LOVING & THANKING OUR MOTHERS

                                  By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D

     When Donna's mother Eileen passed away, a large wall plaque we had given her on May 9,1982 is now a part of our home. It's words stand out in stark beauty: MOTHER - God took the sunshine from the skies and made the love light in your eyes. He gave you breath and with His love divine He made you mine.

     Donna's Mom shared with her how much those words affected her. “She said that she cried and cried and cried.” We all have beautiful thoughts about our mothers. Few people outside of that classification, would understand a mother's heart. Surely, they are and have been a gift from God!

     I believe that motherhood is one of the greatest gifts given by our Creator to mortal man. Child birth and child rearing encompasses in one, a science laboratory and a university complex in it breadth and scope.

    Lin Yutang, a Chinese writer stated: “Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother.” And Henry Ward Beecher, US Congressional Clergyman attested: “The mother's heart is the Child's schoolroom.”

   Abraham Lincoln declared: “All I am or can be I owe to my angel mother,” He followed that statement with these fine words: “I remember my mother's prayers and they have followed me all my life.”

    George Washington said: “My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”

   John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church whose great Revivals changed the course of floundering England bringing that great nation back to righteous teaching and living, greatly thanked and applauded his mother. 
   John's brother, Charles, wrote 6,000 hymns and was a large part of the Revival. Adapting the music of popular songs, he rewrote the lyrics and they became some of his greatest hymns!  Their father, a Minister, called his wife Susanna Wesley, the best of mothers. 

    Writing his mother for a definition of sin, she answered: “John: Take this rule. Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things…that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.”

       An old proverb states: “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” My prayer is that many more mothers will follow Jesus Christ and train up their children to preach the Gospel of God's love. May someone reach radical mothers who follow the desert god and train their children to hate and kill. Christ be praised and His enemies be scattered!
      Today, I also honour my precious wife Donna, the mother of our six children, for her great fortitude, goodness, wisdom and grace. When I looked for a wife, I saw in Donna so much that I saw in my own precious mother, Anne, and that sealed the deal.

    Happy Mother's day! And may you be blessed, forgiven, healed and protected by the precious BLOOD of Jesus Christ Who died for the sins of the world, arose from the dead and lives in all our hearts! To Him be glory, now and forever more! Amen.