Our Lord Jesus Christ set the example for honoring mothers when on the cross, as Pastor Drake reminded us Wednesday night, he took thought for his mother. And you may remember that as he is suffering, as he was made sin for us, he said these words to his disciple John in John 19 verse 26. When Jesus therefore saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, He said to his mother, woman, behold your son. And then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. And so even in the midst of such a scene, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, honors his mother. Romans 13.7 says, render therefore to all their due. Taxes, to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, and honor to whom honor is due. And so many of us can think of so much to honor our mothers for, but be that as it may, it is a command of God to honor your mother. Now, that seems so basic as to hardly need reinforcement, but in a world where that is commonly defied and disobeyed, it bears preaching on. And as much as I'm looking forward to hearing Pastor Drake's message on Sarah, I hope that we will get to hear that soon. It's also time well spent for us to look at a passage that you know well. We're going to be going to a lot of places in the Bible, and so for those of you who have a paper Bible, that's good. I want to hear those pages rustling. And for those of you who are using some digital form, so that I can be assured that you're not playing a video game, I'd like to see just some light in your eyes as we go to these various passages. And I know how those devices work. You're seeing your notifications up at the top, even as you're reading 1 Thessalonians. So ignore them for the time being and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6 and we'll begin with verse 1. Ephesians 6 verses 1 through 4. Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth and you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. This morning we're going to talk about this idea of honoring our mother in particular and let me just say that I think it's a very countercultural thing to do right now. As a matter of fact, what's in fashion is to dishonor our mother, to make light of her. Now a politician of fame and recent notoriety has been fond of calling people a lightweight. He referred to the senator from Florida and said, he's a lightweight. Now that was not a compliment on his dietary prowess or his ability to maintain a good physique. It was saying, Marco Rubio doesn't matter. He's not a contender in this discussion that we're having. He's a lightweight. The reason I bring up that word picture is that the Hebrew word for honor is a word that means weight. or importance. And I started this to give the message as ascribe weight to your mother. But I decided that would not be popular. As a matter of fact, I was counseled long ago that when a woman brings up that subject to say nothing, it is a trap. Say nothing and you will live long. But the Hebrew word is the opposite of calling somebody a lightweight. It's saying this person matters. She's a heavyweight, not in the sense of physical gravity, but in the sense of she is a person of the utmost importance. And God says that without any kind of conditional statement. It's not honor your father and your mother if, they're giving you what you want. It's not honor your father and your mother if they are scoring 95 on a 100 point scale that day and how they're performing. It's honor your father and your mother. This is God's command. And so biblically, I'd like to look at four reasons why we ought to make sure that we consider our mothers a person of importance, and then three ways how we do that. When I was in Cincinnati at a homeschool fair about a month ago, I gave a workshop on memorizing scripture. There were about 35 people there, including a mother and a son. The son was about 6 feet tall, about 185 pounds, and I didn't notice anything unusual about him until I started talking, because when I started talking, he started having a very loud conversation with me about no particular subject, but he was just chattering at me, full voice, on things that had nothing to do with what I was talking about. And I realized pretty quickly that he had some kind of a birth defect, some kind of a mental condition, some kind of autism. And I saw the mom pull him aside and take him out of the room, not once, not twice, but three times. She wanted to be in that workshop and she kept working with her autistic son, trying to get him to sit still enough for her to be in that workshop. She finally gave up and left. And when I saw her in the aisle later, I had the opportunity to just go and finish the workshop. I just talked to her and told her what I had shared and gave her some things that I was giving away. And I watched her throughout that weekend work with that young man and just basically go through that convention with him. I saw one scene where he was in particular getting out of control and she just took him in her arms and looked at him face to face and told him what he needed to do and concluded the conversation with a kiss and kissed him. And I was told by the young man who was helping me, a young man from Michigan, that It's this way every year at this convention. She brings her son to this convention and labors with him, works with him, loves him in a way that truly deserves honor. But the first reason we honor our mothers has nothing to do with their performance. Rather, first of all, we honor them because of their position, their position. Turn with me back to Genesis chapter 3. And you may remember this scene where, in particular, the curse that falls on creation affects childbirth and motherhood in particular. And it's very interesting to see that this curse that comes on creation has made a childbirth a difficult thing, and yet, in keeping with God's plan, The human race is being saved through an act of childbirth. There you see there in Genesis 3 verse 20, and Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. And if you skip down to verse 15, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed, He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heels." So through the seed that will come through the woman, the human race will be saved. And remember how Galatians 4.4 describes the fulfillment of that. