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Mothers Day Message

by Marcia Walkerdine

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mothers, Grandmothers, Godmothers here today.

Because its Mother’s Day I thought it would be nice to speak about women today. Women are very influential in their marriages, families and politics. They can sometimes use their influence for good or evil.

Today I would like to look at Jezebel she was a woman of influence and contrast her with the another woman of influence which Proverbs speaks of.

Jezebel was an idol worshipper and she hated those who loved God, she put all the prophets who served God to death who lived in her time and who were in her reach all except Elijah. She was married to King Ahab. A weak man who allowed her to dominate and dictate to him and also caused him to sin against God.

Lets read 1 Kings 21: 1-16

Naboth was a God fearing man with a little vineyard, minding his own business. The King decides he fancies Naboth land and asks him for it but Naboth did not wish to sell to him. He believed God gave this land to his forefathers and he did not wish to sell it - as was his right.

Ahab goes home and sulks and explains to his wife what happened – she scoffs at him and comes up with a plan to kill an innocent man so her husband can get his land. Jezebel used her power and influence to get her husband what he wanted and not by honest means.

The influence of our daily lives is one of the things to which we give the least thought. Yet it is the area of greatest impact upon others, the area that never stops working. A wife’s mission is to encourage her husband, without preaching or nagging, in the ways of divine wisdom. Because of Jezebel’s words and action she brought ruin to Ahab and her children. God promises to destroy them both in 1 Kings 21: 22 - 26. God said that he was going to cut off Ahab’s descendants because he had provoked him to anger and for Jezebel he promised that dogs would devour her.

How can a woman’s words destroy her husband or her family. James 3:2-12 talks about the power of the tongue and how it can lead us to sin. Words are powerful and every day we are influenced by them, from our loved ones, media communication, gossip that we hear, the preached word.

In contrast to Jezebel the woman described in Proverbs 31 tells us about the virtuous woman’s influence. Proverbs 31:

Verse: 12 : She brings her husband good and not harm all the days of her life.

Verse: 23 : He husband is respected in the city gates, he is an elder of the land.

Verse: 25: She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.

Verse: 26 : She speaks wisdom and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

Verse: 27 : She watches over the affairs of the family and is not idle.

Verse 28: Her children and her husband call her blessed and he praises her.

Verse: 29 : She is noble.

Verse: 30: Charm/beauty all fleeting but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

This woman uses her influence in a totally different way to Jezebel – she’s gentle, caring, loving, puts her husband’s and her family’s needs ahead of her own, and they call her blessed. I doubt that Ahab called Jezebel blessed.

I feel that my own mother was very like this and I have called her blessed to her face because she used her influence to teach me and my brother in the ways of the Lord and always gave us wise counsel, she placed our needs before her own, she lives her life by example and would never ask us to live something that she had not practiced herself, we felt and benefited from the results of her unconditional love in our lives.

Is there a woman who has influence your life?

A bossy and bad tempered woman – what is her influence like?

Proverbs 21:9: Better to live on a corner of the roof than to share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

Proverbs 21:19 Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife.

Proverbs 27:15 – 16 A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day; 16) Restraining her is like restraining the wind or grasping oil with the hand.

Now I am sure that none or our husbands would think or say such things about us (especially mine) or would they? This sort of attitude has an influence but a negative one for our husbands, children, and those who come into contact with us.

Jezebel was noted for her cruelty, lustful idolatry this was her reputation. The virtuous woman was noble, faithful, God fearing. 2 Kings 9:34 refers to Jezebel as a cursed woman Proverbs 31:28 refers to the virtuous woman as blessed. Total opposites.

Can you live your whole life without influencing others? I don’t believe that you can.

What do our work colleagues think of us? What do our husbands and our children think of us? What do our brothers and sisters think of us?

Woman in the past have used their influence in many things. The suffragettes or the women’s liberation movement used their influence to bring equal rights for woman as well as helping women to get the vote.

Other woman have used their influence to legalise terminating healthy babies when they present no risk to their mother’s health.

