Mother's Day Service - How Can I Teach Them, If I Don't Know? - Sis. Marian DeLong

Thankful that we know the name. When we say here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. It's Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for that name. Thank you, Lord. that we get to know you, to serve you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Happy Mother's Day. So good to be with you all today and to speak to you all. Um I'm honored and humbled. And you all can be seated. Sister Toby did a wonderful job introducing our theme. Yes. And leading service. That's not an easy job.

if you if you've ever done it before. I've never done it, but I know it's not easy and you did a great job. So, thank you for opening up and introducing our theme and reading from our core text, which is Deuteronomy 64-7. And I'll just repeat those words one more time as I start here. O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

And you shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk about them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. Many of you know that I was a teacher before I had all these kids. I taught high school Spanish for eight years, and I loved it. It was stressful and exhausting but rewarding. And at the beginning, I taught Spanish one. So, super simple. It was like kindergarten. Get to s sing songs. They colored.

I taught them how to tell time again because by the time they got to high school, they didn't know how to tell read a regular clock. It was a great time. But then I was asked to create a new course that catered to Spanish heritage Spanish speakers. And the goal was to give them literacy skills in Spanish so that they would be able to read and write in both languages. And the idea was amazing. I was like, "Yeah, let's do it. Got a lot of Spanish speakers."

But as I started looking into the curriculum, I had a lot to learn. This was not like teaching Spanish. This was unfamiliar territory for me. And how could I teach them if I didn't know it myself? So, I got to work and I spent many hours learning pretty much how to be an English teacher. That's what I was doing. I was teaching literacy skills. And I tried my best to make them into well-rounded, bilingual individuals because how could I successfully teach them if I didn't know it myself?

And I began to seek the Lord about what to share with our mothers today. That's what he gave me. And you reminded me of our core text here. Israel, the Lord our God is one. These words which I command you today shall be in your hearts and then you shall teach them. They shall be in your heart and then you shall teach them. That's our commission as parents to tell our children of the goodness of God in our lives and to teach them to love and obey him.

But before I can teach my children, I have to get a love for him in my heart. I have to love God and obey his commandments. First, we see it all in the Old Testament. We see quotes of the Old Testament, the New Testament. Deuteronomy 4:9 says, "Only take heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, unless they depart from your heart all the days of your life. but teach them to your sons and your son's sons.

The footnote in my study Bible for that scripture says, "Each generation is responsible to instruct the next generation in faith. Later on in chapter 11 of Deuteronomy verse 18 and 19 we read, therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and your soul and bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you write.

Didn't we just read that? Does that sound familiar? Yes. That's on purpose. It's intentional because it's important. And I love how those scriptures use the contrast of day and night, sitting and walking. That means at all times. That means always I'm teaching things. Whether I'm teaching them intentionally or I'm just living my life, I'm teaching them. Everything I say and do is influencing my children in one way or another. No pressure. It's a daunting task. And I have to be honest with you guys that I don't have this perfectly.

You guys see Mother Shepherd here at church, but I'll tell you that Mother Soros comes out real quick at the house. You can ask them. You can ask any of my family actually. Um the truth is I'll never attain perfection. But with God's help, I can choose each day to live in a way that teaches and guides my children to love the Lord with all their hearts. I can set aside time for family Bible studies. I can teach them scriptures after scripture. I can bring them to church every Sunday.

But if my life doesn't reflect his word, that will speak louder than anything I say. Your habits become their habits. Your values become their values. When I taught Spanish, my students left to Spanish too most confident in the things that we practice daily. The same is true at home. And what I'm sharing with you today may not feel new or profound. But my prayer is that it offers both spiritual encouragement and practical guidance. I'm a teacher. So, you leave with a renewed desire to love God and show that love by living it out each day.

And for those of you who started to tune me out, I'm inviting you back in. I know it's Mother's Day. This message might not be for you, but I want to invite you back in because what I'm sharing today certainly applies to our mothers, but at its core, it's about being a disciple. It's about making disciples, which is something we're all called to do. Everything I say can be applied to someone you're intentionally teaching as those as well as those who are simply watching your life even when you don't realize it.

