The Lord Stood With Me And Strengthened Me

So today is Mother's Day, and it's one of the few holidays during the year that we always make time to change our normal work through a book. We've been going through 2 Timothy, we're just about done with it. But on Mother's Day and on Father's Day, we take time away from our regular study of God's Word to do a topical sermon, if you will. Why? Because we love our mothers? Yes. But that's not really the reason, and not even the primary reason. that I preach Mother's Day and Father's Day sermons. The reason that I preach Mother's Day and Father's Day sermons is because this is one of the areas where Satan has ravaged our nation. We lack mothers as a society. We don't have mothers, and we don't have fathers. And the ones that we do have, we don't honor. And so I want to take time this morning for us to understand what a mother is.

And what we ought to be aiming for, you ladies who are mothers, who desire to be mothers or are grandmothers, as well as you men for your wives. You have to know what you're aiming at with them. You can't hit a target if you don't know what we're going for. And so this sermon's not meant to be a, you failed, you're terrible and awful. That's not actually the, that's not what I think. But I do think we need instruction about what motherhood is. And I think there's a lot of talk about it in our society. I think there's a lot of talk about it in the church.

But I don't know that it's all helpful to us. And part of the reason is because trying to preach a sermon about what motherhood is from the Bible is kind of difficult. There's lots of things that the Bible addresses directly. Motherhood is not one of them. We don't have a big pile of verses about motherhood and say, here's all the things a mother should be. A woman, yes. A wife, yes. A mother, not so much. Now, does that mean that we can decide for ourselves what faithful Christian Motherhood is? No. It means that we have the work in front of us of sorting out what the Bible does say about it, what it does teach about it. And this is work that throughout time the church has always had to do. There's things that when Satan comes to attack some truth, the church's response has been to say, what does the Bible say about that? And in our day, this is one of the truths that God's attacking. What is mother? What is a woman? You understand, these are questions that are being asked.

What is a woman? And the answer is not a straightforward, simple answer. This is what a woman is. And so what we need is a biblical understanding, a Bible answer to what a mother ought to be. What should you be aiming for as a mother? What should you be prioritizing as a father in the leadership of your home? These are important things and things that we're going to give our time to this morning. We're going to do a little bit of the work of teasing out what... a mother's love for her children looks like. In a passage we're going to be using, Paul uses a mother's love for her child as a model for ministry. He says, we loved you. Our ministry among you, to the Thessalonians, was modeled after the love of a mother for her children. He says, we're like your mom. We're like your mother. He took something that was familiar to them and said, this is how we do our work. And so instead of looking at how Paul did his work,

among the thessalonians we're going to look at the example he gives us of of motherhood there's just a couple of things i want to point out to us as we read that but it's going to be aimed at what does a mother's love for her children look like what what goes into that our text is first thessalonians chapter 2 verses 7 and 8. would you please stand now as we read the word of the lord this is the word of the lord and it is eternally true but we proved to be gentle among you as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. Having so fond an affection for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you have become very dear to us. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. And so the first thing that Paul says about the first picture he gives us of motherhood is of a nursing mother tenderly caring for her children. And so tenderness is one of the things that's assumed.

and mothers, that they would be tender with their children. And from the very beginning, we see that there's a difficulty here because in our day, children are often seen as, motherhood seen as not as a privilege, but as a responsibility. And children are often viewed as an inconvenience. And if you view something as an inconvenience or someone as an inconvenience, you will not be tender with them. You'll be irritated by them. You'll be short with them. You'll communicate to them that their needs are a bother to you, that you have something you would rather be doing. Being a mother is inconvenient. It affects your schedule, your productivity, even your mood. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, depending on what's going on. And yet tenderness is an essential characteristic of godly motherhood. Now, what is motherhood not? What is tenderness not? It's not manipulative. It's not disinterested.

