A man who grew up along the Mississippi River told of a steamboat that ran by his house that had a very big whistle and a very small boiler. Since both the boiler and the whistle took steam to run, when the boat went upstream, it made headway as long as no one blew the whistle. When the whistle was blown though, it would loose power and drift back downstream. A poor combination for a parent wanting to pass on their faith to their children is to have too big a whistle and too small a boiler when it comes to the testimony of their faith. They blow loud and hard but the kids can see them drifting downstream and they don't buy it.

Today is Mother's Day. I'd like to remind you of some of the dedication it took for your mother to raise you to that age when you were ready to leave your home and go out on your own. Or, if you're still at home, to remind you of her never-ending determination to raise you right. These are quotes from the mothers of famous personalities. I hope they remind you that it was with no small amount of what we might call "encouragement" that you were raised.

PAUL REVERE'S MOTHER: "I don't care where you think you have to go, young man. Midnight is past your curfew!"

MONA LISA'S MOTHER: "After all that money your father and I spent on braces, Mona, that's the biggest smile you can give us?"

HUMPTY DUMPTY'S MOTHER: "Humpty, if I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times not to sit on that wall. But would you listen to me? Noooo!"

COLUMBUS' MOTHER: "I don't care what you've discovered, Christopher. You still could have written!"

BABE RUTH'S MOTHER: "Babe, how many times have I told you--quit playing ball in the house! That's the third broken window this week!"

MICHELANGELO'S MOTHER: "Mike, can't you paint on walls like other children? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get that stuff off the ceiling?"

NAPOLEON'S MOTHER: "All right, Napoleon. If you aren't hiding your report card inside your jacket, then take your hand out of there and prove it!"

CUSTER'S MOTHER: "Now, George, remember what I told you--don't go biting off more than you can chew!"

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S MOTHER: "Again with the stovepipe hat, Abe? Can't you just wear a baseball cap like the other kids?"

BARNEY'S MOTHER: "I realize strained plums are your favorite, Barney, but you're starting to look a little purple."

BATMAN'S MOTHER: "It's a nice car, Bruce, but do you realize how much the insurance is going to be?"

GOLDILOCKS' MOTHER: "I've got a bill here for a busted chair from the Bear family. You know anything about this, Goldie?"

LITTLE MISS MUFFET'S MOTHER: "Well, all I've got to say is if you don't get off your tuffet and start cleaning your room, there'll be a lot more spiders around here!"

ALBERT EINSTEIN'S MOTHER: "But, Albert, it's your senior picture. Can't you do something about your hair? Styling gel, mousse, something...?"

GEORGE WASHINGTON'S MOTHER: "George, the next time I catch you throwing money across the Potomac, you can kiss your allowance good-bye!"

JONAH'S MOTHER: "That's a nice story, but now tell me where you've really been for the last three days."

SUPERMAN'S MOTHER: "Clark, your father and I have discussed it, and we've decided you can have your own telephone line. Now will you quit spending so much time in all those phone booths?"

THOMAS EDISON'S MOTHER: "Of course I'm proud that you invented the electric light bulb, Thomas. Now turn off that light and get to bed!"

Ah yes. Where would we be today had not our moms kept us in line during those early years!

This morning I want to look at several passages in the New Testament that speak of the influence of a mother and a grandmother on a child who, when he grew up, became a powerful force in early church. He played a key role in your faith and mine. Not everything is revealed about his home life but there are some clues that give us powerful insight into how a mother can influence her children for Christ. Please join me at 2 Timothy 1:1-5. We'll look especially at verse 5.

(Read it)

These tender words of affection were written, of course, by the Apostle Paul to his young friend and most trusted disciple, Timothy. When Paul needed something important done, the nod went to Timothy. Timothy was an evangelist. Two of the letters in your New Testament were written to him. He is mentioned as a joint sender of six of Paul's epistles.

Timothy's grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice, mentioned here, were largely responsible for influencing the little boy who grew up to be such an effective Christian. Timothy's father isn't spoken of in this verse, but he is referred to elsewhere. In Acts 16:1, we learn that Timothy was "the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek." It is probably true that Timothy's dad was not a Christian. Neither was he Jewish. Whether he was alive or dead at the time of Paul's letters to Timothy, we don't know. What we do know is that Timothy came from a home situation where the passing of the torch of faith depended heavily on the consistent effort of his mother and grandmother.

