal with while raising you – not to mention all your selfishness, immaturity and teenage tantrums – meant that it would have flown out the window pretty much on day one.
As anyone who has ever brought up children will know, child rearing is an incredibly tough gig.
Okay, perhaps you’re one of the many people who doesn’t like their mother as a person. But God’s wisdom has nothing whatsoever to say about liking her. His call for you, today, here and now, is to honour her.
And here’s the kicker in God’s amazing plan for us to honour our parents: the more we start doing this “honour” thing, the more He softens our hearts, and heals our emotions, and brings forgiveness and reconciliation to our hearts.
So his Mother’s Day, cut your mum some slack. Go honour her, the way God wants you to. Who knows the blessing that that might bring.
Honour your father and your mother so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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