Why Do We Choose To Honor Our Mothers? (Part 2)

by Olga Hermans

Welcome to Part 2 of Mothers’ Day; you can read Part 1 by clicking here!

The honoring of your father and mother is something that God has established. When you make it a power struggle, you lose all your blessings that are attached to this great promise. It is one of the 10 commandments next to the commandment, we should NOT kill other people. You never would think about killing somebody, because you know how wrong that is.

The same thing is true for the 5th commandment that tells us to honor our father and mother. If you honor your parents, regardless of what they do, then you will be in good standing not only with God, but also with your mom and dad. You will feel satisfied with your life, and you will be satisfied with the conditions around you. You will be prosperous.

We honor God and other people to who honor is due. When you honor your mother, you teach your children how to honor you.

How would you like it if you said to your children, “I want you to show me honor. I want you to be the best that you can be. And I want you to respect me.” In addition, they say to you, “I am respecting you the way I see you respect God. I am obeying you the way I see you obey God. I love you the way I see you love God. I am living my life before you the way I see you live your life before God.”

Children watch what we do and they are learning from what we do.

Maybe you should do a little check up on yourself. Ask yourself the question: “How do I talk to my parents? What do I do and say to express my love to them? Single parents especially have to be very careful how you talk about the man that is the father of your children. Because their future is linked to how they honor their father. Don’t talk down on him in front of your children.

You shouldn’t be talking about him to anybody but God. He understands how you feel about him than yourself. You need to understand that when you speak down on your husband to your children, what you do is that you put your children down. Their father is part of their destiny. Exercise speaking positive things and your feelings will follow.

When we chose to bring children into this world, they did not choose to be here. We brought them in. In addition, we have to be responsible for what we put in them and how we deal with them.

God is very clear when He says that we have to honor our father and mother. What counts is what is going on in our heart, which is what pollutes us. That is what causes the many problems in our lives. What is going on in your heart?

That’s why God told us to renew our minds by the Word of God. The world around us has pulled us away from things that are good for us which are totally against how God had meant it for us.

If we do what the world tells us to do, we cannot expect that God will reveal His will to us. The renewing of the mind is a good thing for us; when we do that we see things around us change accordingly, which is a lot of fun. It inspires us to go on and go further in what God has for us. We renew our mind to what God says in His Word, not on our own interpretation of things.

In Proverbs 1:8, it says, “My son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law or thy mother, for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head and the chains about your neck.” The Bible is saying, pay attention to what your mother says as well as your father. However, pay attention to your mother’s teachings, because it’s those teachings that allow you to be a victor in life.

A victor is someone who defeats an adversary; a victor is a winner. We all want to be winners. We have the ability to do that, through Jesus. If you hold on to those teachings and those instructions, they’ll help you to deal with anything that comes across your path.

In Proverbs 31 is a mother’s instruction to her son. It’s about a virtuous woman, but Proverbs 31:1 starts out as a king expressing what his mother taught him. His mother taught him what kind of woman he wanted in his life.

Honor your mother. Do something that you’ve never done before for her: honor her. She knows what mistakes she made.

Make a choice today to make it a great Mothers’ Day . 

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Why Do We Choose To Honor Our Mothers?

by Olga Hermans

Do you know the origin of Mother’s Day? Let me tell you the short version: In the United States, Mother’s Day was first suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe (who wrote the words to the Battle hymn of the Republic) as a day dedicated to peace. Ms. Howe would hold organized Mother’s Day meetings in Boston, Mass every year.

Anna Jarvis

In 1907 Anna Jarvis, from Philadelphia, began a campaign to establish a national Mother’s Day. Ms. Jarvis persuaded her mother’s church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother’s Day on the second anniversary of her mother’s death, the 2nd Sunday of May. By the next year, Mother’s Day was also celebrated in Philadelphia.

Ms. Jarvis and her supporters began to write to ministers, executives, and politicians in their quest to establish a national Mother’s Day. It was successful as by 1911 Mother’s Day was celebrated in almost every state. President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, made the official announcement proclaiming Mother’s Day as a national holiday that was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May. He established the day as a time for “public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.” By then it had become customary to wear white carnations to honor departed mothers and red to honor the living, a custom that continues to this day.

Let’s see what the Bible says how we should honor our mothers.

We all know the story of Genesis where we can read that God created the heavens, the earth, and every living thing in it. Then he created man and put him in the garden. After God created the animals, he saw that man was alone and needed a companion; a helpmate. Therefore, he created woman.

Adam called his wife’s name Eve because she was the mother of all living humans. The Amplified Bible says that Eve’s name means “lifespring,” because she was the mother of all the living. Beautiful name, isn’t it? Women have the ability to bring forth life. Of course, we can’t bring it forth by ourselves, we need the man – but most of all we need God. Because he stamps the approval on it and puts the breath of life into that little body that we are conceiving. It is such a miracle!

We know as mothers that we’re not perfect all the time. We make mistakes. However, as children, we can’t hold those mistakes against our parents. Parents are human and they will make mistakes. God tells us clearly to honor your father and your mother.

We have to realize that they’re human. And they will make mistakes. But, notwithstanding any of that, God tells us in Exodus 20:12, “to honor your father and your mother”.

The promise tells us that we will live a long life when we honor our parents. If you don’t honor them, you cut the connection to long life. The Bible does not say honor if you think they deserve it. He says honor your father and your mother.

There are moments that we think we know more than they do and we like to do it our way and fall on our face and then try to hide it from everybody.

Mothers have a special anointing from God to be a mother. That anointing starts to flow when we honor her.

Often times, we run into people who are so angry with their parents. Then they wonder why things aren’t going right for them. You’re only hurting yourself, because your life is connected to how you honor your mother.

You honor her in how you live. You honor her in how you pay attention to the instructions that she gives you. You have to honor her because God commanded you to honor her.

Now, “honor,” in the dictionary means “to show special esteem or respect. To show profound respect mingled with love and devotion.” She is an authority figure and it is a commandment from God to love her, to respect her, to show her honor, to esteem her, to see her as valuable. She gave you the opportunity to be here and experience the blessings of God on your life.

I lost my mother when I was 21 years of age; two years before that, I lost my father. This was an incredibly confusing time for me. My whole family was in shock; nobody could have imagined that that would happen to us or saw it coming. All of us were in so much pain that we could hardly communicate.

As I have grown older now and I have my own children, I think back at the moments that I began to respect the wisdom that came from my mother. I have a desire to share that with other people that I see that need that in their lives. My mom was not perfect. I am not perfect, I am not a perfect mother, but I do my best, because I know that is all God requires of me.

I have so much more to say; will you come back tomorrow to read the second part? You will not regret it, I promise you. However, let’s prepare for mothers’ day, prepare our heart to do something special for the one who brought you forth into this earth; your mother. It will be one of the best choices you have ever made.

Make a choice today to make it a great Mothers’ Day . 

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which brings an encouraging message 5 days a week to your inbox by clicking here