Good morning,
I have probably said much of what I will say in this email before, but I believe it bears repeating. This Sunday is Mother’s Day. Since becoming a pastor, I have always tried to strike the right balance between honoring and celebrating moms and acknowledging that Mother’s Day is a complicated day for many ladies. How do we, as a church, celebrate Mother’s Day and honor moms while at the same time extending care and compassion to those for whom the day is difficult? It’s a tough balancing act, that is for sure!
I think we can begin by recognizing that the gift of motherhood is both a great blessing and a great calling from God. Psalm 127:3 says that “children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.” Children are a heritage and a reward…they are a blessing, although I know that every home has those days when “blessing” seems a bit generous! But with that great blessing does come a great calling. Parenting is not for the fainthearted…it is tough stuff. I believe that’s one of the reasons why God repeatedly calls on us to honor our father and our mother…God knows what tremendous responsibility being a mom or a dad is!
And so, because of this great blessing and great calling that God has for moms, we should definitely follow the counsel of Proverbs 23:25, which says:
Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice!
Moms, I hope that on Sunday you will be able to rejoice in your motherhood and that you will feel honored. And for those moms who can’t join us, let’s reach out to each other by phone, text, or email to rejoice and celebrate moms.
But what can the church offer, then, to those for whom Sunday will be a difficult day? Well, I think we begin by proclaiming the truth that a woman’s inherent worth and value does not come from being a mother, but from being a child of God. John 1:12 promises that:
to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
John repeats this same wonderful truth in 1 John 3:1:
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
Now, this is a wonderful truth for all believers, so it is certainly one that we would do well to both proclaim and remember on Mother’s Day. Those ladies who desire to be moms but that just hasn’t been God’s will for their lives need to hear from us and be encouraged that they have great value and worth…not just to our church family, but to God’s family.
I also want to encourage you to be willing to walk alongside those whose children have strayed from God’s path. Most of us are familiar with Proverbs 22:6:
Train up a child in the way that he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it.
I’ve preached on it many times over my years in ministry. For more than a few parents, however, Proverbs 22:6 is a hammer that crushes them…the parental guilt is overwhelming for them.
The church needs to be a place where we walk alongside those folks…not stand in judgement of them. Again, I’ve said this before but it bears repeating: a wayward child is not necessarily the sign of poor parenting nor a faithful child necessarily the sign of good parenting. Ultimately, our children have to choose to be within the will of God for their lives.
So how do we walk alongside those moms with prodigal children on Sunday? Call. Text. Email. Ask how their child is doing, but don’t pry for details. Acknowledge how much they love their child. Acknowledge the difficulty of the situation. Encourage them to keep communication lines as open as they can. Reassure them that God loves their child very much and remind them of the hope that their child will one day return to God’s path that has been very clearly marked by them. Pray with them and for them.
My hope is that we can strike that balance of celebration and compassion on Sunday.
Here’s what’s happening:
- This Saturday is the Senior Luncheon hosted by our Junior Youth. Lunch is served at noon at the church.
- Senior High Youth will join the adults in the sanctuary for Sunday School for at least the next couple of weeks.
- My thanks to our faithful kitchen committee…they have been putting in a lot of hours over the past few weeks.
- Men’s Breakfast is set for Saturday, May 28 at 8 am at Hometown Kitchen.
- From Dolly Thomas – “My grandson Joey and I would like to thank the congregation for all the loving support, cards, flowers, & food for my son Joe’s service. We appreciated everything! We are blessed to have such a great place to worship!”
Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned that our Colossians sermon series was going to be a short one?
Yeah….about that.
Paul’s instruction for relationships within Christian homes in Colossians 3:18 – 4:1 is just so important for us to understand that I can’t adequately address it all in a week (or two). So, this week we are going to look at Colossians 3:1-17 as we see what are the qualities that God wants us to have (and not have) as we live, work, serve and worship with each other.
Here’s the schedule for the next few weeks:
May 21 – Colossians 3:18 (Godly Wives)
May 28 – Colossians 3:19 (Godly Husbands)
June 4 – Colossians 3:21-22 (Godly Parents and Godly Children)
June 11 – Colossians 3:23-4:1 (Godly Workers and Godly Employers)
I share this with you NOT so you know what Sunday’s to avoid! It’s so if you know of someone who is struggling in one of these areas (or could just use some encouragement) you can invite them to join you at the Bridge!
See you on Sunday,
Scott