Mothers with growing children, small children, this is for you. Mothers with grown children, this is for you. They're still looking to you. Grandmothers who spend time with your grandchildren, this is for you. families who are trying to reach a neighbor or a friend, this is also for you. And to the one who feels overwhelmed by the call to live for God, knowing that it means changing some habits and letting go of some things that you've held on to. This is for you. Whoever you are today, I invite you to hear the word the Lord has given given me and allow it to transform your heart and your life.

It's kind of scary knowing the responsibility that I have as a mother. I can do all I can to live right, to instruct them, to lead them in the right path, but at the end of the day, they have a choice to make for themsel. That's scary. But I can't let that fear overpower my love for God and desire to do what his word tells me to do. So, like I said before, each day I have a decision to make to love God and obey him.

So, what does that look like for my notetakers? There's three points. This is point number one. That looks like spending time with him and his word. I told you I'm not going to say anything profound or fancy up here. I have distinct memories of my mom sitting in our kitchen, our little table by the window with her notebook, writing down her prayers. That was her connecting with God. I knew my mama prayed. I knew my mom read her Bible. I saw her do it. She didn't just talk the talk.

She walked the walk. And I have memories of being asleep and feel feeling this and opening my eyes and kind of seeing my mom there and then just going back. Oh, mom's praying again. She's doing her midnight prayer rounds. Do you remember that, Mom? It's funny. It sounds funny, but she was doing what she needed to do. She made a choice every day to meet with God, and that impacted me. As we got older, she made us sit through fi Friday afternoon Bible studies. And I say made us.

Were was I excited about the at the time? Um, not necessarily. We may have given her a hard time. I'm sorry, Mom. But now looking back, I'm so thankful she was intentional about teaching us God's word. It's good to be intentional and have specific times of biblical instruction, but it's just important to have your own time of devotion and let your children see. And this is going to look different in every season. Trust me, I know I'm in the middle of a hurricane each morning. Three tiny hurricanes when I'm trying to pray and read my Bible.

There are days where I'm trying to read my Bible. It's open and Selena's sitting on top of it. She's like, "Mom, I need you to stop. I need you to pay attention to me. There are also days when they're taking advantage of me being busy and like they just start whailing on each other. It's like this is the time that that they're going to use because mom's mom's praying. It's it's hard. But every day I get back at it. I put on a prayer playlist and I tell them, "Mommy, are you done yet?

Once this song is over in two more songs, mommy will be done." Okay, I will if I remember I will give them something to do beforehand. Sometimes I'm I'm not really good at that, but I'll try to be like, "Hey, can I watch you guys do this?" And then I'll go sit down and try to do my devotion. Um, do devotion with a friend keeps you accountable. Been good for me. Um, but if all of that fails and I have to stop and serve my kids, that's okay, too.

Serving them is a way to honor God. I just have to keep at it. Moms, it's not useless. When you seek God, he sees your heart. And one day, they're going to get bigger and you will have that peace and quiet. And for mothers in a different season, you may not have tiny hurricanes that keep you from your devotion anymore. It might be busy, distraction, or flatout lack of motivation to do it. We're flesh. I encourage you to push past that. If you didn't make it a priority today to pray, pick it back up tomorrow.

He's not going to be mad at you. He's going to be glad that you're seeking after him. Having a personal walk and relationship with God builds a solid foundation that will keep you from wavering in hard times. And once that foundation is in place, we're called to help our children build one of their own. And there are practical ways to teach your children to have a walk of their own. And every family's different. So I'll just share some things that we do that we're intentional about to try to help somebody this morning.

Before kids go to school, dad goes to work, we pray as a family. And it's a simple prayer. We might uh pray for families in the church present needs at the time. And then on the way to school, we do that little loop-de-loop on 55 to get to school. Like right about then kids know stop whatever they're talking about and they start quoting the scriptures that we taught them. And for some reason they just want to say them so fast. I don't know why. They just like got to say it as fast as they can.

But they make a thing of it. Um and we've had to teach them to stop fighting about who gets to say what scriptures. We don't fight about quoting the Bible. Stop fighting about quoting the Bible. It's fine. Uh at dinner time, we'll do a short family devotion two or three times a week from that healthy homes book. And then before bed is usually when we introduce a new scripture. And this started before any of them could speak. For a while, Wesley was just doing, you know, heart, soul, strength.

