Mother and BabyMother and Baby

This weekend we celebrated Mother’s Day for 2019. For years we have approached the subject differently than others, only because my personal views on Motherhood are probably different than others!.

There. Said. it.

Having said it, I hope you will read and enjoy!

(From the Writers Almanac, 05/12/13 – my formatting)

Today is Mother’s Day.

  • Mother’s Day as we know it — where we celebrate our own mothers, with flowers, gifts, and cards — is relatively new, but annual celebrations to celebrate motherhood are an ancient practice.
    • The motherhood festivities have historically been in spring, the season of fertility. In ancient Egypt, there were celebrations to honor Isis, the loving mother-goddess, who is often shown in Egyptian art with the baby Horus at her breast, much like Mary and Jesus in later Christian iconography. The cult of the great mother-goddess Cybele began in Turkey and soon moved to Greece and Rome, and she was worshipped in some form for more than a thousand years. Her priestesses led wild celebrations, full of drinking, dancing, music, and all kinds of debauchery.
    • As the Roman Empire and Europe transitioned to Christianity, the Church set aside the fourth Sunday of Lent as a day to honor motherhood. It was a day to celebrate the Virgin Mary, and for people to honor their “mother church.”
    • In the 1600s, England declared an official Mothering Day for that fourth Sunday of Lent. It was a time when families were encouraged to get together, and servants or workers were allowed one day off work to go see their mothers, since many working-class families in England worked as servants on separate estates and rarely got to see each other. Mothering Day was also declared an exception to the fasting and penance of Lent, so that families could have a feast together.
    • When the pilgrims came to America, they stopped celebrating Mothering Day, just as they stopped celebrating most holidays that they thought had become too secular.
    • Mother’s Day was reintroduced to America in 1870 by Julia Ward Howe, who wanted to set aside a day of protest after the Civil War, in which mothers could come together and protest their sons killing other mothers’ sons.
  • But the woman who really created Mother’s Day as we know it was Anna Jarvis. Her mother had held Mother’s Friendship Days to reunite families and neighbors separated during the war, and when she died, her daughter, Anna Jarvis, worked to proclaim an official Mother’s Day to honor her mother and celebrate peace. And so on May 10, 1908, the first official Mother’s Day celebrations took place in Grafton, West Virginia, and at a church in Philadelphia. In 1914, Woodrow Wilson designated the second Sunday of May as Mother’s Day.
    • But Mother’s Day became commercialized very quickly, especially in the floral industry, and Anna Jarvis was furious. She said, “What will you do to route charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers, and other termites that would undermine with their greed one of the finest, noblest, and truest movements and celebrations?” But flower sales and card sales continued to grow, and Anna Jarvis died in poverty and without any children of her own.

We are especially honored today to have many mothers with us in service. Between those that could be, those that we knew were traveling, and the special guests that might show up, we counted nearly 50 mothering souls that could be here today.

As a church, we have taken the traditional Mother’s Day celebration and broadened it to include all of our adult women. Some may ask why…

I believe there is Mothering Spirit alive in each woman.

Women have this innate spiritual sense of pulling into themselves the needful child, the hurt and lost pet, the wild animal that needs to be rescued – the situation that seems to be hopeless only needs to turn to a mother for help.

Children inherently understand that comfort comes more easily from a woman, a mother, than from a man. However, I am so blessed to watch men everywhere taking up responsibility and love for their children, providing nurture and care that was once relegated to only women.

Women have this special insight into situations – we call it intuition. As one husband spoke to me, “When my wife speaks about a situation I take notice.”

Perhaps Pilate should have listened…

When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.  (20)  But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.
Matthew 27:19-20

Women have this attraction factor – it’s not about looks, or clothing, or money, or status – it’s about something special that men have a hard time identifying. I dare say is has nothing to do with the celestial bodies of Mars or Venus – there is a far deeper quality that speaks of love in a much different way…

Much like the Love of Christ, given for others – perhaps it is this Spirit of Sacrifice… This Spirit of Protection.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them which are sent unto thee,
how often would I have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not!
Matthew 23:37

Women who have a good view of themselves and understand a role in life that only they can give, pour themselves into their children – wanting to give them more than what they had themselves.

Paul speaks mostly of Timothy, the one as a “dearly beloved son” and “my own son in the faith”… Timothy might have been one brought into the Kingdom by a Father figure like Paul, but he did not have his attributes of life without the Mother’s in his life.

When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee,
which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice;
and I am persuaded that in thee also.
2 Timothy 1:5

It’s special to watch a woman at work with her unique qualities as she deals with her family, her career, a lost soul, or even a needful situation. How often is the church what it is today because of the love and sacrifice of the Mothering Spirit alive in you today?

Ladies, you honor the church today with your sacrifice toward this local body of believers.  Thank you.

Regardless of the words or images, you might reference, we must all admit that Women are Special!

To honor all the women in the church today, I would like to extract a portion of the Apostle Paul’s writing. If you would allow me the liberty to honor the church’s mothering spirit by utilizing the chapter we have often called “The Love Chapter” and make a minor adjustment. Instead of using the Word Charity or Love, let me interject the word M-O-T-H-E-R. (Thanks to my brother for this thought.)

Lest anyone judge their mother, or the mothering spirit of this church, and find fault, first put yourself into this scripture – because we are all supposed to love each other, as Christ first loved us…

Mother is patient and kind; mother does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. Mother does not insist on its own way; Mother is not irritable or resentful; Mother does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Mother bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Mother never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 ESV

On Mother’s Day, the church always tries to present a gift of some sort. Hope all of you enjoy the books!

By Michael Gurley

Making Sense of Life, One Thought at a Time!