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. And so motherhood has this exalted position of being the means by which God is doing something about the sin that separates us from him. And so we honor mothers because they are in that same line, in that same tradition. Beyond that, God himself oftentimes speaks of himself in maternal terms. Now, by the way, I know that our culture has this idea that in marriage men and women are interchangeable and that it doesn't matter that you have one of each. One of the things that's wrong with that is that God repeatedly refers to himself in some ways He is our Heavenly Father, that's actually what he is. But then in certain verses, in order to communicate fully what he's like, he talks about himself, comparing himself to the way a mother loves his child. Why her child? Because mothers love their children in a way that is alien, that's different from the way a father does. There's something in particular about a mother's love that is irreplaceable. these acquaintances that you have who want to make men and women interchangeable in marriage, ask them, who's dispensable, the mom or the dad? Ask them, which side of love do we not need? God made us to need love from a mother as well as a father. And when, tragically, that's lacking in our lives, we have to look to God to supply that. It's not dispensable. It's something that he made us to need. Look with me at Isaiah chapter 49 and verse 15. Isaiah 49 and verse 15, when God is comparing himself and talking about how his love is faithful and will not abandon us, he says this. Isaiah 49, 15, let me back up to verse 14 and hear what Israel is saying. Isaiah 49, 14, but Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me and the Lord has forgotten me. When God wants to answer that complaint, he says this, can a woman forget her nursing child and not have compassion on the son of her womb? God's saying, you know what? That's how unlikely it is that I will ever forget you, my people." Well, maybe in some case that might happen. Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you, verse 16, on the palms of my hands, your walls are continually before me." In other words, God's saying, how unlikely is it that a woman would forget her own nursing child? That's how unlikely it is that I would forget you. And so he appeals to something that they think, well, you know, dads are often forgetful, or dads, you know, there's that tragic scene in the life of John Adams where there was that estrangement between our second president and his son Charles, but a wife, a woman, a mother is so unlikely to do that and yet even if that happens God does not forget us. You know I won't soon forget how automatic it was in my wife Susan's life when a certain choice came about when she was expecting Faith and then Jonathan. She has suffered, and I don't mean to be too personal, but from a hereditary skin condition that calls for certain medicine. And it's something that our family is familiar with because there's more than one person that has rosacea. And so there's this medicine that was very helpful, very effective, that would deal with the skin condition. But when it was just mentioned for a second that this might have or would have severely detrimental effects for unborn children, it was not even a question. It was not even a split-second hesitation for Susan to say, I'm going to do without that medicine. let this rosacea, if need be, go unchecked because I will do anything to make sure that these children in my womb are okay. And those of you who've carried children know just what a sacrifice, what a labor, no pun intended, that that is. To carry those children and to be, to go through the rigors of that. I remember when I discovered that I was cooking with propane on the grill and I read on the propane bottle This substance is known in California to cause birth defects. And I thought, why just in California? So I asked our OBGYN doctor, why only in California? And in his inimitable way, he said, well, I suppose if you put your head in a bag and open the propane bottle, you might have some adverse effects. In my wife's life, and probably for every mother in this room, if you even get a hint that something is going to harm your unborn child, it doesn't matter the cost to yourself. You stay away from it. And I even stopped cooking with propane that year for a short time. But you know, we have a much more drastic experience of that in our family in that our cousin, Lorraine Wontrop, while she was pregnant, was discovered to have a very fast-moving cancer. And the day that she died was also the day that her son was born. And she abstained from any treatment whatsoever. Not sure if it would have helped, but Lorraine did not take any of that chemotherapy that would have harmed Jeffrey. And so women image God, show us what God is like in a way like no other, and we honor them for that position. In 1 Thessalonians 2.7 when the apostles are talking about their care for young believers, 1 Thessalonians 2.7 he says this, we were gentle among you just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. Other places, Matthew 23, 37, Jesus says, how often