And then Selena would just say up at the end of end of Deuteronomy 7, but now they can all at least quote Deuteronomy 64-7. It was not always so so easy to get them there, but they they did it. Wesley is a game guy. If you know anything about Wes, he likes games. So he didn't want to do scriptures ever. Like he it wasn't interesting to him. Um so one night we got a Squishallow and we're like, "Here's what we're going to We took the Squishallow and I was like, "Hero is real."

And we threw it to Wesley and it was his turn to say the next line and we just passed the Squishallow. The other night we passed Selena around. That was fun. But we still do it and it worked. So we you just you know your kids, you know what's going to work for them. We knew that it was games making it fun. We've also been intentional about what scriptures we were teaching them. And she said Judges. You talked about Judges earlier. Where where'd you go, Toby?

And I laughed because I opened up Judges this week and read chapter one and they talked about cutting off toes and thumbs and I was like, I'm not going to teach my kids that one. We're not going to memorize that one. We're going to pick scriptures that might be a a little bit more helpful. Um, like when they get older and things get hard or even as a child, they're afraid a lot. Kids get scared. they know. Be strong and of good courage. Fear not, neither be afraid of them.

For the Lord thy God, he is the one who doth go with thee. He will not fail you or forsake you. When someone questions their belief in God uh and his word, they remember the entirety of your word is true. And every one of your righteous judgments endures forever. Or when they're upset at their parents and don't understand the boundaries we've set for them, 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 thee, and you may live long upon the earth.

I know that last one was a little bit self- serving, but it is in the Bible, and they do need to know know it and know how to use it. So, getting the word in them any way we can while they're young. And something that I couldn't assume, we couldn't assume as parents, is that they would just naturally know how to pray. Even adults have a hard time knowing how to pray when they haven't been around this thing. We had to teach them. And at first they would just repeat after us.

And after consistently modeling prayer, they began to pick it up on their own. And now they take turns leading. All right. Who's whose turn is it to lead tonight? Me. But we all pray together and we all pray out loud. Even Selena. And I know as I'm describing this, we might sound like the p picture perfect Bible reading scripture quoting family and we're not. They sometimes don't want to do this. They don't want to say the scriptures. They don't want to pray. Have haven't we all been there?

I I don't want to do that today. I've been there. Grown-up has been there. And sometimes I just want to put them to bed and be done because that takes a long time. the routine, but I have to do it because it's important. And if it doesn't work one day, I'm back at it the next day. To the mothers of older children, I've heard it said that things don't get easier as they get older. They just get harder in a different way. And I don't know from experience, but I have to imagine that's because things are out of your control.

But when things are out of your control, turn to what you know to be true. His word is true. When you gather together with your adult children or grandchildren, you can still invite Jesus in. The awesome thing about God's word is that you don't grow out of it. You never get too old or too big for the word of God. When you take a moment to share a scripture, share a testimony, or say a prayer as a family, you're showing your children how God is a priority in your life.

Thank you, Mom, for always inviting Jesus to be a part of our gatherings and sharing your testimony of what God's doing even now in your life. Loving God with all my heart means including him in all things. So we need to connect with him through daily prayer and Bible reading. But loving him and obeying him also looks like trusting him. Your children learn from you when you face a trial. They will learn how you react and watch who you turn to. Where do I turn to?

Psalms 12:11 and2. I lift my eyes to the mountain. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 46:1, "God is our refuge and strength, an everpresent help in trouble." Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not into your own understanding. It matters that when I get bad news, my kids see me hit my knees in prayer. I could call a friend. I could seek counsel, but the first thing I should do is seek the Lord."

When there are serious needs in the church, we pray for them as a family. I don't shy away from telling my kids about scary things. You know why? They know how to pray. In fact, they've seen God do miracles in their young lives. The other day I was sitting on the couch trying to do my devotion and I had a terrible headache this week. It's been terrible. And I was like, "Oh, my head." Mila comes up to me out of she's just like, "Jesus, touch mommy's headache.

Help her to have a good day. Help her to have a good mother saying." I was like, "Thank you. Thank you." And my headache didn't go away. It did. These kids know how to pray. Thank you, Jesus. They can learn from me that trusting him is not easy. It's not always easy, but even when it's hard, we should be faithful to him. And this was another characteristic I saw in my mother growing up. She has faced the unimaginable. And if you ever have the opportunity opportunity to hear her testimony, you will be blessed.

