By: Mike Kelly
Retired Pastor
Mother’s Day is May 12. I am truly glad we have a day to celebrate mothers. They deserve the honor and recognition for what they joyfully give and sacrifice for their children.
But there is another side to Mother’s Day that gets overlooked. It is also a painful day for many. Many of our mothers have passed away and all we have are the memories.
It would be so nice to call my mom or to visit her and thank her personally for all she did for me and my sister. There is a kind of loneliness when I remember that I can’t just see her any longer.
Then there is the pain of having had a less than stellar mother. Being a mother can sometimes be like being one of these careless dads.
Having a child does not make one a mother in the truest concept of motherhood. I have spent a good part of my career working with men and women who suffered greatly at the hands of a “mother”.
Maybe she packed up and left and didn’t care about the pain she was causing her child enough to work it out.
In one situation I am well versed in, the mother left the hospital and never even went home. Her child will never be whole except for the grace of God.
In others, the mothers failed to protect their children from men who sexually abused them or verbally and physically abused them.
Don’t forget, some mothers are also very badly broken, and they can’t get past their own issues to help their child.
If I am being completely honest, there are some women who should never have been a mother in the first place. They can’t even take care of themselves. Their children end up being cared for by relatives or social services.
Then, there is also the pain of some women who wanted to be mothers, but it never worked out for one reason or another. Mother’s Day can be sort of a painful “in your face” reminder that a dream they had was never fulfilled.
So, who gives us a good example of the role of motherhood? Eve? Sarah? Mary? Interestingly, it is the Holy Spirit. The role of a good mother can be discerned from the role of the Holy Spirit in the Church today.
Isa 11:1-2 “…The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.”
Those kinds of attributes are needed in today’s generation. The ‘Fruit of the Spirit’ (the result of the Spirit’s work) is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22).
These are also the attributes that we learn generally most clearly from our mothers In the Syriac translation which is an Aramaic language very similar to what Jesus spoke, the Holy Spirit is referred to in the feminine.
For example, the Old Syriac gospels have the following for John 14:26: “… but that Spirit, the Paraclete that my Father will send to you in my name, She shall teach you everything, She shall remind you of all what I say.”
The Holy Spirit is God’s presence in the lives of believers. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16) which may explain why we cry out for our mothers when we are in deep distress.
In addition, Wisdom is referred to as a “she” throughout Proverbs in almost every translation as well.
Mothers are to teach their children the kind of wisdom we see in the Proverbs. Mom, thanks for all you do and for modeling God to us.
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.