I wanted to gather you as a hen gathers her chicks. His love for God's airing people was like that of a mother hen, wanting to gather them to safety. Now, you know, We don't take this language too literally, but there are a number of places. Psalm 91 where he says, he'll shelter us under his wings and under his feathers. That's the imagery of a mother. And so we honor our mothers today because in a way, unlike fathers, they show us something about God's faithful, self-sacrificing love. More on that in a moment. Secondly, we not only honor the position, but we honor their provision. Those of you who know the description of the woman of valor, The woman of virtue in Proverbs 31 may remember these words. in Proverbs 31, 15. She also rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and a portion for her maidservants. She considers a field and buys it, and from a profit she plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength and strengthens her arms. I don't know how often it is in your house that mom or your wife is up preparing for the household before it's light, but this is a very common scene in our household. It's a very common scene in the household where I was growing up. My mom worked as a nurse in a nursing home for a number of the years that I was growing up, and so she got up early, emptied the dishwasher, listened to the Lord's Prayer on the radio station, and then the march, the John Philip Sousa march of the day, while she emptied the dishwasher. And I was usually still sleeping, and I had this vision that she was in there marching around, clashing the pots and pans together, while she put them away to this march, but I woke up with that almost every morning. Why? Because before light, my mom, before her other job, was there providing for her household, getting breakfast ready, emptying the dishwasher, getting herself ready, and then going to her nurse's job. Now, I don't know what kinds of trouble have hit your families but let me just say my father aspired to do something significant for Christ and as is so often the case our family hit rough water. We had difficulties and I remember some of those difficulties and my mom's courage in continuing to love us and do what's right in the midst of those difficulties. And my sister later wrote a poem that my mom was actually doing her march because she was a soldier in the army of love. And I'll never forget hearing that as I woke up as she provided for us while it was still dark. You know, many studies have been done on what it would cost to pay your wife or pay your mother for what she does for you as she serves. as a domestic worker, a dietician, a resident physical therapist, a counselor, a doctor, a nurse, an environmental engineer, and all the things that a mother does. This year, the calculation has topped a $143,000 salary. That's just being paid hourly. A lot of those positions get a salary But if you paid your mom hourly for those things, it would be about $50,000 for the first 40 hours a week that she spends and about $95,000 of overtime. She provides and provides and provides thousands of meals, hundreds of loads of laundry, picking up and all the things that a mom does in between. We honor her for her provision. But perhaps most significantly, we honor our mothers for their passion. Now, you might say, boy, you're really reaching for the peas. I know, I am. And I know that our world uses the word passion to refer to romantic love or to strong feelings, but I'm thinking of it in terms of self-giving love, because when we say the, capital P, passion, we're talking about the time when Jesus laid down his life for us. And we honor our mothers today because over and over again they love us with a self-giving love where they put us ahead of themselves. Now I know that you moms out here may not think yourselves worthy of this description or know the struggles that you have and that's fine if you want to take this as a challenge. But over and over and over again, our moms lay down their lives for us. I see that in my wife's life, I see it in my mom's life. And whatever, I say this to myself and probably don't say it to my mom enough, whatever comes out of my life, I know my mom has a share in that. My dad taught me so much scripture and was such a blessing to me in the way that he taught me and instructed me. But my mom showed me up close and personal what a relationship with God looks like. And of course she wasn't perfect, but she showed me that God was real, that he communicated with us, and that he loved us. If you think about what that self-giving love looks like, there's no better description than 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 13 You've probably heard this preached, there are 14 descriptions of what self-giving love looks like. I hear two Bibles turning. Trusting the rest of you are digital. 1 Corinthians 13, please look at this description with me. Now, I won't go through the whole passage, but you know that the first three verses basically say, if you don't have love, you've got nothing. It is the one and only, without which, nothing in the Christian life. You can lay down your life, you can give your body to be burned, you can give away all your possessions, you can have your quiet time every day, you can be mis-evangelist, you can do all these things, but if you don't have love, It is nothing. Remember what Paul says in Galatians, for now in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love. And listen to these 14 describers of what that love is like. And we'll probably get stuck on the first one, so take heart. He says there in verse 4, love suffers long. This is the word makrathumia, which basically means Long fuse, long of temperament, long suffering. Now, you know, we're fond of thinking that people who experience a lot of love in their lives are very fortunate people. But what we really mean by that is it's people who receive love who are fortunate people. Because the giving of love that mothers do over and over again is a love that suffers long. Now, we aren't normally accustomed to thinking of that as a blessed state, to suffer long. As a matter of fact, when we talk about someone's death, we usually are kind of thankful if it's short and quick. But a mom suffers long as she loves her children. That is the first characteristic that's described here. It's true of God. It's true of human beings like mothers who show God's image. It suffers long and is kind. You may remember this kind of odd discussion that Jesus has with Peter after the resurrection. And in John 21, Jesus says this. