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  SOME ASPECTS OF MOTHERHOOD (VIDEO)
  by Annie Poonen
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Summary: This sermon focuses on the role of mothers in nurturing and
raising children as gifts from God. It emphasizes the importance of
teaching children to trust the Lord, make right choices, and not lose
sight of their spiritual foundation. The speaker shares personal
experiences and lessons learned, highlighting the need for mothers to
prioritize their relationship with God amidst the challenges of
motherhood, ensuring their love for the Lord and others does not grow
cold.

Topics: "Motherhood", "Spiritual Nurturing"
Scripture References: Proverbs 22:6, Ephesians 6:4, 1 Timothy 5:8, 1 Corinthians 13:4, Proverbs 31:26, Colossians 3:21, Psalm 127:3, Proverbs 31:28, 1 John 4:19

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon focuses on the role of mothers in nurturing and raising
children as gifts from God. It emphasizes the importance of teaching
children to trust the Lord, make right choices, and not lose sight of
their spiritual foundation. The speaker shares personal experiences and
lessons learned, highlighting the need for mothers to prioritize their
relationship with God amidst the challenges of motherhood, ensuring
their love for the Lord and others does not grow cold.

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CONTENT
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We've been sitting here so long, so I won't speak a lot, but I'm so
happy that God has given us a chance to become mothers, those of us who
are mothers. And that verse which we started, our memory verse, all that
the father has given will come to me. I thought all the children whom we
have, the father has given me.

It's a gift from God. And I want to especially remember that and think
of that and say, Lord, they are your gifts. I remember a time when my
children left.

Okay, before that, I come to a time when the children were born. And
it's great. It was the greatest feeling.

You know, they termed that word labor correctly. Because after all those
many hours, we hold this little baby in our arms and we look at his tiny
or her tiny fingers, her toes, and the way she stretches and yawns,
everything so beautiful. And we think like, what a beautiful gift God
has given me.

And we, it takes days and even when they are sleeping, we look at them
and admire them, enjoy them. But, and so it goes on like that. When I
was having my first baby growing up, I got this revelation from the
Lord.

I think I must have read it somewhere. I looked at his hand and I
thought one day these hands are going to wave goodbye to me and leave me
as he goes on the path of life. And that thought stuck with me.

Stuck with me so I didn't want to forget it. I put some color on his
hand and put his hand on a card and made an impression on the card. And
I wrote that card down and I think I put it in his book for seven years.

One day this hand is going to wave goodbye to me and leave me as he goes
on the path of life. And I always want to remember that the years that
God has given our children, so few. Very soon the day will come when
they have to say goodbye to us.

In those few years, God has given us a tremendous responsibility to
teach them many things. When my older son left for college and he had
gone many thousands of miles away, I thought, Lord, I haven't taught him
everything I wanted him to know. Like mothers may think of teaching them
driving, how to fix small things, how to do their laundry, how to cook
some simple meals, many things.

But most importantly, we mothers, the important task is have we taught
our children to trust the Lord and trust him in all trials and to make
the right choices in life, not to be swayed by peer pressure and the
friends may tell them or laugh at them or make fun of them. Will they be
able to stand? So many things I wanted my child to learn and he's gone.
And I thank God we have so many little children with us and we have
mothers who can take that calling seriously.

We thank God for the church where they can hear good things and grow up.
That is the best thing we can give. If we have the Lord and we can give
them the fear of God and to know God, that will be the best thing.

One of the things which the Lord taught me was another thing as my son
was leaving was that I used to pray for so many things like if it's
cold, you know, he was going to college in the east coast where we in
India were not used to such cold weather and I was thinking how hope he
keep himself warm, he hope he knows what to do that he shouldn't go out
in the cold and he should have a head car, a cap or something. So many
things were there and I used to keep thinking like how can I and those
days even to make a phone call was so expensive. 60 rupees to make a
three-minute call from our house for one minute, 60 rupees for one
minute and 60 rupees was a lot of money for us and what could I tell him
and then I came to this revelation and I said Lord, he's not my child,
he's your child.

You gave him to me, you loaned him to me for a few years but he's yours
and that was such a surrender, that lesson of surrendering my children
to the Lord was so important for me. So every time after that they faced
different things in college or at home and as the others were growing
up, I was reminded of this saying Lord, our child, he's yours and ours,
we have him for some years but he really really belongs to you. That was
one revelation.

Then I don't want to add, say the many many little things we have to do
for our children. You know being a mother, today is a mother's day but
actually we mothers can say every day is mother's day for us. We can
never stop becoming a mother.

We have to do the daily things, feed them, bathe them, clothe them,
think of what they're going to eat next and their schooling, everything.
Every day is mother's day for us but I remember the times when
especially my husband was traveling, I thought I don't want my children
to grow up thinking daddy's not here, so it's so dull, it's so boring. I
wanted to make it more interesting.

So we'd sit around and we sing their favorite songs. If they could play
some instrument, they'd play and we'd sing on Saturdays especially or we
play some indoor games. So those are the things which children remember
about us, not just like oh go and study, go and read the bible, go and
pray.

Even about praying, I thought we can tell our children to go and pray
but how do they know how to pray? We have to teach them. So I used to
tell them, you pray after me, Lord Jesus, thank you for this day, Lord
Jesus, I'm sorry if I displeased you, please forgive me. I thought even
those things we can teach our children to pray that they are not going
to learn from some school book or something how to pray.

We have to teach them and regarding the lessons also I remember when
Sanjay went to college, went to school from his earliest years, he had
very good teachers, teachers who had been teaching for maybe 15-20
years. His teachers were well seasoned and he got a good foundation
about his education. Then when my second and third children started
going, especially Santosh went, we got teachers who had just come out of
college and had just done the basic teacher training degree and they
learned in the local language.

