1Samuel 1:9-12A
What A Mom Needs to Do

What does a mom need to do to rear good children?  Even more, what does she need
to do to rear godly children?  Everyone from the child psychologist to the man or
woman who has abandoned their children across three or four marriages has an
opinion.

May I share with you some principals from the Bible?  After all, our children are
too precious to experiment with, are they not?  Since they only get one childhood
and that childhood will determine their course in life, should we not base our
parenting on methods which have proven for hundreds, even thousands of years?  I
think so.

Now, let me say upfront that nobody, except Jesus, is perfect.  No mother or
father gets it right all the time.  But, by the grace of God, we can learn from
our mistakes and start doing better.  This morning, let’s learn some things that
we can start doing better this afternoon.

What does a mom need to do to be a successful mother?

    I. A mom needs to pray.
        A. Hannah was a woman who prayed.
            1. You might remember that Hannah could not conceive children.  To
                make things worse, in those days men often took two wives and
                the second wife really picked at Hannah over that fact.
            2. So Hannah decided to take her matter before the Lord.  She prayed
                and asked God for a miracle, and God gave it to her.
        B. Hannah illustrates that the greatest asset a mother has is God!
            1. We serve a God who cares.
            2. We serve a God who gets involved in our lives.
            3. We serve a God who can do anything.
        C. What kinds of things should you pray about?
            1. Little girls ought to already be praying for their husbands.
                a. Prayer is not just something you start when you have a need.
                    Prayer is something you do so that you won’t have the need.
                b. If you are any age at all, chances are your husband is already
                    alive and kicking somewhere.
                c. Pray him into a man of God.
                    (1) Pray and ask God to save your husband-to-be.
                    (2) Pray and ask God to make your husband-to-be a man who
                         will love you.
                    (3) Pray and ask God to make your husband-to-be a man who will
                         love God.
                    (4) Pray and ask God to keep your husband-to-be pure.
                    (5) Pray and ask God to make your husband-to-be a godly father
                         to your children.
                    (6) Pray and ask God to give your husband-to-be a good day.
                d. Once you get married, keep praying for your husband.
                    (1) Pray for his wisdom.
                    (2) Pray for his work.
                    (3) Pray for his walk with God.
            2. Pray your children into existence.
                a. That is literally what Hannah did. This is a woman who would
                    have never been a mother if she had not prayed.
                b. Ask God to shape your child as He would have your child
                    to be shaped.
                    (1) Ask God to give your child the temperament that He would
                         have.
                    (2) Ask God to save your children at an early age.
                    (3) Ask God to give your child the godly values that only He
                         can impart to them.
                    (4) Ask God to give your children godly mates.
            3. Pray for a hospitable world for your child to grow in.
                a. The world has become a more wicked place while at the same
                    time becoming a more accessible place.
                    (1) Things that were once wrong are now deemed acceptable if
                         not out right good for you.
                    (2) That is just the nature of the world.
                b. However, the danger to our children is that all of the evil is
                    so easily accessible now.
                    (1) For the last 10 to 15 years, some have been urging
                         Christians to put filters on their computers because
                         of all the wickedness out there.
                    (2) bad music, porn, gambling, predators
                    (3) But now, most every child in America can get to these
                         things on their private cell phone!
                    (4) Pray for the temptations that your children will face.
                c. One of the most difficult battlefields for a child has become
                    the classroom.
                    (1) I believe in education, but many educational systems are
                         indoctrinating our children with anti-God beliefs.
                    (2) Some of them say that sex is alright. In fact, they have
                         classes on it in school, give them birth control devices,
                         and sometimes take them to have an abortion without ever
                         consulting with the parents.
                    (3) Evolution is the science of modern-day education, even
                         though the whole premise of evolution is based on the
                         know-to-be-false theory that life can generate from
                         nothing.
                    (4) Homosexuality is taught as an alternate lifestyle.
                    (5) I am trying to preach an anti-education message, but I am
                         trying to point out that your children are living in a
                         world that is hostile to Christianity.
                    (6) Children need momma’s prayers more than ever before for
                         there is an on-going battle for their minds and, for most
                         children, the battlefield is the school.
                    (7) Pray for you children in school.
                d. Today, the wall of separation between church and state is being
                    eroded.
                    (1) Since 9/11, the government has been promoting the Muslim
                         religion.
                    (2) Why?  Because the liberals control most things today and
                         liberals honestly believe that the reason we had a 9/11
                         was because Americans don’t understand Muslims.
                    (3) They believe that we, in our ignorance, offended the
                         Muslims.
                    (4) Pray for the country that you live in.
                e. Pray that God will turn this world back to a wiser mind-set.
        D. Momma, pray for your children.
            1. Pray for their salvation.
            2. Pray for their dedication to Christ.
            3. Pray for their preservation in the world.
            4. Don't just pray for your children, let me see you pray for them.    
                a. Kids see their mothers do everything from laugh to leave.
                b. What they see today will become tomorrow’s memories.
                c. They need to see their mothers pray today so that they
                    remember that image in years to come.

