The Mother and the Home

Introduction

Kate Douglas Wiggins wrote, “Most all of the other beautiful things in life come by twos, and threes, and dozens, and hundreds. Plenty of roses, stars, sunsets, rainbows, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins, but only one mother in the whole world.”

Look at the word “family.” Strike out “M” for “Mother” and “Y” for “Youth” and all you have left is “fail.”

The Position of the Mother in the Home

Though subject to her husband, she is mistress and queen of the home (1 Timothy 5:14). “Guide the house,” is literally “the house ruler.” This being true, the children are to be in subjection to her as much as to the father (Ephesians 6:1; Colossians 3:20).

The Responsibilities of the Mother

  1.  Bear children (1 Timothy 2:15; 5:14)
  2. To bring up children (1 Timothy 5:9-10). No doubt Ephesians 6:4 applies to the mother as well as to the father.
  3. To guide the house (1 Timothy 5:14).

Poem: “Nobody Knows…”

Nobody knows of the work it takes
To keep the home together.
Nobody knows of the steps it takes
Nobody knows, but mother.

Nobody listens to childish woe
Which kisses only smother.
Nobody’s pain by naughty blows,
Nobody, only mother.

Nobody knows of the sleepless care
Bestowed on baby brother,
Nobody knows of the tender prayer,
Nobody, only mother.

Nobody knows of the lessons taught
Of loving one another.

Nobody knows of the patience sought
Nobody, only mother.

Nobody knows of the anxious fears
Lest darling may not weather
The storms of life in after years
Nobody knows, but mother.

Nobody kneels at the throne above
To thank the Heavenly Father
For the sweetest gift-a mother’s love,
Nobody can, but mother.

–Author Unknown

Poem: “A Mother”

They talk of mother’s toil and care,
Of the tasks that her hands must do,
Of the furrows that creep o’er the brow once fair
Of the burdens and heartaches, too.

But they know not the joy stitched in each little dress,
The pattering footsteps that brighten and bless,
The thrill of a baby’s loving caress
Ah, Nobody knows but mother.

There was never a task by the Father given,
That brought not its blessing, too,
And the life that liest the nearest Heaven was given,
O Mothers to you.

The task is great but the joy is sweet,
The hours of prayer bring a faith complete,
And the highest wisdom our life can meet
Lies hid in the heart of a mother.

–Selected

To keep the home (Titus 2:5). Note the following statement: “Children’s Bureau of Washington, D. C., says 20% of all children under 17 have mothers employed outside the home–meaning one out of every five homes in America where there are children of school age or below, the mother is employed out of the home and 85% of those so employed are not widows or otherwise sole breadwinners of the home.”

One evil coming from mothers working outside the home is divorce.

Justice Samuel E. Kramer, Magistrate in the Common Pleas Court, Cleveland, Ohio, says: “In 75% of all divorces which I have granted I found that both husband and wife are working outside the home.”

Judge Joseph Sabath of Chicago, who has handled over 100,000 divorce cases and who has helped to save some 20,000 marriages, states, “Wives should not work outside the home except in the most dire cases of economic necessity. The hardest marriages to mend, I have found were those where the root of the trouble is money—either too much of it or not enough of it. When money becomes too plentiful, the husband and wife start going their separate ways, more often than not they have little time for each other and when they do get together their tempers flare.”

Sometimes the reason a marriage doesn’t work is that the wife has to.

Another one of the results of women working outside the home is an age of juvenile delinquents.

A Michigan judge recently told a White House conference on children and youth that 30% of the mothers of children under 18 are now employed outside of the home. Justice George Edwards of the Michigan, Supreme Court stated: “Every working mother who leaves children below high school age continually unsupervised is practicing brinkmanship with delinquency.”

Mothers should think again before they leave their children to roam the streets while they make a few extra dollars. They may be exchanging their child’s soul for a paycheck: Judge Paul W. Alexander, of Juvenile Court, Toledo, Ohio, stated: “I believe it is generally recognized that the employment of mothers outside the home was one of the factors contributing to the marked increase of juvenile delinquency during the war. With the close of the war, the return of mothers was one of the contributing factors to the decrease of juvenile delinquency.”