It's not irritated by the inconvenience that children bring. Now, am I saying this to set the bar so high and perfection so out of reach that all of the mothers just go, I'm a big failure? No, that's not my goal. My goal is not to set the bar so high and to discourage you into thinking there's no hope for you. My point in bringing this stuff up at the very beginning is simply to open it up and say, these are the things that moms struggle with. And I'm afraid that too often in the church we don't get to talk about the temptations and sins that women face, that mothers face. It's much easier to talk about the failures that men face, the sins that men commit. But women are sinners too, and they sin in these ways. And oftentimes I think mothers are manipulative of their children. I think it's common that mothers are often disinterested in the care of their children. And I think that they regularly get irritated by the inconvenience of the child.

needing their diaper changed, crying, hitting their siblings, spilling the drink, whatever it is they're doing. Why are you doing that? And so these are just some of the sins that mothers commit. And I want us to see them and be able to say, okay, well, those are sins. Those aren't just things that happen. There's actually a problem here. There's a failure in my motherhood when I get irritated or when I manipulate my children or when I think I have something better to do. Your children need your tenderness. The work of motherhood and caring for your child is so much more than making sure that they simply have food and clothing and a clean diaper, or that they get to school on time and get their homework done, or their lunch gets packed, or get through driver's school, or whatever it is that you think, well, there's all these lists of tasks that we need to, needs that our kids have that we need to meet. That's true. We do all of those things. But you can do all of those things without ever being tender with your child.

without ever delighting in them. Your children need your heart and your affection and your patience. Could you imagine if Paul, when he went to preach and he went to minister, stood up with no love for the people that he preached to, with no tenderness, and just said, here's the truth. You need to believe it because it's true. And if you don't, too bad for you. It wouldn't have been nearly as attractive. It would have been true. It did need to be said. But in Paul's ministry, he was anything but this cold, disinterested, hard, calloused messenger of truth. He says, And so as we begin, the question that we ought to have in our minds is, are you gentle? Are you tender with your children? Or are they a bother to you? And if they're a bother to you, my goal is not for you to go, I'm a terrible person. My goal is to say, okay, well, what is more important than this right now? I watch in my own family, and I watch in our society, I watch little boys and little girls, and you watch how they grow and how they change, and when their interests and the pressures that are applied on them start to take root. And what I find generally is that little girls intrinsically like the idea of caring for somebody.

They've got their baby dolls, and they like to do things that are aimed at helping and supporting and caring for others. They're walking around like little moms. They like to hold the baby when you have a new baby. I got a baby too, they say, with their doll. And sometime in elementary school, they start to feel pressure to not want that anymore. They start to feel that there's something else that they're supposed to do or aspire to or to give their life meaning. And so they stop wanting to be a mom. And I think that's the place where the tenderness is lost. That's where it starts to get lost, is when we teach our little girls that there's something better and more important for them to do than for them to cultivate feminine tenderness with children. And so then when they get married and have children of their own, they've been steeped in this...

in these pressures to do something meaningful or something more important or something that adds more value to society than motherhood or being tender. And this is how motherhood gets reduced from being a high calling to simply a list of tasks of things that need to be accomplished. We believe that there's something more important to train our daughters to do. something that will be more satisfying to them, something that will be more appealing. And so their tenderness is lost and their gentleness is lost. Now maybe you're a mother and you think, I am tender with my kids. And to the extent that you are, praise God. But tenderness is not the sort of thing that you turn off and you turn on for different people. Have you ever known a woman who is motherly?

The Bible talks about them being mothers in Israel. They're grandmothers, they're grandmothers. They're the type of women that parent, mother those around them. And it's sweet. If you've ever had those sort of women, whether that's your own mom or some other woman, an aunt, a grandma, a neighbor, who was it? It was a beautiful thing and you enjoyed it. Now I'd ask you about that woman. Who is she tender with and who is she motherly toward? Pretty much everybody, wasn't she? And so what I want to say to you is that motherhood and the tenderness that attends motherhood should be something that isn't exclusive toward her children, but it should be something that's generally true of her in terms of her character and her personality and her priorities. Maybe the easiest way to say it is that mothers will not be tender with their children if they aren't tender with others, and I'd say particularly their husbands.

