Column: A FRESH PERSPECTIVE – Happy Mother’s Day

By: Mike Kelly
Retired pastor

Mother’s Day is May 12. I’m really glad we have a day to celebrate mothers. They deserve the honor and recognition for what they joyfully give and sacrifice for their children.

But there is another side to Mother’s Day that is overlooked. It is also a painful day for many. Many of our mothers have passed away and all we have are memories.

It would be so nice to call my mom or visit her and thank her in person for everything she has done for me and my sister. There’s a kind of loneliness when I think about just not being able to see her anymore.

Then there’s the pain of having a less-than-stellar mother. Being a mother can sometimes seem like being one of these carefree fathers.

Having a child does not make one a mother in the truest concept of motherhood. I have spent much of my career working with men and women who have suffered greatly at the hands of a “mother.”

Maybe she packed up and left and didn’t care enough about hurting her child to resolve it. In one situation I know well, the mother left the hospital and never even went home.

Her child will never be whole except by the grace of God. In other cases, mothers failed to protect their children from men who sexually abused or verbally and physically abused her children.

Remember that some mothers are also very broken and cannot get past their outstanding issues to help their child.

If I’m completely honest, there are women who should never have been anyone else in the first place. They can’t even take care of themselves. Their children are ultimately taken care of by relatives or social services.

Then there is the pain of some women who wanted to become mothers, but for one reason or another never succeeded. Mother’s Day can be like a painful reminder that a dream they had never came true.

Who gives us a good example of the role of motherhood? Eve? Sara? Mary? Interestingly enough, it is the Holy Spirit. The role of a good mother can be distinguished from the role of the Holy Spirit in today’s Church.

Isa 11:1-2 “…The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.” Those kinds of qualities are needed in the current generation.

The ‘fruit of the Spirit’ (the result of the Spirit’s work) is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22).

These are also the qualities we generally learn most clearly from our mothers. In the Syriac translation, an Aramaic language very similar to what Jesus spoke, the Holy Spirit is referred to in the feminine.

For example, the Ancient Syriac Gospels have the following for John 14:26: “… but that Spirit, the Paraclete, whom my Father will send to you in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything I say. .”

Furthermore, in almost every translation in Proverbs, wisdom is also referred to as a “she.” Mothers must teach their children the kind of wisdom we see in Proverbs.

In John 14:26, Jesus told his disciples, “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit is God’s presence in the lives of believers. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”

(1 Corinthians 3:16), which may explain why we cry out to our mothers when we are in dire need. Mom, thank you for all you do and for God’s example for us.

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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and board chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.