It is the decision of those who are in a position to know that a child from a home where both parents work away from home has no more chances of succeeding than a child from a home where parents are dead or where parents are divorced.

The exaltation of motherhood is one of the cures for women leaving the home. Hal Boyle has this to say on the subject: “The greatest woman in history is the American housewife. But too often she has an inferiority complex. At parties particularly if there are career women present, she is likely to murmur when introduced, ‘Oh, I’m nobody. I don’t do anything. I’m just a housewife.’ Actually, of course, she is proud of being a housewife, but she feels that nobody else thinks her job is either important or thrilling.”

What greater work could Sarah have done than that of starting the nation that brought Christ to the world? What greater work could Hannah have done than that of bringing up the great prophet Samuel? Think of what the mother of Moses did for her people and all mankind by saving and rearing Moses.

What a different world it would have been if Hitler and Stalin would have had real Christian mothers!

David Lipscomb said, “The country, true social good, and the church of God can never attain to permanent good until women seek their truest good in being ‘keepers at home’ and in bearing and training children for the Lord.”

4. To love her children (Titus 2:4). A mother is the only person in the world who can divide her love among ten children and each child still have all her love. Nowhere can be found a fount of deep, strong love like that which flows from a mother’s heart.

III. The Influence of the Mother in the Home

Many fine things have been said of the influence of mothers:

  • “If you would reform the world from its errors and vices, begin by enlisting it’s mothers.” –Simmons
  • “Men are what their mothers made them.” –Emerson
  • A great French statesman once said as his country faced a crisis, “What France needs is mothers.”
  • “One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters.”
  • “An Ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.”
  • “The future destiny of the child is always the work of the mother.”—Napoleon
  • “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.”

The mother can be a great power in leading her children to Christ.

A young girl lay upon her bed with what proved to be a fatal sickness. She was the only child of her parents. Her every whim had been gratified. The doctor called and after the examination he whispered into the mother’s ear. The message was heard by the sick girl. Calling her mother to her, she said, “Mother, you have taught me to dance, how to dress well, how to comport myself in the world, but one thing you have failed to teach me, and that is how to die.”

The Kind of Mothers We Need

  • Hannah (1 Samuel 1)
  • Lois and Eunice (2 Timothy 1:5; 2 Timothy 3:15)
  • Elizabeth (Luke 1:5-6)

I Want to Be a Mother…

I want to be a mother like Hannah who prayed that God might give her a child and then dedicated that child to God’s service.

I want to be a mother like the Shunammite woman who could truthfully say of her child, “It is well with my child,” and could find such peace in her own heart and in her own home that she could say, “I am content.”

I want to be a mother like Jochebed who by courage and forethought protected her child from evil forces and trained him to love God and God’s work above the wealth and power of a king’s court.

I want to be a mother like Rachel, whose teenage son could resist the temptation of an evil woman when he was far away from her guidance and reproof.

I want to be a mother like Noah’s wife who could so instill in her three boys the principles of God that could live right when all their companions were evil.

I want to be a mother like the Canaanitish woman who cried unto Jesus that He might help her daughter.

I want to be a mother like Mary, the mother of John Mark, who put the church first in her home.

I want to be a mother like Eunice who taught her child God’s word from infancy and so molded his life that he became a faithful servant of the Master.

I want to be a mother like Mary, the mother of Jesus, who thought much though she talked little, whose submission to God’s will was so perfect and complete, who was ever concerned about His welfare and did not forsake Him when all others did, but followed Him in love even to death. –Helen M. Young

Tributes to Mother

  • “All that I am, my mother made me.” –John Quincy Adams
  • “My mother was the making of me.” –Thomas A. Edison
  • “All that I have accomplished in life I owe to my mother.” –Moody
  • Benjamin West said that a kiss from his mother made him a painter.
  • Daniel Webster ascribed his masterful use of English to his mother’s teaching.

An Acrostic:

M is for the million things she gave me.
O means only that she is growing old.
T is for the tears she shed to save me.
H is for her heart of purest gold.
E is for her eyes with love-light shining.
R means right and right she’ll always be.