But I knew that my mom trusted God. In hard times, she leaned on him and the church, the church family to see us through. I'm thankful for that. Trusting God in both good and hard is what it looks like to love him with all my heart, all my soul, and all my strength. It means recognizing that I'm flawed, being honest when I'm struggling, and choosing to turn to him in those moments. That's what it means to truly have his word rooted in my heart. And as I live that out, my trust in him will shape the trust my children learn to have in him.

And that same principle carries over into every area of our lives, especially how we display the fruits of the spirit. And here's where I'm preaching to myself. I mean, the conviction has hit me hard writing this lesson because if I'm being honest, I don't feel like I'm anywhere near the place I should be in this area. But he's helping me. We have to teach our children to produce good fruit, but they won't produce good fruit. As Sister Kelly Magcguire says, "My fruit stinks." Over the last few months, I've been a part of a girls Bible study exploring the fruits of the spirit.

And boy, I was wrong about these fruits, y'all. It has changed me. And if you haven't dug it deep into the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, I encourage you to do so. I don't have time to go through each one today, but here's what I know. I can talk to my kids all I want to about love, but if I don't show them how to love God and others with my words and actions, they won't learn them.

They asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was. And he told them, "First and greatest commandments to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." If I can get love right, the rest of the fruits are going to naturally produce. If I love God, and I mean truly love God, I will truly love my spouse and my children and others.

What does that look like? What does that mean? Mother shepherd. John 3:30 tells us, "He must increase. I must decrease." The NLT says, "He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less." If I truly love God, here's what I'm committing to. I'm committing to self-surrender and self-denial, humility, Christ centerness, subordination of self, and giving God glory. Stop making it about me and start making it about him. That's going to look different for everyone. For me, that looks like putting off the new book, the novel that I want to read, and picking up a book that's going to teach me more about him and his word.

That looks like putting my phone down and being present with my family. That looks like leaving the comforts of my own home. Maybe to help a friend in need. He must increase. I must decrease. You see, when I truly love God, and I mean truly love God, I'll have joy when I'm not happy. I'll have peace that makes no sense. I'll have patience with myself when I mess up and even more patience with my children. Lord knows I need it. If I love God, kindness will be deliberate.

If I approach others, I'll approach others needs with compassion rather than hostility. And I won't be as quick to have emotional explosions. And I know it sounds simpler on paper, but it's not simple at all, guys. It takes work. It takes intentionality to understand these fruits, what they mean, to make that choice every day, to try your best to live them out. And I have to spend time and have a relationship with him to produce these fruits. I have to demonstrate them in my home to my children, both young and old, if they're going to learn them.

And I don't always get this right. This is why I have so much conviction about this. I have to make a confession. My emotional um explosions, it's a nice way to put it, like when I get angry, tend to mostly happen on Sunday mornings. Mother shepherd, listen, it's hard to get three kids dressing out the house. Most of the times by myself um to get here for church at night. I have hollered about shoes. You have to put pants on, hairstyles. It's really embarrassing actually the things that I've gotten angry about on a Sunday morning.

But when we finally get in the van for a one minute drive to church and I have a minute to breathe, everybody's stressed. We did it, guys. I'm sorry. My fruit was not good this morning. I have no kindness or patience. Please forgive me. And they always forgive me. I've never been one quick to apologize. Can ask my husband. Uh it just doesn't come naturally to me. The Lord's helped me. And I know I've talked my mom up a lot today. She's a great mom, but she wasn't perfect all the time.

And she'll tell you that a couple years ago I said something to her like, "Mom, you never said sorry growing up." Like just in casual passing. We were sitting right here, I'm pretty sure. I was like, "You never said sorry when we were kids." She was like, "What?" I was like, "Yeah, you never did." And I could tell it got her thinking. She was like very quiet after that. I was like, "Oh no, I messed up." But sometimes later, sometime later, she invited all of us kids.

