Some Aspects Of Motherhood

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'll come to a time when the children were born. 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 it takes days and even when they're sleeping, we look at them and admire them, enjoy them. 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 say 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 are so few. Very soon the day will come and 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 oldest 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 fix, how to do their laundry, how to do their 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 spear, not to sway, 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 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'll 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 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 the 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 become being 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 one if they could play some instrument they play and we'd sing on Saturdays especially or we play some indoor games so those are the things which mother 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 and regarding their lessons also I remember when Sanjay went to college went to school in from his earliest years he had very good teachers see teachers who had been teaching for maybe 15-20 years his teachers were well seasoned and he got a good foundation about his education but when my second and third children started going especially Santosh when we got teachers who had just come out of college and we 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 teachers who were teaching maths were not even trained in math 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 bringing 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 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 the I have to specialize in I mean focus on this aspect now maybe he's yeah I have to teach him to speak in this way if they speak something wrong or rude you can say oh don't speak like that to mommy we have to tell them lord we have to tell him mommy we're telling him 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 a very very youngest grandson was born and he's looking straight into his into his father's face it was it was 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 you are my heavenly father I want to trust you for everything and 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 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 how to work in that area and I came down to you know 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 in these these are last days and we have to realize that in these days uh 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 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 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 is we lose our love for our husbands you know we get so taken up with our child a child is so much important that we forget that there's 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 but 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 when I was saying that doesn't mean that I should cast out that child and forget about him because he's 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 ah that's the only thing that's important for me but I should think I God has put me in a family in the church and I don't want my love for my brothers and sisters into to the 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 have 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 in when I became a mother and I'm still I'm so happy that I have my daughters in love who are mothers to their 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 be a 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 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 be I find something to do and wait outside while they're and watch them and they're playing has the ball gone into my neighbor's compound has it hit their window or has it have they been 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 or it's my turn and so I wanted to I wanted them to err on and give the chance to the other person not say oh take it 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