The collection of illustrations today is all about mothers. This collection can be used during Mother’s day celebrations or if you have a church program for mothers. You can also use this collection in making sermons about mothers.
Mothers
If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place, but have not love, I am a housekeeper–not a homemaker. If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements, but have not love, my children learn cleanliness – not godliness. Love leaves the dust in search of a child’s laugh. Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window. Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk. Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys. Love is present through the trials. Love reprimands, reproves, and is responsive. Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, runs with the child, then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood. Love is the key that opens salvation’s message to a child’s heart. Before I became a mother I took glory in my house of perfection. Now I glory in God’s perfection of my child.
As a mother, there is much I must teach my child, but the greatest of all is love.
Author Unknown
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One Day Is Not Enough
While it is wonderful that we set aside one day to especially honor mothers, let us reflect for a moment on all of the things mothers do for us. First of all, they bring us into the world through a biological miracle that is amazing, but certainly not easy. Then they spend the next two decades preparing meals, solving problems, kissing boo-boos, helping us learn everything from how to brush our teeth to how to navigate the difficulties of the “real world.” They spend the rest of their lives fretting and worrying about us. They care for us in a way that is beyond words. They sacrifice for us in ways beyond words. Even after they have passed on, and Mother’s Day can be especially difficult for those of us who have lost mothers, their influence is so powerful that it stays with us always. I propose that one day is not enough. One day is nice, but it is not enough.
So while we take this day to especially honor mothers, let us think of it as a planning day. How can we honor our mothers, grandmothers, mother-in-laws, and aunts each and every day? How can we recognize their special contributions to our lives every day? Let us take a moment to jot down five ways we can truly honor mothers, from our own mothers to the young mothers in this congregation, to the mothers who might be missing their grown up kids, to mothers who may have passed away. (Give a few moments to allow individuals to jot down their list. You may provide a few moments at the end of the sermon or at the end of the service to return to these lists and allow people to share their ideas with each other.) Now, let us make a commitment to honor these women every day of the year because one day is not enough!
Staff, www.eSermons.com
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Humor: A Life Consuming Job
A woman had quit work to stay home and take care of her new baby daughter.
Countless hours of peekaboo and other games slowly took their toll. One evening she smacked her bare toes on the corner of a dresser and, grabbing her foot, sank to the floor. Her husband rushed to her side and asked where it hurt. She looked at her husband through her tear-filled eyes and managed to moan, “It’s the piggy that ate the roast beef.”
Parables, Etc. Vol. 21. No 4, June 2001, pg. 1.
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All Those Preliminaries
In an old Peanuts strip, Peppermint Patty and Violet are reflecting on being a grandmother. After Patty declares that she would like to be a grandmother, Violet agrees and says it would be nice because all they have to do is “sit and rock” (not quite the case, is it?) The girls then decide that the trouble with being a grandmother is that first you have to be a wife and then a mother…and Violet sighs, “I know it…it’s all those preliminaries that get me!”
Adapted from the ever-brilliant Peanuts. Original strip run March 13, 1950.
Reprinted in 2004 in The Complete Peanuts: The Definitive Collection of Charles M. Schulz’s Comic Strip Masterpiece 1950-1952.
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Qualities Needed In All Moms
A panel of experts was asked to complete some sentences about their moms.
What made them experts was the one thing they all had in common. They were all kindergarteners. Even though these are the words of 6 year olds I think the qualities they recognized in their moms are they qualities needed in all moms. Here are the sentences and the answers:
My mom is best at: “feeding the dog,” “making my bed,” “driving,”
“cleaning,” “running,” “riding a two-wheeler,” “watering the garden.”
If I had enough money, I’d buy her: “flowers,” “a car,” “a necklace,” “a brand-new fan,” “a kitten,” “a diamond ring,” “a big pack of bubble gum.”
It makes me feel good inside when Mom says: “I love you,” “good job,”
“dinnertime!” “You look handsome,” “I’ll buy you something.”
My mom is as pretty as a — “butterfly,” “ballerina,” “mouse,” “princess,”
“my brothers,” “goose,” “gold ring,” “a clean horse.”
By the way, one of the most memorable comments from the children on Father’s Day was: Daddy gets tired out from: “chasing mommy.”
Is It Well With Your Family?
Brett Blair and Staff, www.eSermons.com.
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Spanish proverb: An ounce of mother is worth a ton of priest.
Abraham Lincoln: No man is poor who has had a godly mother.
William Ross Wallace: The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.
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A Call for Help
A woman telephoned a friend and asked how she was feeling, “Terrible,” came the reply over the wire, “my head’s splitting and my back and legs are killing me. The house is a mess, and the kids are simply driving me crazy.”
Very sympathetically the caller said, “Listen, go and lie down, I’ll come over right away and cook lunch for you, clean up the house, and take care of the children while you get some rest. By the way, how is Sam?” “Sam?” the complaining housewife gasped. “Who is Sam?” “My heavens,” exclaimed the first woman, “I must have dialed the wrong number.” There was a long pause.
“Are you still coming over?” the harried mother asked hopefully.
Rev. Dennis Marquardt adapted from Bobby Moore, Any Old Port in a Storm.
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Long Over Due
Mother’s Day was declared an annual National Holiday in 1914 by President Woodrow Wilson. He directed the Congress to designate the second Sunday of May as a special day for public expression of love and reverence for the mothers of America. Since that time there has been a “Mother’s Day,” and, I must say that even in 1914, it was long overdue.
R.E. Lybrand, CSS Publishing Company
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Who Am I?
A teacher gave her class of second graders a lesson on the magnet and what it does. The next day in a written test, she included this question: “My full name has six letters. The first one is M. I pick up things. What am I?”
When the test papers were turned in, the teacher was astonished to find that almost 50 percent of the students answered the question with the word Mother.
Traditional
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A Good Mom
Once upon a time there was a Mom, who tried her best to be a good Mom and to be fair with all her children. Her children, like all children, didn’t really appreciate this and were always telling her she did more for one or the other of them than she did for all of them. “You love her (him) more than you do me”, was an oft heard refrain from one or the other. Though the Mom felt bad about her children’s reaction, she just continued to do the best she could to keep them all satisfied. She encouraged their individual talents, seeing them as God-given gifts that needed her encouragement. When they reached adulthood and were out on their own, each one doing his or her own thing, she often wondered if she could have done something else to discourage sibling rivalry. Imagine her surprise one Mother’s Day, when she was well up in years, when each child told a story about a time when she made them feel so loved that they were able to take the necessary steps to succeed in some project. They said that these memories have been a powerful force in their everyday lives and in how they try to parent their children.
They ended their storytelling by singing “A Mother’s Love is a Blessing!”
Fr. Andrew M. Greely
