Mother’s Responsibilities

~ One Word Job Description: “Love” ~

Overview  ~  The overarching responsibility of mothers is to love their children.  “Admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed” (Titus 2:4-5).

A Key Responsibility  ~  Mothers are to love and nurture their children.  This is accomplished best by creating an environment of support (mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual).  It includes unconditional love which includes providing a challenging environment where there is freedom to grow (including failures) and acceptance. 

“Be imitators of God as dear children.  And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Ephesians 5:1-2).

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  Against such there is no law.  And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-25).

“Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers [siblings], be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing” (1 Peter 3:8-9).

Key Elements  ~  There are a number of key elements essential for achieving this key responsibility.  Consider the following examples:   

Be Constant and Consistent:  “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).

Teach Spiritual Truths:  “For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children; that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments” (Psalm 78:5-7).

“Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life.  And teach them to your children and your grandchildren, especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children’” (Deuteronomy 4:9-10).

Teaching spiritual truths includes ongoing involvement with them throughout the various phases of their childhood.  Help them integrate spiritual truths with their experiences through interacting with them about current events in their lives – helping them think, discuss, and understand the truths related to life.

Developing Strengths:  Each child has different natural abilities and spiritual gifts.  Mom helps them understand, develop, and be comfortable with who they are.  It is wrong for parents to frustrate their children by wanting them to be what they are not!  If your child is naturally gifted in science don’t force them into the arts! 

“Fathers [parents], do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.  And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.  But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.  But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills” (1 Corinthians 12:4-11).

“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.  For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.  Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness” (Romans 12:3-8).

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). 

Correct and Direct:  Parents set and enforce boundaries—with love. 

“He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly” (Proverbs 13:24).  “Chasten your son [child] while there is hope, and do not set your heart on his destruction” (Proverbs 19:18).  ‘Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of correction will drive it far from him” (Proverbs 22:15).  “Do not withhold correction from a child, for if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.  You shall beat him with a rod, and deliver his soul from hell” (Proverbs 23:13-14).  “The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.  When the wicked are multiplied, transgression increases; but the righteous will see their fall.  Correct your son [child], and he will give you rest; yes, he will give delight to your soul” (Proverbs 29:15-17). 

Observe Your Role Model:  God has set the pattern for earthly parents to follow:

“And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son [child], do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.’  If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?  But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.  Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect.  Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?  For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.  Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:5-11).

Be a Role Model:  Young children naturally adore their parents—live in such a way that your positive image does not dissipate as they grow older.  A mom must constantly strive to display the integrity of character which she teaches or her efforts will be hugely diminished.  Godly living is contagious!  Unfortunately children are quick to spot hypocritical behavior. 

“Take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life.  And teach them to your children and your grandchildren” (Deuteronomy 4:9).

“He who walks with integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will become known” (Proverbs 10:9).  “The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them” (Proverbs 11:3). 

Summary  ~  Children are a gift from the Lord.  “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.  Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth.  Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; they shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate” (Psalm 127:3-5).  Parents are God’s stewards of the most precious commodity on earth. 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

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