We don’t know exactly when the young man became a Christian. Paul came through Timothy's hometown of Lystra on his second missionary journey and noticed him among the believers as one who exhibited strong faith. He had a good reputation among them and Paul wanted to take him with him as a fellow worker. The language Paul later uses to refer to Timothy points strongly to the idea that Paul himself was involved in Timothy's conversion.(1)

With this text in mind, I want to ask you a question. Can a Christian mother strongly influence her child for good in the absence of a Christian father? I don’t think anyone would say such a thing is easy, but this text provides a resounding "yes!" answer to that question. Lois and Eunice did it.

What can a Christian mother do then, to pass on a strong faith to her children? Let's look more closely at this passage to learn what we can about how these women raised Timothy. We see first the need to:

1. Transmit a Sincere Faith.

During one of his political campaigns, a delegation called on Theodore Roosevelt at his home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. The President met them with his coat off and his sleeves rolled up.

“Ah, gentlemen,” he said, “come down to the barn and we will talk while I do some work.”

At the barn, Roosevelt picked up a pitchfork and looked around for the hay. Then he called out, “John, where’s all the hay?”

“Sorry, sir,” John called down from the hayloft. “I ain’t had time to toss it back down again after you pitched it up while the Iowa folks were here.”

Obviously Mr. Roosevelt was trying to present a picture to the visitors that wasn't real. It didn't work. Neither will it work  for a parent to talk and act like something he or she is not. The kids can see right through it.

I remember one time talking to a teenager about his parents. I said something about how good it was to be raised by a Christian dad. He looked at me and said with a similar quizzical look, "My dad, a Christian?"

You can't pass on what you are not. These women, Timothy's mother and grandmother, transmitted a sincere faith because they had a sincere faith. "For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice…"

The best thing you can do, mom's, to raise children who have faith in God is to have a deep faith in Him yourself. You cannot pass on what you do not have. People who bring their children to church and drop them off for their "religious education" seldom end up with good results because their message of "It's not important enough for me to be there" far outweighs anything the Sunday School teacher or preacher can say.

That word "sincere" in our text is the Greek word ANAHUPOKRITES. HUPOKRITES means "hypocrite." ANAHUPOKRITES is the negative of that word. It means "not a hypocrite."

A man who grew up along the Mississippi River told of a steamboat that ran by his house that had a very big whistle and a very small boiler. Since both the boiler and the whistle took steam to run, when the boat went upstream, it made headway as long as no one blew the whistle. When the whistle was blown though, it would loose power and drift back downstream.

A poor combination for a parent wanting to pass on their faith to their children is to have too big a whistle and too small a boiler when it comes to the testimony of their faith. They blow loud and hard but the kids can see them drifting downstream and they don't buy it.

You can transmit your faith to your children only if your own faith is real.

What can a Christian mother do to pass on a strong faith to her children? We see here also the need to:

2. Teach the Scriptures.

Let's look at another passage that describes Timothy's upbringing.

(Read 2 Timothy 3:14-15)

Notice that Timothy learned and became convinced of the truthfulness of the Holy Scriptures in his home while he was a child. There was no waiting until he was "of age" before mom and grandma began his religious training.

It has never ceased to amaze me when parents are reluctant to influence their kids too strongly in areas of faith. They say, "Well, I had it pushed down my throat when I was a child and I don’t intend to do that with my children."

OK. Don't force it down their throat. That's the wrong way to go about it. But don't just do nothing, either! It's true that one reason a child rejects the teaching of the Scriptures is because his parents use it as a bludgeon rather than a guide. The kids get out of line and they are clubbed with the Scriptures, often while parents are guilty of the same or other obvious violations themselves. If a child grows up thinking that his parents hold him to the letter when he gets out of line, but cut themselves slack when they misbehave, he will develop disdain for the Word of God. But that's not the fault of the Scripture. Nor is it the fault of early religious training. It’s the fault of inconsistent parents.

If you're going to make the kids humble themselves, ask for forgiveness, and make restitution when they do wrong, you'd better be doing the same thing yourself.

Also, if you're one who has said, "I'm not going to influence my children in making choices in what they believe," you need to remember that there are plenty of forces out there that your kids face every day that spend millions of dollars to influence your children for evil. If you don't teach them the values of God's word, someone will teach them the values of the world.

