Spiritual Mothers

We are quickly approaching another Mother's Day!  Just two years ago this day took on special meaning because my beautiful Sophia was born the day before Mothers day that year.  As a result, it would be very easy for me to write about how amazing and sacrificial my wife has been for our family, what my mom did for me and my sisters, and what countless other mothers do daily to raise their children.  Instead, I want to go in a slightly different direction.

Take a look with me at the following passage:

   “Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” 

(Titus 2:3–5, ESV)  

So why would I pick this passage to discuss Mother's Day?  The reason is that while it is difficult for a woman to go through 9 months(ish) of pregnancy and go through the ordeal of labor pains to deliver a baby this is not the most difficult part of motherhood.  Instead, it is only the beginning of the pain and sacrifice a mother with go through.  Moreover, you do not have to have participated in this beginning stage to motherhood to be a spiritual mother.

Some women are unable to have a child.  We live in a fallen world and that includes not just our spirit but the body that it indwells.  But I want to encourage you women of faith that are unable to have a child that you can still be a spiritual mother.  That is what Paul is telling us.

In the passage above he begins by stating what a mature Christian woman should look like.  This includes reverence, not attacking other peoples character, and not leaning on alcohol instead of the Holy Spirit.  I see too many women referring to wine as the thing that gets them to the end of the day of Facebook.  It saddens me.

The reason it saddens me is because these women have not had mature women in Christ teach and demonstrate to them what it looks like to be Godly.  I have been blessed to know many mature women in Christ.  The problem is that the church in this country has done a poor job on helping people get into one on one discipleship relationships.

If you are young in your faith and/or life and want to know what it means to be a woman of God and would appreciate help to get there I encourage you to get in touch with your church's women's ministry, pastor, someone you look up to, or ask me for a name of a mature woman to help you start growing closer to Christ and your family.

If you are a woman who has been blessed to have other Godly women raise you up and be your spiritual mothers I would encourage you to start praying about who you could adopt as your spiritual daughter.  Realize I didn't say think about whether or not you want to do it.  Instead, I told you to do it because that is what God desires you to do according to this passage.

My hope and prayer is that my own daughter will have several women that she calls her spiritual mothers, like my friend Ilene pictured above reading to her.  The reason is the more Godly women she has in her life the more likely she is to turn to God in her daily life.

Remember, you don't have to be perfect.  No mother is perfect.  All you have to be willing to do is to be open and honest with your spiritual daughter, be willing to make sacrifices for her, and know that from time to time she might hurt you as she grows in Christ.

But in the end, you will be so glad that you made the sacrifice to be a spiritual mother!