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished. But when you were old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. This he spoke, signifying, and hear this phrase, by what death he would glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. I bring that up to say that what is it about a cross, and in Peter's case, tradition is true, an upside down cross, that's so hard? It's that you can't get out of that situation. You are pinned to that cross. It is a long suffering. Let me just say that motherhood over and over and over and over again provides a particular means of a death that glorifies God. It's the death of simply saying, I'm going to keep giving to people who don't necessarily give back to me. It's the death of saying, I'm going to continually bless people who don't appreciate maybe that I'm blessing them. It's the continual glorifying God of saying, I am going to lay down my life for this husband that God has given me, for these children that God has given me, even though it hurts, even though I'm not getting the payback right now that I think I deserve. It is the death by which you moms glorify God of laying down your life for those in your lives. We know that Jesus said that if any man would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life, wives, mothers, for my sake, will save it." And so when you lay down your life for your husband and for your children, you are really honoring Christ and following Christ as you do that. Love suffers long and is kind. I'm going to skip through these without much comment because there are a couple that I want to say more about. Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, its own things, its own agenda. And those of you who have served long as moms know what it's like over and over and over again to have a list of things you want to get done that day. And then your child's needs intervene. When your child needs you, whether it's a child who is 6 or 26, you have to drop what you're doing and care for that child. And you do it over and over and over again, maybe with no thanks. does not seek its own things. Remember, as Paul is commending Timothy to the congregation at Philippi, he says this in Philippians chapter two, I'm sending you Timothy, for I have no one like him who will honestly seek your welfare, for all seek their own. That's the same phrase. Everybody seeks their own agenda. Everybody seeks their own things, but not the love that God calls all of us to show and that mothers show over and over and over again. Love does not seek its own things, is not provoked, thinks no evil. Now this phrase, thinks no evil, has often been recorded as does not keep a record of wrongs or doesn't dwell on the wrong that others do. I think we all have some experience with keeping a list of how others fail us. Well, that's the opposite of love. It's deciding that I'm going to get rid of that list of indictments I have against others. I'm not going to take joy when they fall. Now, commentators as diverse as Mark Twain and other philosophers have said, you know, there's something kind of fun about seeing your neighbor fail. Now, I won't ask for a show of hands, but you know, I know that sometimes we secretly struggle when other people's children misbehave. All right? Maybe you're immune to that. Maybe not. But you know, we all have that problem with maybe rejoicing in a little bit when someone else is not doing well, and that shadowy joy. Well, love does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Verse 7, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Let me just say, I've covered 13 of the 14 descriptions of love, and I know that probably if you're grading yourself on this, you're seeing some gyrations in the graph. Maybe you do well on some of these things, maybe not as well on others. But take heart, this is the school that God has moms and the rest of us in, to learn to love like this. Love bears all things, hopes all things, believes all things, endures all things, verse 8, love never fails. And so I would just say that so often our moms, our mothers show us an advanced degree in this kind of passion, in this kind of self-giving love and an example that we can follow. You know, I remember talking to my mom in later life about the way that she lived her life, and when I was having some struggles, and struggling to do the right thing, and even when I didn't feel like doing it. And my mom had this piece of wisdom that I think she probably had lived by more than once. And she said, you know, Jim, sometimes you have to say to your feelings, I don't have time to talk to you right now. I have to do what's right, and then I'll talk to you later. And I thought, well, how do you do that? And my mom said, you just do it. Very unhelpful help at that point. But she was right. She was right. She was basically saying, Jim, don't take a dipstick to your emotions and then decide if you're going