A Mother's Hope for Her Children

This Mother’s Day, we will turn our attention to the mother’s desire for her children. Proverbs 29:15 will be our springboard: “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.” The rest of the chapter will be surveyed to discover specific areas of her children’s lives for which she has expectations. But we will also consider this theme topically, beginning in the Book of Proverbs and looking to other portions of scripture, particularly highlighting key mothers.

Not every believer has been blessed with the faithful presence of a biological mother. However, just as men of God step in to assume fatherly roles in the lives of the fatherless, so does God bring into our lives motherly figures to lovingly, faithfully, prayerfully invest in our lives. In particular, many Christians throughout history have seen the church as a mother in our lives. As such, the church invests in and nurtures us, disciplines us and restores us back to health. Just as a foolish son is a shame to his mother, a foolish Christian is a shame to the church. In the end the hope of a physical mother is the same as the hope of a spiritual mother, that her children find, savor, and walk in wisdom!