A MOTHER’S INFLUENCE
INTRO - The young preacher was shocked to hear the well-known evangelist utter the words, "I have spent some of the happiest moments of my life in the arms of another man's wife. Yes, I have spent some of the happiest moments of my life in the arms of another man's wife." Then, following a pause, the evangelist added, "That woman was my mother." "I've got to use that!" the young pastor thought to himself. A few weeks later, as he was speaking to a civic group, the phrase leapt into his mind and he exclaimed, "I have spent some of the happiest days of my life in the arms of another man's wife." Then, after another long pause, the young man muttered meekly, "But for the life of me I can't remember who she was."
Throughout the Bible we find all kinds of mothers, some godly and some not. Mother’s you would gladly call your own, and mothers you wouldn’t want to claim even if they were.
Gn 2:18-23
Gn 3:20
Before the first child had been born, Adam named the first woman “Eve” because she would become the mother of all living. The name “Eve” means “life or living” and fits the idea of motherhood for it is through the woman, that God brings new life into this world and it through the woman that many a child is influenced. - for good or for bad.
Pv 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it. This works for the good and for the bad.
I. MOTHER LIKE DAUGHTER -
A. Jezebel - 1 Kg 16:29-31 - Here a few things we know of Jezebel from what has been recorded in the Bible.
1. A Forceful Character - She used her gifts for furtherance of evil and by so doing she destroyed a king, her offspring and a nation.
2. An Ardent Idolater - Not only did she worship Baal and Ashtaroth, she also housed and fed hundreds of their prophets
3. A Dominating Wife - She became the feared leader in Israel, not her husband
4. A Corrupt Tree - Her offspring, her son’s her daughter followed in her foot steps of evil, both in Israel and in Judea
5. A Treacherous Schemer - She plotted the death of Naboth so as to get his vineyard for her husband
6. A Fateful End - Her end was not pretty for she was thrown out a window and eaten by dogs.
7. Summed up, she could have been called a “she devil” for she was evil to the core. Some mothers are bad but are they as bad a Jezebel? Well, at least one was, one that was influenced by her mother - Jezebel’s daughter Athaliah.
B. Athaliah - 2 Ch 22:10-12 - just like mom. Her story can be found in 2 Ch 22 -24
1. Wicked - While her Mom inflicted Israel, Athaliah married Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat and brought her idolatrous wicked ways to Judah. Like her Mom she was a dominating queen and trained her son Ahaziah in her wickedness.
2. Influential - Eight years after her husband Jehoram took the thrown, God removed him and Ahaziah her son took his place but only for a year. Both were wicked being influenced by Athaliah.
3. Deadly - After Ahaziah died, Athaliah killed her grandsons and all who could take the thrown and ceased it for herself.
4. Idolatrous - During her six year reign she destroyed part of God’s temple to promote and build a temple to Baal
5. Destroyed - When Joash - a legal heir to the thrown who had been in hiding - turned seven, he was crowned king and Athaliah was destroyed much like her mother.
Mothers have a great influence over their children for good or for bad. As a mother one needs to be careful not to be a Jezebel or an Athaliah. Fortunately, not all mothers are so bad, some have positive influences
II. EVEN GRANDMAS - 2 Tm 1:3-5 Mom And Grandma - They are only mentioned by name once in the Bible and as a result we have very little information about them.
1. Of the grandmother Lois, she was more than likely the Eunice’s mother and also a jew and a Christian with a sincere faith.
2. We are told in another passage that the mother was indeed a Jewess and that she was married to a Greek in a mixed marriage which,
3. It appears that this mother - grandmother team had a positive influence on one little boy and very likely trained him up in the scriptures. 2 Tm 3:15
B. A Great Young Man - If you haven’t figured it out yet, the young man that this mother - grandmother team influenced was non other than Timothy. As a result of their influence, Timothy was of great use for God.
1. As A Missionary - Ac 16:1-5.
2. A Messenger
a. 1 Co 4:14-17
b. Pp 2:19-20.
3. An Encourager -1 Th 3:1-3
4. A Teacher - 1 Tm 1:3-5
5. A Martyr - according to old traditions, Timothy continued to act as bishop to the church at Ephesus until he died a martyrs death. Legand says the great festival of Artemis led him to protest against the license and frenzy which accompanied it. The mob were roused to fury, and put him to death with clubs
CONCL. - Mothers continue to have a major influence on their children.
• Theodore Roosevelt said - When all is said, it is the mother, and the mother only, who is a better citizen than the soldier who fights for his country. The successful mother, the mother who does her part in rearing and training aright the boys and girls, who are to be the men and women of the next generation, is of greater use to the community, and occupies, if she only would realize it, a more honorable as well as more important position than any man in it. The mother is the one supreme asset of the national life. She is more important, by far, than the successful statesman, or businessman, or artist, or scientist.
• Winston Churchill - A London editor submitted to Winston Churchill for his approval a list of all those who had been Churchill's teachers. Churchill returned the list with this comment: "You have omitted to mention the greatest of my teachers—my Mother."
• Thomas A. Edison said - I did not have my mother long, but she cast over me an influence which has lasted all my life. The good effects of her early training I can never lose. If it had not been for her appreciation and her faith in me at a critical time in my experience, I should never likely have become an inventor. I was always a careless boy, and with a mother of different mental caliber, I should have turned out badly. But her firmness, her sweetness, her goodness, were potent powers to keep me in the right path. My mother was the making of me. The memory of her will always be a blessing to me.
• What will you say of your Mother?
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