   II. A mom needs to prepare.
        A. Most people who read the Bible know Timothy was a man of God.
            1. What they might not know is that Timothy was a man of God because
                of the preparation of his mother.

2Timothy 1:4  Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may
be filled with joy;
5 When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt
first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in
thee also.

            2. In that verse, Paul says that Timothy received his faith from his
                mother Eunice who in return received it from her mother Lois.
            3. In this statement is a great truth for being a successful mom.
                a. You start preparing your children by first preparing yourself.
                b. The most valuable characteristics that you will implant in your
                    children are not the things that you will TEACH your children
                    but the things that you will TRANSFER to your children.
                c. Lois had a FAITH that she transferred to Eunice.
                    Eunice had a faith that she transferred to Timothy.
            4. If you want to prepare your children for great things, prepare
                yourself first.
                a. Too many parents think that all you have to do to be a good
                    parent is to conceive a child.
                b. Have you ever noticed that most will spend at least 12 years
                    preparing for their career and then only spend a few hours
                    to a few days preparing to be parent?
                c. Your children will be made in your image.
                d. The only difference will be that, whatever your image is,
                    they will likely move a little further from God.
                    (1) What you think is questionable, they will think is right.
                    (2) What you think is right, they will think is old fashioned.
                    (3) What you experimented with will become their habits.
                    (4) What you did in moderation, they will do in excess.
                e. You need to stop and figure where that is going to put them and
                    you need to do it before they get very old.
        B. What kinds of things do mothers need to have so that they can transfer
            them to their children?
            1. Like Lois and Eunice, a mother needs to transfer her faith in
                Christ to her children.
                a. Parents are the most influential force in the lives of their
                    children.  
                b. When it comes to the influence that a Christian parent can
                    have, some would call this influence "brainwashing."  
                c. It is due to that basic premise that, this past January (2011),
                    a New Hampshire judged ruled that a 10 year old girl was "too
                    Christian."  The court acknowledged that, while being home-
                    schooled (which the girls loved) , she was “well liked, social
                    and interactive with her peers, academically promising, and
                    intellectually at or superior to grade level,” but then it
                    ordered her out of the home schooling so that her religious
                    views could be challenged at a government school.
http://usactionnews.com/2011/01/too-christian-10-yr-old-christian-home-schooled-
girl-forced-to-attend-government-run-school/

