Live on Purpose

Mother’s Day is this Sunday and it will look and feel different than any other Mother’s Day we have ever had. No physical church. No passing out flowers. No getting all dressed up. Just weird. But we press on and still salute moms as best we can.

Did you know that by the time a child reaches 18 years old, a mother has had to handle some extra 18,000 hours of child-generated work? Crazy, right?

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Men are what their mothers make them.” I think in large part that is true. A mom’s influence on a life is so valuable and makes quite an impression.

I was fortunate to have a mom that invested in me in so many ways. I want to try to use her as an example that a mom who loves…instills!

Now, it would take too much of your time (I’d probably still be writing) if I told you all the ways my mom influenced and impacted my life so I have done my best to narrow it down to 3 of the most important.

A MOM WHO LOVES…INSTILLS A RESPECT FOR SCRIPTURE.

My mom did this for me in several ways. If you know my mom, then you know she is a fantastic teacher of the Word. She would rival, in my opinion, Beth Moore or Pricilla Shirer in her ability to teach. She studies long and hard to this day to draw out the truth that the Holy Spirit wants her to share.

She instilled this love for the Word in me simply by demonstrating her love for it. She spent tremendous amounts of time praying over it.

One of my favorite memories now is what she used to do for me every morning. She would make me breakfast and while I was eating, we would read a devotional and pray together. This happened as far back as I can remember until I graduated high school.

She truly embodied the part of Moses’ Law called the Shema.

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 ⁴ “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. ⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.⁶ These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. ⁷ Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

She has God Word in her heart and because she had internalized the truth in her life, she could impress it on me by talking about it every day.

I read this story called “Mom’s Version” one time and it stuck with me…

Four scholars were arguing over Bible translations. One said he preferred the King James Version because of its beauty and eloquent old English. Another said he liked the New American Standard Version for its literalism and how it moves the reader from passage to passage with confident feelings of accuracy from the original text. The third scholar was sold on the New Living Translation for its use of contemporary phrases and idioms that capture the meaning of difficult ideas. After being quiet for a moment, the fourth scholar admitted: “I have personally preferred my mother’s translation.” When the other scholars started laughing, he said, “Yes, she translated the Scriptures. My mom translated each page of the Bible into life. It is the most convincing translation I have ever read.“

A MOM WHO LOVES…INSTILLS AN AUTHENTIC FAITH

2 Timothy 1:5 I am reminded of your sincerity faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.

Now, make no mistake. My faith is my own. But my faith is my own largely because of how mom lived her faith out in front of me. Faith is not hereditary. Faith, though, when modeled, often will be seen as something that has to be had!

Mom’s faith is real. If you know my mom – you know she is real. Sometimes to a fault. You tend to always know what she is thinking but you certainly always know where her confidence comes from!

Because faith has taken up residence in my mom’s life, it is now alive in my own. I never asked about going to church. I knew we were. I never doubted the devotion and commitment she had to the Lord. They were evident. That kind of authentic faith is not something you can fake. And I knew it! I saw her faith demonstrated in a consistency that I have always tried to emulate but probably will never duplicate. Her reading, studying, praying, serving, witnessing. This sent a strong message of the importance of faith to me.

The last thing I want to talk about here is

MOMS WHO LOVE…INSTILL A DESIRE TO SERVE

Once my faith was my own, it was never a question of whether I would exercise it or not. I would because that is what I saw. My mom not only served in the church but she invested in the lives of people. Especially young married adult couples. She discipled them, gave to them, met physical needs as well as spiritual. She served people. She washed other’s feet in a spiritual sense many times over.

My life’s purpose is to now invest in people to help make them into disciples who live out their God-given purpose. This was her life. And still is, if I am honest.

I am so grateful for her life. Like I said, I could go on for days. She was always there, she was my constant champion. She pushed me to be better. She did a lot of things for me, but these 3 things are the things for which I could never repay her.

She loves her Lord. She loves His Word. She loves others. Seems like I have heard that somewhere before! God, help me be more like her!