May 4, 2011 God's Second Greatest Gift 3

Honor your father and your MOTHER so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Salvation Wednesday, Salvation Wednesday. The day we pray for the lost and for those who have been born again to help bring in the lost.

Dear Father in Heaven, help us this day to work hard for You. Thanks for another day of life here on this earth. I pray for the lost and pray that they become open to be saved. Please, Lord, help us to go into the fields of harvest without fear and to work bringing the lost to Your feet to be saved. Help us remember that Salvation is Your work, we are just Your helpers. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

Mothers, God's Second Greatest Gift 3: Exodus 20:12 - Honor your father and your MOTHER so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. (NIV) The Fifth Commandment.

Today I want to talk to you about some mothers, some really great mothers, some who have never had children. So you are saying "are you nuts Pastor Dan, mothers who never had children?" Ok, being nuts? Well sometimes but not this time. Let me talk about one mother who never had a child of her own. Her name, "Mother Teresa." While she is home now and she is a Saint and has been for a long, long time, as you become a Saint when you give yourself to Jesus. Anyway this lovely little nun did so much for so many people, and while I do not know what all she did, I know she helped feed the hungry, give and get medical help for people, her whole life was to live for the Lord and receive assignments from Him. There are also a lot of others who, by their religion have been given the title of "Mother".

We in Carry The Light had the pleasure of singing at the going home celebration for a dear black lady who was respectfully called "Mother Brown" by her church. We in Carry The Light also called her by that name, as did all who knew her at Dauphin Manor where she lived out her last few years. She passed several years ago at 103. I don't know how a nun in the Catholic church gets the title of "Mother" but I promise I will find out and get back to you on that one. My dear friends Oliver and Sharon will contact me I am sure with some good advice.

Now let me talk about some other "Mothers" who may or may not have been a Birth Mother. Let me start with "Step Mothers". You know often we hear of the awful stepmothers, but let me tell you about a stepmother that I know very, very good. Her name is Dolores Lehman, while she is the Birth Mother of Mark Bradshaw, and Matthew Lehman, she is also the stepmother of my four children, Glenn, Keith, Danelle, and Leann and I know that all six of the kids love her dearly.

We also have Foster mothers and this might be one of the hardest kind of mother to be. While many foster mothers have their birth children, these wonderful mothers take in other children, sometimes very wayward children and raise them as their own. The hard part is when children are put into foster homes because of problems in a birth home, and when those problems get made right, the foster mother must return the children. Often times though a foster mother will become one of the next kind of mothers I want to tell you about.

Adoptive Mothers. These are mothers who have adopted children, some because they cannot have their own children because of health reasons or even personal reasons. Maybe the problem is with a husband. Adoptive mothers might have already had birth children and also have fallen in love with other children who they love. Adoptive Mothers are also ladies who have had foster children who adopted them so they would not lose them.

Then there is the "dad" who winds up as a single parent and must be both dad and mother to his children.

We also have Mothers-in-law. You know, the mother of your spouse. I still love my mother-in-law from my first marriage, her name is Helen Witmer and she is wonderful.

We also have mothers who are now also grandmothers and great-grandmothers and even great, great-grandmothers.

Now there is one other type mother for me. You see my mother died when I was young, I never had a stepmother, so I picked a really nice lady, whom I have known for a long, long time and I adopted her as my mother... Her name Virginia Harman.

Sometimes sisters and even brothers have had to step in, even at a young age and be a mother to younger brothers and sisters.

Let's look at that scripture for today... A commandment from God to honor your father and MOTHER and if you do, you will live long in this land.

Dear brothers and sisters, please honor your mother, foster mother, stepmother, adoptive mother, and those who carry the title of Mother from their churches. Let's honor all mothers, and not just on one day... God's commandment does not say, honor your father and MOTHER, one day a year. So please honor your Mother, with calls, cards, flowers and not just one day a year, do it from your heart. Mothers come in all colors, all shapes and sizes, and all GOOD MOTHERS have one thing in common, they are indeed beautiful ladies.

Now go forth sharing your blessings. Love ya, Pastor Dan.