to do the right thing. Do the right thing and talk with your feelings later. And that's what this kind of passion, this kind of self-giving love does. Lastly, we honor, we ascribe importance to our moms because of their position. We honor them because of their provision before it's light. They get up and do all these things for us over and over. We honor them for their self-giving love, their passion. And fourthly, we honor the person, the providential person that God has given you. Now, you know, sometimes pop culture gets mentioned in sermons because it illustrates certain things. And please give us preacher's grace that when we mention a certain work of art, we're not endorsing every aspect of that art. Because I'm going to quote the theological treatise, Home Alone, for just a minute. You know, Home Alone is about a little boy who wishes to get rid of his family. And then he wakes up one morning and realizes that he's done it. He's wished that his family would go away and he wakes up and he's been left behind while they go on a European vacation and they don't realize that he's been left behind until it's too late. dealing with his neighbor whom he was formerly scared of. He meets his neighbor in church, and the neighbor says, you know, even when you're not doing well, you're always welcome in church. And the little boy starts unburdening his heart to his scary neighbor. And he basically says to him, I made my family disappear, and I'm not sure if I've done the right thing. And he's wrestling with especially his relationship with his older brother. And the neighbor who is alienated from his own family and wanting to be reconciled to his son says, well, you know, how you feel about your family is a complicated thing. And I think that when we honor the person that God has given us, as we grow up, we come to terms with the providence of God and the parents that he gave us. And you realize, you know what, my parents did this so well, and my parents really were dealt a difficult hand in this particular situation, but I marvel at how they played that hand. I marvel at how they took what they had and parlayed it into such grace towards me. But you know, you may look back and you might say, you know, I'm struggling with the providence of God and allowing this in our family or that in our family. And let me just say one thought, and that is that nearly every human being has to go through that. has to go through with coming to terms of, you know, what God has given me in my mom, what he's given me in my upbringing, and maybe what he hasn't given. Maybe you don't have all the things that money can buy that some of your peers have. Maybe your mom or your dad have had to say no to you about things, and you have no utter idea why they would say no. Can we grow up enough to realize, you know what? God is God, and I'm not. And I'm going to honor the person providentially that he's given me. I'm going to trust him about that. He had his reasons. There are things that maybe have not gone the way that I wanted them to go. And maybe it's okay to be honest about those things as when Naomi comes back to the land of Judah and she says, don't call me pleasant Naomi, call me Mara, bitter, because I went out full and God has brought me back empty. It's okay to be honest about those things. But that does not say that we don't have honor to render. That honor is not due that person that providentially God has put in your life. So we honor the position. We honor our moms because they stand in that position of the mother of all living, Eve. They're connected to her. and the world has been saved through childbirth and they have done that for us. We honor the provision, all the things they've done for us while we were still snoring. We honor the passion, the self-giving love of laying down their lives in ways big and small. And lastly, we honor the providential person that God has given to us. Now, you might think, well, that's kind of a hard pill to swallow. Are you just saying, well, I know you have a tough situation, but just accept it? Well, consider our Lord Jesus Christ, who, as he grew older, had to deal with the fact over and over again that he knew more than his parents. Now, some of you say, oh, this is my life verse. But over and over again, Jesus confronted that situation. And here again, this description of Jesus' upbringing. After they've had that scene in the temple where Jesus has to say to his mother and his father, didn't you know I would be about my father's business? We read this in Luke 2.50. But they did not understand the statement which he spoke to them. And so they were saying, that's it. I'm in that situation all the time. My parents don't understand what I'm saying. And then in verse 51, we read this about our Lord Jesus. Then he went down. with them and came to Nazareth and was subject to them, or we could say obedient to them. He honored them, but his mother kept all these things in her heart, but she had a lot to keep there. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. Jesus was subject to his mother. Did his mother know more than he did? No, manifestly she did not. But Jesus is subject to her, and there at the end of his life, he's taking care of her. He's honoring her. He, on the cross, ascribes importance. He honors his mother. Let's look real quickly at three ways how we can honor our mothers. First of all, we can praise them. Now you might say, wait, I thought that was reserved for God. No, worship is reserved for God. Look at Proverbs 31 again with me just a moment. And this word for praise is the same word that's used in praise of God, Proverbs 31, verses 28 and 29, talking about the husband's regard for his wife and the children's regard for their mother. Proverbs says this, her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praises her. Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all. Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Praised by whom? By her children, by her husband, and even given that praise from God, that credit for what she has done. So maybe you can write a poem like my sister did, or maybe it's as simple as telling your mom what you appreciate about her. telling her that you appreciate what she's done, celebrating who she is and the service, the giving, the loving she has done. Secondly, besides giving her credit and the right kind of praise, there is a way that we can provide for our mothers. Now this is going to happen to you as you get older and you become an adult, if you're a child or a young person here, But look at 1 Timothy chapter 5. This is a discussion of family relationships and how believers deal with one another. And there's some telling phrases here. 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 4. But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them, that is the kids and the grandkids, first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents, for this is good and acceptable before God. Your mom has cooked many meals for you. You might consider doing some cooking for her. Your mom has done much to provide you a great place to live and keep you clothed and in your right mind. You might consider providing for her. As a matter of fact, 1 Timothy 5 goes on to say, if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. You know, can I just caution all of us against something that's part of the spirit of the age? 2 Timothy chapter 3 says, but know this, that in the last days Perilous times will come. Oh, what do those perilous times look like? Well, according to the Holy Spirit, speaking through Paul, he says, men will be lovers of themselves. That's bad when you just focus on yourself. That's narcissism. Lovers of money. That's materialism. And then he goes into this list that sounds pretty serious. Blasphemers, proud, boasters, and the next thing he says is disobedient to parents. In other words, there's a movement that's part of the spirit of our age that's a popular thing to do is to toss your parents behind your back. But God says, through his servant Paul, pay back, repay their, boy, I better stop with the Ps here, repay their parents for this is good and acceptable before God. To pay them back, Proverbs 23, 22 says, do not despise your mother when she is old. Do not despise her. Don't cease giving her that place of honor and of importance. And yet if you watch popular entertainment, that is being done lock, stock, and barrel. We're being taught to despise those in authority in general and our parents in particular. When I was young and in about sixth grade, I knew a ton of scripture by heart, but I lived by very little of it. I was very much all just head knowledge in terms of what I knew about God's word. And I remember when God began to work and sanctify through his truth. I remember the day when I saw somebody else in my church who honored her parents and I realized I don't do that. I'm deceiving them, I'm dishonoring them, I'm disobeying them and it pierced my conscience that all of a sudden I thought I don't do this and I thought I can't follow Christ. I can't be holy if my parents don't feel honor from me. There's something really hypocritical about that, about being Mr. Spiritual who quotes scripture, but who dishonors his father and his mother. The Bible says here that we shouldn't despise them at any time, but that we honor them and that we're going to have to go against the spirit of the age to do that. So we praise them, we provide and pay them back, And then lastly, there are some particulars that your mom, I know, would appreciate in particular. Now, maybe it's a back rub today. Maybe it's smiling when you receive something nice from her. Maybe it's doing some of the things for her that she normally does for you, the particular things that make her feel loved. And so as we honor our mothers this day, remember it's because of their position, It's because of the provision. It's because of the passion, the giving that they do. And it's because God has providentially put that woman in your life for you to honor. Let's be like the Lord Jesus in this way as well, and that we take thought for how we may honor our mothers. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for, Lord, the people that you put in our life who show us what you're like. And I thank you for the ways that Susan does that for me and that my mom has done that. And Father, we want to be obedient to your word and forgive us where we have failed in this. Lord, we know that, Lord, you have called us to not be conformed to this world. And so today I pray that you'd show us where we are. Lord, too much like the world. or sometimes of its party, of its mind, without knowing it. And Lord, I pray that you would also, Lord, convict us where we need to change the way that we talk to or talk about or talk with our mothers and our wives. And Father, I ask that we could be a blessing to them who have been such a blessing to us. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that while we were still sinners, you died for us, not because we deserved it, but because of your great love. And so, Father, I pray that, Lord, even today, the loving acts and words of our moms, Lord, would point us to you. And thank you that even when our parents fail, that you, Lord God, don't forsake us, you're faithful to your promises, and you complete that good work which you've started in us. Lord Jesus, thank you for loving us and giving yourself for us, and we pray these things in your name, in Jesus' name, amen.