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my incredible mom



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

She was the first to teach me about God and to take me to church.  She was the glue that held our family together.  I remember watching her kind ways, experiencing her compassion and seeing her love.  We had our family struggles, yet I very well remember the strength of my parents even in the storms of life.  I am grateful.

Most of you know that my mom has been struggling the last few months after she broke her ankle.  It has been a very tough time that is not getting much better.  In fact today she is to move in to a long-term care facility because her ankle is not healing the way her caregivers had hoped.  Please continue to pray for her.  It is hard to be so far away.  But she is my mom. 

Another excellent picture of God comes from my wife and even my mother in law.  You have to realize that we would not be here without our moms.  Wait, not only is that true, but we would not be who we are without our mothers.

That is why I have turned in the Old Testament to a passage that reminds me of the place in our homes that God holds.  Through these verses, the ones we are about to read, I can vividly remember my mother responding to God, leading our family and teaching my brothers and I to do the same.

“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Rooted in the law of the Old Testament we find God turning our attention to the first institution that He created, the family.  Anchored in that family would be a mom who loves God and loves her family.

Notice the commitment it takes to raise a family, then and now.  Godly mothers are so needed.  And today I challenge you ladies to rise to the occasion, to love and guide your children but to also love God more than you love anyone or anything else.

I also challenge husbands and children to bless those special ladies in your life.  They make us stronger.  They often present challenges, but God can and will use those challenges to make us stronger.  Life is fuller, richer and better with these special ladies.

What did my mom teach me?  Here are just a few of the things that stick out to me:

She taught me to learn real love.  That is first in loving God and then in loving others.  My mom did this very well.  In fact these verse said that loving is a command from God.  We are most like Him when we love others!

Romans 13:8  NASB
Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

God’s love portrayed in my mom, and other moms, is the unconditional love is like God.  Love takes us further than we can go on our own.  Literally our LIMITLESS God teaches us of love.  That love is like this:

(LOVE) bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Another way my mom taught me is in her commitment to right living.  That means a commitment to live by and share the truth.  Trust is best known by our connection to God.  Also realize that there are consequences for not following truth, consequences both inside and outside of our homes.

John 14:6  NASB
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Truth is a person.  Jesus is truth.  When we follow with all your heart, this truth and Jesus are best seen.  My mom did this for me as well.  Great people, like my mom, guide us to truth and a better life.  The best example of our LIMITLESS God was and is following Jesus.

Another thing my mom did was to teach us.  A great mom is committed to teaching in our homes.  These verses implore us to repeat these things to your children when you are at home, when you are on the go as well as when we are on the way to bed or when we get up in the morning.

Often the most influential things are those we think about as we go to sleep or the things that we wake up sleeping about.  That is why our moms are a vital part of what children go to bed with.  Maybe that is with prayer or sweet words.

We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,

Moms fight battles for their kids.  This could be the battle of monsters under the bed or in the closet or fears out in the world or hard relationships that our children go through.  Through my mom our LIMITLESS God was and is always teaching us.  That is one of the reasons we need to put the truth of Scripture all around our lives.  Put them on sticky notes, memorize them, read the Bible and other creative way.

Psalm 119:11  NASB
Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.

That verse has a negative side as well as a positive.  The word will not only keep us from wrong but points us in the direction and paves the path of what is right.  We follow what we treasure.  Treasure the right stuff.  What you see you become like.

I am so glad and honored and blessed to have been given the gift of my incredible mom, Judy Harrison.  My life is on the track it is on because people from several places, including my mom, poured in to my life.

May God bless us and use us to bless and guide others as our mothers did for us.  This might be a bit belated, but … Happy Mother’s Day to each of you AND to my mom!  I love you!

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