Tenderness is not something that you can turn on and off at will. I'll be kind to you. Oh, no, I don't like you. You can go do your own thing. There's dishonesty and hypocrisy in that sort of thinking. If you're a mom and you think, okay, my children need my tenderness, or I don't struggle to be tender with my child. I love them. It's my husband that I can't stand. Then I want to say to you, you're lying to yourself. You're not being tender with your children if you're not loving your husband. You don't get to be a mother without being a wife. If you do find that you're tender mostly with your children, but that you're not tender with anyone else, then what's most likely going on is that your tenderness is self-serving. You're being kind to your children because you want something from them. You're trying to get something from them relationally that in time won't work, especially with your sons. I had a friend growing up who was an only child. He and I both were only children.

And his parents, his mom was very, very, he would be what you call a mama's boy, okay? Very, you know, dad was disinterested. Mom was very interested. And that was all fine. It wasn't that much of a problem when he was little. But as we got into high school and he started to want to have a little bit more leash, it caused a lot of conflict. His mom was very, very hurt. and offended, and distraught by his interest in something other than her. And she was doing, and what was going on, you look back and you think about these things after the fact. When I look back, I think of her marriage with her husband, and I think, this is why she treated her son the way she did. She'd stopped being a wife.

a long time before that, and decided that her son was going to be the man in her life that cared for her and that she gave her heart to. And that's why she was so hurt when he was growing up, and that's all he was doing was growing up. He wanted to get a job. He wanted to have a car. He wanted to graduate and move out. And she took these things personally. She was very tender with him, but she was very cold with her husband. And so she wasn't. tender the way Paul's talking about here. When he says that a nursing mother tenderly cares for her children, yes, that's the primary place where her tenderness is going to be manifested because she's with them all the time. But that tenderness should be extended to other people, especially those in her home, her husband. So what does that tenderness look like? Well, Paul tells us it looks like gentleness. There are lots of things we could describe this tenderness as, but he says, we prove to be gentle among you, just like a nursing mother.

So are you gentle with your children? Or do you get irritated with them? Are you rough with them? How about when you're tired or when you're bored or when you're worried or frustrated or when you're depressed? Are you gentle with your children? These are the times when it matters. If you think that gentleness or tenderness are the sorts of things that you do when you're in the mood, you're not being tender or gentle with your children. In 1 Peter 3, Peter says, speaking to women, must not be merely external. The braiding of hair, the wearing of gold jewelry, or putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. And so this isn't advice. The point of the sermon is not to say, try a little harder to be gentle. Try a little harder to be tender. My point is to say it's important and it's precious to God that you as mothers would be gentle.

I think there's people that watch mothers and see it clearly, more clearly, whether they're gentle. And the people that I think see it more clearly are those who don't have children. Whether those are those who are barren and unable to have children and who want them. I think it's very hard for them to watch people just be angry at their kids when they don't have the thing they want and would love to have. Which isn't to say that if they have children, they'd just naturally be more gentle. In the time being, they can see why you have such a blessing. Why would you be so callous toward them? And also, those who've done their mothering and are now grandmothering, and they see their young daughters with their young children, and they go, don't do that. These years are short, especially the little years. They're very short. Don't waste your time on all this other stuff. Enjoy your kids because pretty soon they're going to walk out that door. Gentleness is...

precious to God. He loves it to see women caring for their children, giving their lives to it. Not just seeing that the tasks are accomplished, but that they love doing it. And I really do mean, those of you who are mothers, who God's been good to give children to, you ought to love the fact that you're a mother. It should be the thing that gives you great joy. Because to those who don't have children, it's the thing that gives them great sorrow. You shouldn't take it for granted, your children. In verse 8, Paul goes on and he says, Having so fond an affection for you, because we loved you so much, we were pleased to impart to you, to give to you, not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you have become very dear to us. Affection for your children, tenderness toward them, really is rooted in you loving being a mom. And to be a mom, you'll find out one way or another, you can't do everything.