We were all grown. I think I had kids. Maybe. I don't remember. It was a couple years ago. She invited us all all of us over. Didn't tell us why. And I was like, "Okay, somebody's pregnant. Some somebody there's some kind of news. Didn't know." But do you guys know what she did that night when she invited all of us grown kids over? She got us all together and confessed that she was not good about saying sorry as she was raising us and took that night to say sorry to her adult children.

That night, my mom showed me that you're not too old to let God continue to change you and to grow your fruits. It's important that we as mothers recognize when we've messed up and apologize. When I say sorry to my littles, I teach them that it's okay to say sorry when you make a mistake. Sometimes Sundays are wild and hectic, but I don't want them to feel resentment be towards church because I can't give my attitude in check. When I realize that I'm not in a good place and vocalize it to them, I'm teaching them to do the same.

And one day when they make a mistake or their fruits are not producing as they should, I hope I've taught them how to recognize that, express that in an appropriate way, and to ask your forgiveness. That's what Jesus wants from us. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you. Going back to my teaching years, as I come to a close, musicians, you guys can come. If I attempted to teach my students a concept that I wasn't sure of myself, do you know what happened when it came time for a test?

They all failed. And it wasn't on them. It was on me because I didn't teach them properly. The only thing on this earth I get to take with me to heaven are the people that I love. And I want them to make it. But I got to make it. And in recent months, I've had a burden for our moms to make sure that this word that's been commanded to us has been hidden in their hearts because only then will they be able to teach to the next generation.

And we're going to pray today as we stand together. I want to invite every mom in the room who's willing to come forward, stand in the front, and families you can follow, children, you can bring your mom up here. I invite you to come together. And while you're getting into place, I want to give you some specific prayer points. I know our focus is on moms and the moms are going to be the one coming down to the front, but this specific prayer applies to all of us.

Pray that he would help us get this in our hearts to draw deeper into his word to help us trust him and help live out the fruits of the spirit. Pray that God would heal and strengthen hearts. That his word would be hidden in our hearts. That the moms whose hearts are broken would have the capacity to receive and teach the word. That we would fully trust God despite our circumstance, our past, or even our mistakes. That we would be so full of the spirit that there would be evidence of fruit in our homes.

And lastly, I want to pray specifically for the moms who are discouraged right now because children because of their children who haven't come to know the truth or because of the children who have walked away from it. As I said earlier, you can do everything that you can and they can still choose not to follow. But even if your children are not here today or they're fully grown, they still need you. Don't lose heart. Keep praying for them. So that's what I've asked that you would get prayer in your heart.

Lord, help us. Let's pray together. Let's lift our hands. Jesus, thank you, Lord, for this commission. It's heavy, but I'll take it on today, Lord, that I would get it in my heart to love you with all of my heart, all of my mind, all of my strength. Let it be my desire first so I can teach my children so I can tell the people that I love, show your love with the people around me. To trust you when things get hard. to trust you when life's circumstances feel like more than I can bear to seek you first in those times.

Help us, Lord, to produce fruit that is good. Help us to have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control. Help us, Lord. Help us, Jesus. Help us. We need you. We need you, Lord. We need you. I live for you alone. Every breath that I take, every moment I would have your way in me, Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my soul. I live for you alone. Every breath that I take, every moment I'm awake, Lord, have your way in me. Lord, I give you my heart.

I give you my soul. I live for you alone. Every breath that I take, every moment I'm awake. Lord, have your way in me. Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my soul. I live for you alone. Every breath that I take, every moment I'm awake, have your way. This is my desire to honor you. Lord with all my heart worship you. All I have within me I give you praise. All that I adore is in you, Lord. I give you my heart. I give you my soul.

I live for you alone. Every breath that I take, every moment I'm awake, Lord, have your way in me. Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my soul. Oh, I live for you alone. Every breath that I take, every moment I'm awake, Lord, have your way in me. Lord, I give you my heart. I give you my soul. I live for you alone. Every breath that I take, every moment I'm going to invite you to lift your hands and sing this prayer to him.

Make this commitment together with your family. I give you my heart. I give you my soul. I live for you alone. Every breath that I take, every moment I'm away, Lord, have your way in me. Yes, Jesus. Could you say that in your own words to him today? Yet again, I know you've said it, but would you say it one more time to him? Jesus, we love you and we commit to following after you. And we commit to living this life so that others may also be taught by our lives.

I thank you, Jesus.