They couldn't even speak English properly and they had to teach in
English and the teachers who were teaching maths were not even trained
in maths. So everything was wrong and he was struggling to learn the
basic things of math which was so easy for older one. Then I realized
that's not the teacher's duty.

I have to learn to make it simple in whatever way I can and sit with him
and make him and by the time the third son came, I was able to and he
learned from the way I, the mistakes I made but I thought each bring up,
each child is different. We cannot say, oh this is the way to bring up
this child and all children should be brought up like that. Each child
is different, each method is different and we as mothers should be able
to see, oh this child is different and I have to spend more time with
him or her and maybe I have to specialize in, I mean focus on this
aspect.

Maybe he's, yeah I have to teach him to speak in this way. If they speak
something wrong or rude, we cannot say, oh don't speak like that to
mommy. We have to tell them, Lord, we have to tell them, mommy, we'll
tell them don't speak like that but speak like this and show them,
please mommy can you help me to do that.

Then they learn to speak more respectfully. I have a beautiful picture
on our table about when our youngest grandson was born, you know our
very very youngest grandson was born and he's looking straight into his
father's face. It was just like he was just born and father and son were
looking at each other.

It's such an amazing thing that the child is looking at his father and I
thought it's so wonderful when we can look at our heavenly father and
say, Lord, you are my heavenly father. I want to trust you for
everything. Those are some of the good things but you know becoming a
mother, there were some challenges for me.

I remember that as the days became more busy and the nights also were
busy, I was getting more and more slack in my spiritual life and then I
thought of this verse, in the last days the love of many will grow cold
and I thought really my love for the Lord is growing cold and the Lord
started speaking to me and working in my heart how to work in that area
and I came down to, I shared that testimony before, I was really down
the bottom most part of, I mean rock bottom in my life when the Lord
picked me up and baptized me in the Holy Spirit and I want to challenge
all of us mothers, these are last days and we have to realize that in
these days it's so easy for our love to grow cold, our love for the Lord
to grow cold and we have to work on it. We have to say, Lord, help me
not to get taken up with all these earthly things, this taking care of
my, excuse me, taking care of my family needs and everything but help me
to be focused, help me to be abiding in you all the time. I used to
wonder what's the meaning of abiding.

I want to be so close to the Lord and He, I want to live in Him and He
lives in me, then only I can have that experience of loving Him. The
love of many, it says that people will be lovers of self, lovers of
pleasure, lovers of ease, that's so close to us that we can forget,
especially when we're taking care of our children, get taken up with
other things and we don't keep that love for the Lord uppermost and most
important. Jesus told the church in Ephesus, you have lost your first
love and that is what happened to me when I was so focused on taking
care of my oldest child.

I lost my first love for the Lord and the Lord in His mercy picked me up
and lifted me up. Another thing which we can lose our love is for when
we become mothers, we lose our love for our husbands. You know, we get
so taken up with our child, our child is so much important that we
forget that there's the most, our partner is the one who needs our love
and our respect and that also the Lord showed me.

I have to spend more time talking to Him, respecting Him, consulting Him
and making Him feel that His choices are important to me. So, that area
also, the love of many will grow cold. I want to watch out that my love
for my partner doesn't grow cold.

The love for my children can grow cold. You know, different children are
different. As I was saying, one child may be obedient and quick to
listen what we tell him or her and the next child may be distracted and
not so quick to obey.

But that doesn't mean, as we heard earlier that Brother Vennai was
saying, that doesn't mean that I should cast off that child and forget
about him because he is not obeying. That child needs my love. I should
not let my love for that child grow cold and the third one may be
different in some other way or their health, they may have health
problems but I should not allow my love to grow cold towards my
children.

Then the love growing cold can be even to our brothers and sisters in
the church. You know, we as mothers, we get so taken up with our family,
our children and we think that's the only thing that's important for me.
But I should think God has put me in a family in the church and I don't
want my love for my brothers and sisters in the church to grow cold.

And we can grow cold towards our relatives also. You know, sometimes we
think our church is everything and we forget about, as we heard, our
mother-in-law or we don't like to deal with our relatives. There also
the Lord spoke to me and showed me, you should not allow your vision
just about your family and your church.

You should think of others in need, especially some relatives are in
need, be open to them. My love for them should not grow cold. And so the
Lord spoke to me many, many ways when I became a mother and I'm still,
I'm so happy that I have my daughters-in-law who are mothers to my
grandchildren and so many mothers here who are examples to us.

And just one more thing I wanted to say that when we bring up our
children, when my children are growing up and I used to let them play
outside, whatever they did, I used to have an eye on them like what they
were doing when they were, except when they went to school. But you
know, when our children play, especially with other children, we are not
aware of, we think, oh, they are okay. But we cannot expect somebody
else to correct our children if they do something wrong.

We should be aware like, oh, my child is there. I hope he's not being
mean to somebody else's child. I should be always aware of that.

So when my children used to be playing outside, I'd find something to do
and wait outside and watch them when they're playing. Has the ball gone
into my neighbor's compound? Has it hit their window? Or have they, with
other children, have they spoken some rude thing? Or have they been
selfish and say, no, this is mine. I want to do this.

It's my turn. And so I wanted them to err and give the chance to the
other person, not say, oh, it's my son's turn. Okay.

You just let him. I didn't want to be partial like that. I wanted my
children to learn, give the others a chance.

So every time, whatever they are doing, we mothers, we have to be alert
to see that they are okay and they are not doing selfish things and
they're not dishonoring the Lord. Praise the Lord.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/WZFlFuTkUhM.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/annie-poonen/some-aspects-of-motherhood-video/
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