I felt was very influenced by Hilary Clinton a few years back. She is not everyone’s cup of tea but she influenced my thinking. Here was a woman whose life was being beamed all around the world, her husband had betrayed her in the worst possible way by having an affair, as if that was not bad enough, it then became worldwide knowledge. Her husband’s personal error of judgement was causing her and her daughter to be humiliated all around the world. Very graphic and specific details about what he had done in the past and at that time were being broadcasted for all the world to see and hear. What an awful situation to be in. Why I admire her was because she used her influence to stand by her husband when he had shamed and let her down in the worst possible way, she helped to see him through to the end of his presidency, and she is still with him now. She did not have to do that, she could have left him like a lot of people thought she should have, and let him fall and stumble, that would have been very easy to do and she would have been justified to do it. But she did not choose the easy way, she trod that difficult road with her husband. I know that her courageous actions influenced me.

There are many more examples of woman’s influence we could mention.

Eve was a woman of influence – she was created to complete Adam and she was created from his rib out of his side to demonstrate that she was equal to him, not above him or beneath him and she was to be his helpmate.

Mary – mother of Jesus – she was influential, she was a woman with a mission, delivering Jesus into the world.

In the circular world there are politicians, pop stars, chat show hosts (my personal favourite is Oprah Winfrey), actresses, models, all these women have influence on other women as well as men’s lives.

How can we as woman use our influence to affect the greatest good?

Romans 12:1 says by offering up our bodies as a living sacrifice. If we do this then our influence will always point those we affect to Christ. The godly woman’s influence flows from her Christ-controlled personality. Recognizing her influence as a gift from God, she yields it to him for his perfect use.

In Our Homes

This is where most of us will have our ministry and influence. Those of us who are married all know that our husband’s are not perfect (neither are we), they have their weaknesses, how can we best help them with these areas of their lives – by praying for them committing these areas to God because he is the only one who can change them. Nagging them to death is not going to do it. Proverbs has already demonstrated this to us how men feel about that being nagged. They would rather be anywhere else than with a nagging wife.

Like the virtuous woman we can bring our husband good and not harm. We can help our husbands to be well presented in all they do (although some of them don’t appreciate it when we try to dress them, well mine didn’t but I was trying to help him). Give wise and sound counsel to them when they come home stressed and distressed.

One of the most powerful ministries that women have is as mothers. Mothers influence and impact their children greatly. In the early years the mother spends most of the time with her children, teaching them how to speak, feeding them, comforting them and those of us who know the Lord as our personal saviour try to teach them very early about the love of the Lord, by reading bible stories to them, singing and praying with them, all these things are very important, because we are influencing their lives even from this early stage.

We influence them by our example in the home, by the things that we don’t say, how we treat our husband and them in the home. Its one thing to be a Christian parent telling your children what they should be doing, its another thing seeing you living what you are teaching and preaching.

For example we may teach our children that God loves everyone, its does not matter what race you are what you look like or where you come from that God is not prejudice and neither are you – but you stop your child playing with another child because their skin is a different colour to yours or they come from a different culture to yours, or they come from a poorer background to ours, prejudice can also be displayed when you turn your child out of the home because they have disgraced the family – this does not demonstrate unconditional love and these things influence our children’s thinking and how they behave in their own lives and society as a whole. Imagine if Jesus treated us in this way.

Influence is yours, whether you are a working woman, mother or a wife. Use it to be a pattern of God’s holiness, an instrument of heaven’s love.

Ask yourself how do I influence my family by my words and deeds, am I like Jezebel or am I like the virtuous woman?

Today mothers and grandmothers, godmothers lets think of how we can influence our husbands, children and those around us to a closer walk with the Lord and to do good rather than evil.

Call to Commitment

If there is anyone who feels they have fallen short and wants to re-commitment or re-dedicate their life back to the Lord – so that their influence on their husband, children and others they meet in their lives will be a positive one then please visit the Sinners Prayer on this website.

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