Near a little church building in Kansas, there are two baby footprints in the cement of the sidewalk. The tiny imprints point toward the front door of the church building. It seems that several decades ago, when the sidewalk was being poured, a mother got permission to stand her baby boy on the wet cement. The tracks can still be seen today and the people still tell the story of that young mother's pledge to give her life to point that boy to the truth of God's word and the church that taught it. That kind of dedication to influencing our children is what we need today. We must teach them the Scriptures and a high regard for the same while they are young.

Several years ago the Washington Post carried these words spoken by former President Ronald Reagan: "If we fail to instruct our children in justice, religion, and liberty, we will be condemning them to a world without virtue, a life in the twilight of a civilization where the great truths have been forgotten." (2) Considering all of the school violence we're seeing today, Reagan's words sound rather prophetic, don't they?

Mothers, teach your children the Word of God while you can. Teach them to fear God. Teach them the way of salvation. Convince them it is true with all the effort you can muster. Live it yourself. Do it wisely. Do it consistently.

What can a Christian mother do to pass on a strong faith to her children? We see finally the need to:

3. Triumph over Negative Influence.

I mentioned earlier that Timothy's father probably wasn't a believer. He wasn't even Jewish. While we don't know much of the story of his influence, we do know from Acts 16:3 that Timothy had not been circumcised as a baby, something unthinkable in a religiously strong Jewish home.(3) (By the way, circumcision is not an issue among Christians. It was an issue in that context only because of the need for Timothy to be accepted among the Jews so he could preach Christ to them.) My point is that Timothy's father was either lukewarm or cold toward the Jewish faith. He didn’t even have the boy circumcised. It doesn't appear that things changed much when the mother and grandmother were converted to Christ.

Timothy grew up in a religiously divided home. Said even more precisely, he grew up with an unbelieving father. When it came time to go to church on Sunday, mom and grandmother went. Dad stayed home.

Some of you know firsthand what that's like because you're living it. You've longed for the day when your husband would be converted, but you've been disappointed again and again. Perhaps you've endured some complaining about your being gone on Sunday when you come to church. Maybe you've cringed at the influence of your husband's bad habits on your children.

As tough as it is to have an effective influence on your kids under such circumstances, the words of this passage assure us that it can be done. These women did it. The job is not impossible. Don't give up. Don't throw in the towel. The next time you get discouraged, remind yourself of Lois and Eunice. Your kids are worth it. God's great cause is worth it. The difficulties you are having at the moment will soon fade into the background and you'll be glad for eternity that you stuck to your guns.

Motivational speaker Sheila Murray Bethel reminds us to keep our focus on the things that really matter when she says, "Never once have I heard an older person look back on life and say, 'Boy oh boy! I wish I had spent more time with the corporation!' or 'If I had it to do over, I would get up even earlier in the morning and go down to the company and really get after my job!'" (4)

No, what we hear instead are things like, "If I had it to do over, I'd spend more time with my kids. I'd have more family outings and vacations. I'd be a little firmer and a bit more diligent. I'd try harder to influence them." Moms, you only get a limited time to be a significant influence on your kids, then it is gone forever.

There is a price to pay to raise kids right, but it's worth it, even if you're a mother who has to raise a child without the help of a loving and caring Christian husband. You can do it and it is worth it.

Conclusion

And may I remind you as we wrap this up that if you are one whose mother made sacrifices for you, don't forget her. Always remember:

You are the trip she did not take,
You are the pearls she could not buy,
You are her blue Italian lake,
You are her piece of foreign sky.
You are her Honolulu moon,
You are the book she did not write.
You are her heart's unuttered tune,
You are her candle in the night.

She gave it up for you. Be sure you thank her - often.

An ad in a college newspaper read, "Sweet old lady desires to correspond with young male student; her son." If your mother is reachable, don't leave her lonely on this Mother's Day. Give her a call.

Footnotes:

1. In 1 Timothy 1:2 he calls him, "my true child in the faith."
2. Ronald Reagan in the Washington Post, August 24, 1984, as quoted in Pastoral Research Service.
3. Acts 16:3 - "Paul wanted this man to go with him; and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew that his father was a Greek."
4. Pastor's Research Service

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

[Archive]    [Home]   [Comments]   [Search]