                d. I agree with the judge up to the place where he understands
                    that a child is influenced at the very foundation by the
                    teachings of the home.
                e. Mom, if you want your children to go to heaven, you need to
                    give them of your own faith while they are young.
            2. Mothers need to transfer a love for Christ to their children.
                a. Here is where having a "professing" salvation defers from
                    having a "possessing" salvation.
                b. I meet people all the time who say they are Christians.  What I
                    don’t often find are people who love Jesus.
                c. Ladies, if there is anything that you should know about love is
                    that words do not mean love, actions do.
                    (1) If you are going to say that you love Jesus, prove it with
                         your actions.
                    (2) Read your Bible, pray, go to church, abstain from wicked
                         vices, speak with a holy language, demonstrate godliness,
                         and kindness, and above all things, walk with God.
            3. Mothers need to transfer their love and faith in the Bible to their
                children.
            4. Mothers need to transfer their love and faith for a godly church to
                their children.
                a. I emphasize there for a GODLY church.
                b. All church are not the same.
                c. Sadly, many today are little more than social networks or
                    activity centers.
                d. These are NOT the primary roles of the church.
                e. The church is to exalt Jesus Christ and to preach the Word.

   III. A mom needs to protect.
         A. The mother being spoken of here is Jochebed, the mother of Moses.

Exodus 2:1  And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a
daughter of Levi.
2  And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a
goodly child, she hid him three months.

            1. Pharaoh had given a command that all the Hebrew children were to be
                thrown into the River Nile.  Amram and Jochebed refused.  Instead,
                they hid Moses for three months and when he was too big to hide,
                they trusted God and placed him in a basket which they sailed down
                river.
            2. Certainly, their lives were at risk for this action.  This mother
                placed the life of her child before her own.
            3. Sadly, such selfishness is a thing seldom seen today.

Mt 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

                a. One of the signs of the end time is that love shall diminish.
                b. Today, mothers and fathers slay their own children.
                c. Many of those not slain are abused and abandoned.
                d. And many of those not abused and abandoned, are left uncared
                   for and unloved.
                e. Many mothers never think enough of their own children to learn
                    to cook a meal for them, to clean the house, or to even stay
                    home with their own children.
                f. Mothers (and fathers), put your children first!  Protect them,
                    love the, nurture them.
        B. But not only enemies announce themselves like Pharaoh did.
            1. There are scores of enemies after your child today.
            2. Drugs, violence, sex, gangs-these are all enemies who have
                pledged themselves to robbing your child of their purity, their
                purpose, their morality and character, their conscience, even of
                 their very lives.
            3. In addition to these, there is spirit of laziness after our
                children.
                a. It seems to be that there a many kids who feel the world owes
                    them.
                b. They don’t want to better themselves, to learn, to get a job.
                c. They just want to eat, drink, and be merry.
        C. Mom, if you don’t protect your children, one or more of these enemies
            will capture and most likely destroy your child.
        D. So how can a mother protect her child?
            1. First, take heed to the things I have already said.
                a. Pray for yourself, your husband, and your child earnestly.
                b. Prepare yourself and transfer to your children these godly
                    characteristics that will make them spiritually strong in
                    life.
            2. Put some barriers up in your child’s life, that is, draw some
                boundaries.
                a. There should be a boundary between things your child can and
                    can not do.
                b. There should be a boundary between things your child can and
                    can not say.
                c. There should be a boundary between actions and behaviors that
                    you will and will not allow your child to do.
                d. There should be a boundary between music, videos, movies, and
                    television that your child can and can not listen to or watch.
                e. There should be a boundary between friends that your child
                    will and will not have.
                f. There should be a boundary between times that your child will
                    and will not be up.
                g. There should be a boundary between attitudes that your child
                    will and will not be allowed to have.
                h. There should be a boundary between your child’s
                    responsibilities and the parents’.
                i. And on the list goes.
                    (1) Everyone used to know the importance and the necessity of
                         boundaries.
                    (2) Somewhere along the way, parents threw them out.
            3. Seek wisdom and truth.

Jas 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men
liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

                a. Even with all the things I have mentioned adhered to, every
                    family and every person has their own unique obstacle course
                    to run.
                b. Every parent needs a direct line with God Himself.

This isn’t the kind of message you finish for the Bible is a wealth of teachings 
and examples that if you will learn them and incorporate them into your life and 
the lives of your children, you will find that being a mother is a most blessed 
event.

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