Pious Mothers
Oh, How we need them!
By David Cox
[fam11] v1 ©2008 www.coxtracts.com
This tract can be freely copied and reproduced.
_____________________

Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates. Pro 31:29-31

In the world of liberated women and single parent families, we have lost sight of the office of mother. The “mama” has simply become someone who has children, no matter how she acts. God has made the family as the social and spiritual nucleus of society. Satan first attacks the family, and we see his damage in the new concept of mother. God put the woman in the family in order to be a constant and ever evident remembrance of the ever giving of God, the faithfulness of God, and of how we should always give thanks to God for all that He does for us day by day.

What is a good mother?

We see in Genesis that God established the family. The family begins in the marriage of the man with a woman until death do they part. We see in Genesis that the man lacked a very important element because he did not have a woman and family. The woman is what makes man social. The woman gives man his reason for working hard and suffering the pain and sweat of work, because that is how he will provide for his wife and family.

It is important to understand that the function of the woman within the marriage and within the family. The woman is more emotional by nature. While the man is more logical and calculating, the woman is more emotional and social. Neither one is “correct” but each one in its place. But while the authority, discernment, and leadership falls to the man, the woman has a role of making the house a home, in making it a paradise, a refuge, a castle against the sin and pressures of the world. While the father punishes the children, mercy comes from the mother.

According to 1John 4:16, “God is love.” This is a definition of God’s essence. In order to be saved, we have to receive the love of God, and make it part of us.

The woman has her great importance in placing this love in her husband and children. Men can personally know the concept of love in an earthly level because they have a wife and because of their earthly mother. The woman gives him the example, the motivation, the living principle, and the practical experience by causing and maintaining love in his life. Equally the children can understand something of love because of the treatment they receive from their mother. If it was not for the woman, love would not be common nor understood. The mother is almost always the example of love for everybody. Truly, the home is a spiritual workshop where we learn the principles that will guide us through this life.

She is the living example of submission

1Timothy 2:11-12 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. 12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence…

Genesis 3:16 Unto the woman he said…and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

The woman should be subject to her husband. Perhaps the single most important element in the development of the child in deciding his disposition to respond to God’s authority in his life is the ignoring or rebellion that he sees in his mother’s relationship with his father. We should clarify that this is like the Trinity. There are three people but neither the Holy Spirit, nor Jesus is minor in some way with God the Father, but both demonstrate perfect submission to the Father. Even though they are equal, they are subject one to another. This is not a question of being less in value or ability, but in submitting in order to defeat sin.

The children draw all their ideas from the events of their childhood and youth. They remember how their parents acted, and the situations in their home, and this is what seems best to them normally. They are going to follow the example of their parents.

She is quiet and calm

1Cor 14:34-45 says that the women should not speak in the congregation, but should be subject. The context of this is in learning spiritual things in the church. We saw in the previous section (1Tim 2:11-12) that the woman should not dominate the man, but should be quiet and calm in her conduct, not speaking as the representative of the family, but leaving all this for her husband. Proverbs establishes that the bad woman is scandalous (Prov 9:13).

She is the living example of service

We cannot read Proverbs 31 without seeing the abundant good works of the Christian woman. Simply she is the perfect example of a person who sacrifices her own life in order to serve others. At the foundation of the Christian life, in the essence of God (God is love), God wants us to be servants one towards another. This is part of love, being a blessing to others.

The Christian mother is a woman who stay home to build up her home (Pro 14:1), attending to the housework and matters of her family. The whore is always in the street (Pro 7:11). Paul made clear that young widows are tempted to be lazy, going from house to house, gossips (tattlers), and busybodies in other people’s affairs (1Tim 5:13), things which are all not what a godly woman does. The Christian woman is somebody who takes care of the interests of her husband, of her children, and of her own home.

She is the family comforter

Isaías 66:13 As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

Even God himself compares himself with the consolation that a good mother gives her family. For a human being, there is probably no other event so consoling as to be in the breast of his mother. There he finds nourishment, consolation, protection, warmth, care, love, tenderness, and a long list without end of good feelings. All of this is concentrated around the concept of the mother, who is the person who most cares for and benefits that person when they are small. We cry excessively when we lose our mother. Today the majority of people are in situations where there is neither father nor mother, or in which they do not enjoy a stable and “normal” (as God establishes it) home. In Proverbs 31, we see a picture of the virtuous woman, full of virtues (good moral character). She is a blessing to the home, to her husband, and to her children, even to others.

The Moral Character of the Mother

We see in Proverbs 31 that the virtuous woman has her sights on being a blessing to others. She works from before dawn until after midnight in order to be a blessing to others through her labors. She thinks in the future of those who touch her life, and she prepares for this future.

1Tim 2:9-10 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.

Modesty and Reserve

The Christian mother focuses her beauty in the spiritual, and not so much in the physical. We see reserve (shamefacedness) that is modesty and honor which is also respect, reverence, and a reserve in her life and in how she acts towards others. She reserves herself for her own family and husband, first and over all. She has control over her own life (sobriety), and does not have addictions to entertainment, recreation, pleasures, alcohol, etc. She always controls herself.

1 Peter 3:2-5 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:

She is a person who has a spiritual focus in her heart, in that she is meek and gentle, always her character is with gentleness and quietness, easy to entreat. The pious woman is not a person which is implacable o demanding in what she wants for herself.

She is seen as having a chaste conduct, free from carnality. She is pure, free from the spots of the world (worldliness). She has reverence and respect for the authorities in her life. She is not somebody who is rebellious. Her life is highly adorned with good works. She always fills her life with service for others, because her motive is to love others.

Moral Education.

Proverbs speaks of moral education and spiritual care by the mothers. We should not underestimate or take lightly such women (Prov 1:8). This woman will teach her children (“forsake not the law of thy mother” or “teaching” 6:20). The mother is who takes care of the child in his first years of life, and therefore, each child should highly esteem his mother. The child will follow the moral example of his parents, but in the first years of life, the impression of the moral example of his mother will be the strongest impact on his life. What kind of character the mother has (moral, indifferent, or just plain immoral), so will the child follow her example. We see in this a process in the chain of Lois and Eunice, and then Eunice to Timothy (2Tim 1:5) who transferred their Christian faith from one generation to the next. From 1Tim 2:9-10; 1Pet 3:2-5; and Proverbs 31 we see that the Christian woman adorns herself with good works, and she is an incessant and energetic worker.

Pro 23:22 Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old. God speaks to this evil generation, who will not bless their mother (Pro 30:11). We should appreciate and highly esteem our mothers.

Fam11 Cox Pious Mothers V1
fam11-cox-pious-mothers-v1_2.pdf

136.2 KiB
349 Downloads
Details

Platforms:	Windows 8
Category:	Family
Date:	January 26, 2016