Treasures of a Mother’s Heart

Luke 2:15-19 And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. 16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. 17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. 18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

Luke 2:19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.  NIV

Just in case you’re wondering whether I got my seasons mixed up, I know this is Mother’s Day not Christmas Day. There is no law, however, against using part of a story that has applications for every season of the year.

Yes this is Mother’s Day. I think I could get an amen out of everyone in the building that motherhood is the most underappreciated, underpaid, overworked and overloaded role that a woman can have in our century or any other.

What’s a mom worth?

According to one new report, $138,095 a year.

That’s the figure in a report by Salary.com, which calculates the wages that would have been paid a stay-at-home mom in 2007 if she were compensated for all the elements of her “job.” That total is up 3% from 2006’s salary of $134,121.

Moms who have jobs outside the house would earn another $85,939 for their mothering work, beyond what they bring home in existing salary.

The job descriptions that Salary.com used to determine a mom’s salary includes 10 jobs that moms do on an average day: housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, CEO and psychologist.

In calculating a mom’s wages, Salary.com looked at the “overtime” that both working and stay-at-home moms put in each week.

“Mom works multiple jobs and rarely gets a break from the action, working an average of 52 hours of overtime,” said Bill Coleman, senior vice president at Salary.com, in a statement.

According to the Salary.com survey, stay-at-home moms work a 92-hour week, with more than half the workweek spent in overtime.

Working moms, meanwhile, logged more than nine hours of “overtime,” with an average 49-hour “mom” work week — on top of their full-time paying jobs.

For the Salary.com survey, more than 40,000 moms quantified their hours per job description; Salary.com benchmarked the median salaries for each job to the national median salary for each position as reported by employers.

The final salary was calculated by weighting the salaries and hours worked in each role.

I am glad that moms don’t go on strike for higher wages. If they did, the world would come to a grinding halt. No, this won’t happen because mothers would—and have—done their job whether they got paid or not. Why?

Because there is an intangible, invisible, priceless value that mothers understand about who they are and what they do. It is more than money. It is not even fully captured in the concept of love. There is a driving force called faith, an indomitable imperative that fuels their fire and keeps them going day after grueling day, year after every exasperating year. It goes beyond motherhood. The treasures of a mother’s heart enriches and educates the world.

None of us would have made it without a mother who fed us, clothed us, changed us, rocked us, burped us and cuddled us as babies…and then protected us, bandaged us, tutored us, prodded us, scolded us and hugged us as adolescents. Now, she counsels us, prays for us, believes in us…and tries to turn us over to God when we do stupid things… but she keeps taking us back from God’s total care so she can worry about us some more…and God understands because he made mothers to be that way.

I want you to look at Mary as a mother. It is true that she was a special vessel chosen by God for the greatest event ever recorded in human history—the incarnation. The qualities that set her apart from the thousands of other Jewish maidens may have been beyond reach for the rest. She met the requirements for the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14:

“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Mary. Maria. Marion. Miriam. The name has many forms, but the root, mar, in the ancient Egyptian language very possibly meant to love. Since this name adorned the woman who gave birth to Jesus, it has been immortalized in subsequent history. At least twelve queens have claimed the name of Mary, along with four ships, one state, countless actresses, vocalists, artists, movies, books…and a cocktail. We have no basis in scripture to worship Mary as Queen of heaven, or god-like, but there was a quality about her that tugs at the hearts of all of us.

But the fascinating mystery of the mind of God is how—through one person—he can bridge the raging river between that which is unique and that which is common. His divine genius enabled him to serve the needs of the unredeemed masses with an untouched maiden and yet meet the human needs of the redeemed throngs with the same fifteen-year-old girl.

Mary pondered the treasures of her heart.

• Why did the angel visit her?
• Why was she with child before her marriage to Joseph was consummated?
• Why was she given the name of the child?
• Why did the shepherds come the night of the birth and worship the baby?
• Why did an angelic host sing in the heavens?

All of these strange and mysterious events were outside the normal range of experiences. Mary could not share them with other women her age because they simply wouldn’t understand. Joseph was a good and honorable man, but he lacked insight into the heart of a woman. She pondered alone. She prayed alone. She believed alone.

Mary pondered these things in her heart. Evidently, she knew that there were some things worth pondering. Did she know that she had the weight of the world on her shoulders? Did she know that her baby was sent to earth on a divine mission? Did she sense that her role as his mother would be critical to that mission?

I believe the secret to Mary’s success was that she had a mother’s heart.

• A mother knows how to hang on to hope.
• A mother knows how to work her way out of life’s tangles.
• A mother knows how to mend broken hearts.
• A mother knows how to balance aggressive discipline with encouraging love.

This is not just a message about mothers. This is a message from mothers to all of us.

A mother knows how to hang on to hope.

I have seen mothers in this church deal with some of life’s most excruciating problems and never throw in the towel. When babies contracted disease, when physical conditions deteriorated beyond the doctor’s expertise, when relationships broke apart and threatened the emotional stability of the home—in spite of all these negative situations and more, they did not give up hope.

Sometimes, mothers have had to exchange the hope they had in this life for the hope they have in the next, but they NEVER GAVE UP!.

I am preaching to someone today who cannot see past the discouragements of the present. You justify your doubt by pointing to all the unrewarded patience you had in the past. You say it is time to let go and get on with your life, even if you have to let go of God. You say you cannot bear one more day of dashed hopes and bitter failures.