As a woman, you won't be able to do it all. There's not enough of you. There's not enough time for you to do it all. Affection for your children has to be rooted in you loving what you're doing. Today, many women don't love being a mom because they're not trained in it. And none of us would like to be put into a job where we've never been taught how to do it. It's very difficult. But as a pastor, as I watch young couples get married and I watch the women, you know what they're all afraid of? Almost all of them are afraid of. They're afraid of having kids. It's just normal. They're afraid of having children, and in response to that, they're going to wait to have children. That's just what my assumption is with young women and their fiancés coming into marriage. They have no clue what they are signing up for. They're scared of it because no one talked to them about how to do those things. They may have been taught how to play sports. They may have been taught how to,

how to argue. They may be very intelligent. And listen, I'm not trying to set motherhood up as you can't do anything else or have any academic interests or anything like that. That you're just supposed to sit around and wait until you can become a mom. That's not what I'm advocating for. But when it comes down to it and you have a husband and a home and Lord willing children, the lack of training then becomes apparent. What don't you know how to do? I've heard women say, I don't know how to cook. I don't have a clue how to cook. Basic stuff, don't know how to do it. Cleaning, I don't know how to clean a bathroom. They're surprised if they have a baby and they're up three or four times a night with a crying baby. They're angry when the stuff shoots out of their diaper and ends up at their collar. Which is not to say that's an enjoyable thing for anybody, but it is part of caring for that child. I think in addition to not being trained by it, the reason women withhold affection,

or don't give their affection to their children is that they feel like becoming a mother means that they lose their definition as a person. It's very common with women. They say, I become a mom, and like, who am I? I need something else to be, like, to define who I am. And what I want to say to you is when you took your husband's last name in marriage, the redefinition of your life started, the particular redefinition. You went from being... a Smith or a Jones or a whoever, to something else. You took someone's name. You entered a new family name. You started a new house. You're now, all of your life is being rejiggered and changed around. And it's crazy to come into that environment thinking, I'm going to stay myself. No, you won't. Neither will your husband. It's the beginning of your life changing and being redefined and your orientation changing.

When a woman becomes a wife, her orientation, the Bible tells us, shifts to her husband. From her father to her husband. And she now is, this is what her life orbits around. This is what she's about. Now I know in our society that's not what would be said or be popular or be acceptable. But it is what the Bible says. A wife's orientation is going to be to her husband. To his work, to his calling, to his life, to their home. And we say, Well, that's a miserable deal for women. And I'd say, no, no, no. What's a miserable deal for a woman is to tell her that she doesn't have to have those things, but she can go out and have sex without not being married and raise her kids by herself and get in bad relationship after bad relationship after bad relationship. To tell her that so that she can have a good job, that's much worse for her. She would be much better off to be cared for and loved and protected and provided for by a godly man than to run that rat race.

And yet, women still feel as though when they get married, they've lost a little bit of themselves in their definition. I'm not who I used to be. And I want to say to you, that's true. But it's not a bad thing. In our society, it might be seen as a bad thing. But in God's eyes, this is not a bad thing for your orientation to become toward your husband. And then, as the fruit of your marriage, toward your children. There's a danger that moms can become too... and put too much hope in their children and be distracted by it and even make an idol out of them. But there's a danger on the other side of despising motherhood and not wanting to be a mom and not wanting to have her life given for others. And so it starts when they get married. And then when they have children, they think, am I nothing more than a diaper changer, a cook, or a maid? As they get older, a chauffeur? Is there nothing more to my life than that?

And I would say to you husbands, you had better make sure there is. You had better make sure there is. All of those things have to be done. Those are the tasks of being a parent, just some of them, usually the ones that fall to the wife and mother. But is it not enough to be a mother? I see memes about this sort of thing, and they say, oh, well, it's people pushing back against the pressure of our society. And they'll say, you know, it's okay for a woman to go out into corporate America and be a... a slave to her boss, and that's celebrated, but to come into her home and to serve them and give her lives for them, that's seen as a waste. And there's a truth in there. So I wish it were expressed more robustly than in a meme. To be a mother is a sweet, sweet thing. Talk to the women who would love to have children and don't have them, and you'll get a picture of it. Talk to the mothers who are empty nesting and whose children have left, and you'll begin to see how sweet being a mother can be.

It is, and how much they desire it and love it. There are many things that God uses to make us more holy, to grow us and to teach us what he's like. But for women, it is largely the work of motherhood. It is the crucible by which they become more like Jesus. And so if you despise it, or if you avoid it, or if you think you can do that without applying the same energy or effort to your marriage, It's hard to distinguish between your avoidance of the work of motherhood and the God who gave you that work. Up until, I'd say, the last 50 or 60 years, motherhood was something that was esteemed, held in high regard and high honor. It's funny to me, when Vanessa goes out and she goes to stores, it's interesting, if she goes to stores in different parts of town, what people's response to her is, right? Here she comes with...

