church2go

Mums are amazing. That is a generalisation but when you think about it, it is true.

Their capacity for love is huge. They truly have a servant like attitude to their kids. From my perspective, I have seen my mum, and my grandmas and now my wife be servants. They have displayed to me the biblical principles of servant leadership.

Paul talks about it here.

^{1CO 4:1} So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.

He is talking about himself and Apollos, yet the principle is there for us to take hold of. Be servants. Remember last week, each person builds on the foundation. Mums take this to heart, they build children, and they take their responsibility serious. Or as Paul says in the next verse they are proved faithful.

² Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

But mum’s,  the trust that has been given to you is enormous. Basically as well as bringing the kids up, as Christian mums you have the responsibility to bring Jesus into their lives.

You mums take it very serious. So serious that you think that your effectiveness as mums is evaluated by the behaviour of your kids. Oh the embarrassment when you are called to the principles office or have heard of misbehaviour at school.

Even more so for Christian mums when your kids don’t do the Christian thing.

Yes, you take your role seriously. And you take it to heart.

Today, listen to Paul.

³ I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. ⁴ My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.

If it is God who judges, He sees your heart and knows how much you put into it. Marianne and I are learning some stuff through our kids. One is to look at things differently and judge things differently. And you learn from the funniest places. Not only from Jackson and from Flynn’s reaction to Jackson, and others reactions but from well look at this.

Let me show you some things these are t shirt designs from America.

Autism shirt logos.

1. I have autism what’s your excuse. We look at behaviour differently.
2. I am raising a child with Autism what is your superpower. We look at our own capabilities differently.
3. Autism – not for wimps. We look at our efforts differently.
4. I am not misbehaving – I have Autism please be understanding. We look at others reactions differently
5. Is my childs behaviour disdurbing you – ask me about autism. We see opportunities to explain.
6. People with autism do not lie, do not judge, do not play mind games. Maybe we can learn something from them. We look at motives differently.
7. You laugh because I’m different I laugh because your all the same. We revel in difference.
8. My kid is autistic what is wrong with yours? We find humour in most things
9. I have autism please be nice to my mom. I give credit to Marianne for an amazing job.

You see we struggle with our kids behaviour. We think we are sometimes judged by people because our kids don’t do what is normally expected, particularly by people who don’t know us.  But I see the work that Marianne puts in particularly to Jackson, but also Flynn who is learning by watching his big brother, and has his own exuberance. I give credit to Marianne for being an amazing mum, I am sometimes the only one who sees what she does for our boys, then she has to deal with me as well.

Yet sometimes she feels inadequate for the task. Listen to Paul as he further states.

⁵ Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

You mums will receive Gods praise for your work. The amazing thing about this church community is the encouragement that comes from the other mums to Marianne. Mum to mum encouragement is vitally important, and we thank you for it in our own lives. I thank you for encouraging my wife.  

This next verse is what the women in this church take literally.

    ^{1CO 4:6} Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.

Now saying now brothers doesn’t sound to motherly. The word is adelphoi which means brethren. Which in greek means all the children of a family. Anyway the example is that

learning from each other is important. Applying what has been learnt is even more important. Remember this passage links in with what we talked about last week about each person having their job to do. The encouragement is that as we learn we can become more effective and useful to each other and to God. Mums can learn from each other. We can all learn from each other.

The next bit of the verse is interesting.

⁷ For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Paul is saying here “What makes you think you are so special???? You got what you have from God, sop there is no reason to boast or belly ache about what others have, or what you have.

He goes on the qualify that with the next verse.

    ^{1CO 4:8} Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings–and that without us! How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you!

You have what you need to do the building that God wants you to. You are more than adequate. Ore than qualified, after all mums you are mums. What does Paul mean by saying You have become Kings and that without us. He is saying –we didn’t do it – it is God’s grace enacted in your life. Paul doesn’t claim special ownership of your spiritual growth.

Here is a lesson for us, for mum’s,  dad’s and the rest.

God is working in our lives by grace. Parents do your job, build well, but let God do His thing in your kids lives. Let them develop into kings and queens. Let ourselves be built by God as we build others up, remember you are rich. The word for rich gives us the sense that we are abundantly supplied with all we need.

Mum’s you got what you need to be good mum’s. You are abundantly supplied with what you need. Use it to build you kids.

Dads – you are abundantly supplied with what you need to be good husbands – build you wives and your kids.

In fact all of us have all that we need in abundance to do what building we are called to. 

This entry was posted on Friday, July 2nd, 2010 at 6:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.