If so, you’ve just described the reason for Abraham and Sarah to throw away their faith. You’ve just given Moses’ mother reason to stop building the little floating cradle. You’ve just snatched Joseph’s dreams from him; You have impugned Noah’s perseverance in constructing the ark;  You have undermined the sacred stories of Hebrews 11 heroes of faith. Tell the importunate woman to give up on getting an answer from the unjust judge; tell blind Bartimaeus to stop screaming for Jesus to come and heal him; tell the men who tore a hole in the roof to let the paralytic come before Jesus to abandon their mission.

No! It is not time to give up your hope. It is time for you to hang on! Hang on regardless of the cuts and bruises, the injuries and scrapes. the calluses and bruised egos. Remember, without faith it is impossible to please him!

A mother knows how to work her way out of life’s tangles.

I have seen mothers in this church in the middle of relationship snarls, financial disasters and personal tragedies who somehow found their way out of the maze. How did they do it? They prayed, fasted, read the Bible, kept coming to church, stayed involved and plugged in. They knew that their faithfulness would find an open door at the right time…then another…then another, until they saw the light of day.

It is extremely important for us to see how Satan works to destroy our souls. Rarely does he succeed in orchestrating the major disaster that takes someone down in one fell swoop. More than likely, he buries us beneath an avalanche of bits and pieces of unrelated stuff. It’s the flat tire on the way home from a bad job interview with two dollars in your pocket, no cell phone and no spare…and it’s raining cats and dogs. It’s the phone ringing and the baby screaming and the unpaid bills stacking up…right by the trash that didn’t get taken out. It’s the spilled milk on the freshly cleaned carpet, the broken water pipes and the baby sitter’s cancellation…and the grass that didn’t get mowed. These are the really dangerous times…the times that try women’s souls and men don’t have a clue.

The tangles cannot choke you if you let the word and the Spirit lead you.

1 Cor 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

God knows how to lead Moses and the children of Israel over the Red Sea. God knows how to conquer the walled city of Jericho. God knows how to save Mordecai from the gallows and the Hebrews from massacre. God knows how to rescue Peter from prison and preserve Paul and Silas from execution.

A mother knows how to balance aggressive discipline with encouraging love.

Then there was the mother who said, “I love to give homemade gifts. Which one of my children would you like to have?”

Of all the responsibilities God laid on the soft shoulders of motherhood, balancing discipline with encouraging love is the most difficult, by far. If you don’t think it’s hard, consider that whole departments in arts and science colleges are built around this one item. They give it names like behavior modification and operant training, and you can get a doctorate in child psychology and scores of other degrees in the same field.

But mothers know all about the real art of raising kids. It’s about when to say yes and when to say no. It’s about when to say now and when to say later…or never. It’s about breaking a child’s will without breaking his or her spirit. It’s about when to blow up and when to stay calm. It’s about when to hold on and when to let go.

Mother’s Creed

If a kid lives with love
He learns to forgive.
If a kid lives with high self esteem
He learns to be confident.
If a kid lives with confidence
He learns to be responsible.
If a kid lives with sadness
He learns to hate.
If a kid lives with acceptance
He learns to like everybody.
If a kid lives with his Mom’s love
He learns to love the world.

Signature: Lydia CHRABIEH

Discipline without love is like plowing without planting. I want to encourage you today that testing and trials you face are not forever. You can count on God’s overwhelming love as the force behind it all.

A mother knows how to mend broken hearts.

Currently there are over 16,355 homeless kids in Orange County. Homeless kids on the streets of America represent the largest growing population of homeless at twenty-seven percent. One of the richest counties in the state, it seems strange that most of these kids receive no assistance other than the occasional kindness of strangers. They wander the streets helpless, with no hope for the future. Most people they pass by won’t even make eye contact with them. People look around them; they are invisible or worse, detested.

These homeless kids are often called Throw-Away Kids because many of their parents do not care where they are or what they do. They wander the streets looking for others of their kind. Friends never seem to be in short supply.  Many times their parents are drug addicts, or they come from a home where they were either physically or sexually abused.

One boy named Robert is kicked out of his house every morning and told by his mother, a short, haggard looking loud-mouthed woman who is addicted to methamphetamine, not to come home until after dark. Robert is a small 14-year-old boy weighing about 90 pounds. He has blonde hair and his two front teeth are cracked with one shorter than the other. He smokes pot and drinks every day as he rides his stolen bicycle from place to place to meet with friends around the city. When he is met by Fullerton Police late at night, he is simply told to go home. He typically sprouts some quick bursts of profanity and speeds off into the darkness to some unknown destination.  “I’d rather be about anywhere than home,” Robert said.

Barbara Johnson, author of “Boomerang Joy” says “A mother knows how to mend a wounded heart…because ours has been broken several times.”

Real mothers can teach us something about mending broken hearts and lives. Regardless of how deep the wound, or how mangled the body, or how dark the soul, they possess an innate desire to fix it. 

Galatians 6:1-2 says, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” KJV

The Great Physician stands ready today to administer love, joy, peace and strength to you. Your answer is not to resist him but to submit to his will. Acts 2:38 supplies the pattern: Repent so your sins can be forgiven. Be baptized in Jesus’ name so your sins can be remitted. Receive the Holy Ghost so you can have the power of God in your life.

These are the treasures of a mother’s heart…and the treasures of the kingdom!