At least a couple of little kids, but maybe, if it's a Saturday, all of them. And it's a lot, right? There's one woman, and here's 10 kids, and people, draws, you know, on the floor. And it's interesting, if you go to different parts of town, how they respond to Vanessa. Do you know where they're most kind and honoring to Vanessa? Take a guess. We don't go to the east side. We don't have a reason over there to go over there. No, Greenwood people are snooty. Not that far south. North? No. You know where people I find are most sweet to us and to our family? Little Mexico. Ethnic places, particularly like along 38th Street, like poor, poorer, ethnic. Places that aren't as affected by...

the American lust for wealth and autonomy. If Vanessa goes and runs into some Hispanic woman in the store, they look at her and say, you're blessed. If she runs into an African woman at Suraga or the health foods or wherever, they say, wow, wonderful. But if she goes to Meijer over in Plainfield, she's just an inconvenience to everybody. Yeah. Yeah, we've talked about this. What she just said is unless they're grandmas and even more so grandpas. What we find is that people younger than 60 in our society, and especially the women, scowl at the work of motherhood. The men, maybe if they're in their 50s or 60s, might be like, that's cool. If they get over 60, and especially if they're over 70, they tend to look at it and they come say, I came from a big family. And you look around and you go, where are the big family? Now why do I bring up big family? Well, because...

What did you say? Because it's a motherhood. That's what makes you a mom. Kids. And so, profound. I know. But if you look around at our society, you're going to get all messed up in terms of what you think is important and what you think you should aspire to and what you put value in. And I don't want that to be true of us. I want us to love mothers. I want mothers to love their children. And I don't want them to think that they're missing out on something because, They've got kids to take care of and to love. If you want to have an impact on your world, having children is the best way you will have an impact on it. Here's the thing, though. You won't see it because it'll be your children and your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren, right? I'm an only child. I've got 10 kids. There's 10 Abusaras. There was one, and now there's 10. And then when they have kids, and then when they have kids, that's the impact of motherhood.

And if the branch doesn't reproduce, the tree dies. And in our society, we're taught not to look at that. Not to look at the fact that your family, yes, your family name will die, but more than that, your lineage, your impact. I remember a year or two ago, I was talking with some friends, young people, young my age, you know, late 30s, which in our church is old, but in society, we're still on the younger end. and they were griping and complaining about society and what was going on and all of this stuff, and I said to them, you're not doing anything to change it. Who's going to say what you say when you're gone? You've not replicated yourself. So whether you had a good thing to say or not, it won't matter, because when you're gone, there's no one to pass the baton on to. You have no vision. And I was talking to the men, because they don't want the responsibility of being a father.

It's very hard for a woman to be a mother if a man won't be a father. Very hard. Mothers are to have an affection for their children. And you notice that Paul says, he says, we didn't impart to you only the gospel of God. He's setting up an argument here. He says, there's two things that we did. We didn't give you only the gospel of God as though that was the big deal. He says, we gave our lives to you. We gave our lives to you because you have become very dear to us. The Bible also says that in time to mothers that... In time, your children will rise up and call you blessed. And it's a hard work being a mom. And there's a lot of thankless tasks that nobody sees except the Lord. And he does see them. But outside of your home, they don't see it. Not like if you had a job. And Paul says, we gave our lives to you. We gave our lives. Paul's whole life was sent on spreading the gospel. But as he did it, he gave his lives to the people.

He gave his heart to the people. And so a mother's love leads to her giving her life for her children. And it's a sweet thing when a woman does that. And it's a hard thing, and it's scary. Women want to know, is it going to pay off? Are my kids going to believe? Am I going to have kids? I think one of the most bitter pain a woman can experience is the desire of wanting to have a child and not being able to. It's probably the most awful pain. It's like a perpetual death. And so what do we say to those who suffer that way? Do we say, well, I'm sorry for you. You should desire something else. There's something good for you. She understands that there's one thing that she wants. She wants a baby. She's got a husband. She wants a baby. And her work is to love the children that are around her, your children, my children, her nieces, nephews, what have you. But the one thing we may not do is take the woman who wants a child and say, something else will make you happy.

