Lessons from King Lemuel's Mother

As we approach Mother's Day once again, and consider those icons of womanhood which we all hold dear from the earliest of memories, I'm drawn to one of the Bible's clearest teachings on the gender, Proverbs 31.

Many, over the years, have disparaged this passage as idilic, unrealistic, archaic, and the list continues, as it were, ad infinitum. In our home, it is comforting.

I have learned through many trials, and the blood, sweat, and tears of pastoring and planting churches, that honor is won in time and with the aid of much pain and discipline. And as I read again this year, the oracle which King Lemuel's mother taught him, it seems the same to me with motherhood.

From what more iconic post can one begin than this, that all things have seemingly begun with her from the perspective of the newborn child. From birth, she is the center of love and sustaining life; and the honor of children rising up to bless is won over years and decades of loving and sustaining life... and in reality, working against the tides of life that so easily unravel the ones we love, and wearing thin the joints of knees and elbows as the Almighty is begged for the welfare of the loved.

The honors of this life are not won through the straws of fruity drinks on a beach, but through tireless, self-less, exhausting love. These things bring honor which lasts the generations.

I was blessed with a mother who rose early, and worked tirelessly; and I look into the kitchen this morning, as the mother of my children and my generations pours herself into the Holy Scriptures and prays for us all, and I see the oracle of Lemuel's mother come to life.

Truly, it is in being poured out that we are filled. It is in sacrifice that we are made whole, even as by sacrifice our forgiveness was purchased. May the object of our love be true, and the sacrifice of our lives unto only that which is holy.

The Peace of Christ to you this day and always!

John