~ 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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