The truth is it won't. To those of you who've wanted children, even for a season or whatnot, not been able to have them, is there anything that fills that sorrow? No, there's not. Looking out, I know who I'm talking to. I know what struggles there have been. It may not be known to all of you, but I know what the hardships have been, at least for some of you. And it's a terrible grief. It's an inconsolable grief. And to that woman, to that husband, You're not alone in your grief. All through the Bible, there are people who've been grieved in these same ways. Abraham and Sarah were without children until they were as good as dead. Hannah was without a child. And not only was she without a child, her husband's other wives was having children and mocking her and making fun of her. There are terrible difficulties and pains that come with not having children.

But the thing we must not do is go to that woman and say, and therefore you shouldn't desire these things. In fact, what I want to say to you is I'm very, very sorry for your grief. And we ought to continue to pray that God would give you the desire of your heart because he's the one who put the desire there. And we need to trust God to provide in his way and in his time. But those of you who say, you know, I don't really feel that pain. Some of you may be thinking, I don't know if I want my daughters to feel that pain. Yeah, you do.

I mean, you don't want them to feel the pain, but you do want them to love motherhood. We've done a great disservice to the women of our society and in the church by denigrating motherhood as though it's something they can do with their extra time when they feel like it. Because the truth is, when they do it, then they end up feeling like they haven't done well. They've not been a good enough mom. They haven't loved them well enough. They haven't given enough of their time and their energy. They missed those special... things, those milestones, because they're busy doing something else. And so when Paul says, we have so fond an affection for you, we were well pleased to give you our lives because you've become very dear to us, he is describing the love of a mother for her children. And so should motherhood define a woman? Well, if she's a mother, yes. Yes.

If you seek after being a mother and caring for children and raising up a godly seed for the Lord, are you going to look different in our society? Yes. Will you have the things that people who aren't doing that same work have? No, you won't. The truth is, you won't be able to do it all. You won't be able to do it all. Your life will look different forever. Not just when they're little and not just when they're in your home. Forever, your life will look different. And I would say, Better. Better. As your children grow and you start to receive some of the benefits of your labor, there will be no greater joy that you'll have. But you will reap what you sow. And so if you sow sparingly in your children, you will reap sparingly, either in number of children or in the training that you've given to them. It really is a lot of work. Vanessa's told me our babies...

Six weeks old almost. And she tells me, she says, I just added a 40-hour-a-week job in addition to my 100-hour-a-week job. You know? And that's why new moms don't sleep. So is it worth it? She's beautiful. You're beautiful. I'm glad that this is what defines our life. I know our family puts pressure on you. I hope you respond to it well by giving your life to serving God. I think we want to serve God in ways that are... that are so dramatic and so noticeable, but often are so short. But you're better off to give your whole life to serving him on something that will be there when you're gone. Because naked you've come into this world, and naked you're going to go out. And so the real question is, what will you leave behind? Will there be anything, or will there be anyone left behind? Will you have been a consumer in this world, or will you have been a producer in this world?

Will you have taken from it or given to it? And motherhood is the best way for a woman to love God. And I realize that's really narrow and restricting and what about and what about. We can talk about the what abouts. But are we supposed to be ashamed of the thing that is very clear, which is that motherhood is a very high calling and something that should be held in honor by Christians because God loves it? Or is it something that we should be indifferent toward? Because we realize that if we give our lives to it, we're not going to be able to keep up with the Joneses, the pressures. We may not be able to live in that neighborhood or go on those vacations or drive these kind of cars or have that kind of retirement. Paul doesn't make any moans about motherhood and apologize for it. He says, in fact, motherhood, as we've discussed it, is how I've gone about my ministry. It's how I think pastors should do their job. It's how I've done it. Because it's good and it's pleasing to God. And so, in closing,

What's the application? Love motherhood. Give your life to it. It will be inconvenient. You probably are untrained for it. You'll get tired and exasperated. You'll think nobody knows or cares. Your husband will contribute to you feeling that way sometimes. But it is the way that you will serve God, and you ought to aspire to it. As women. And you ought to teach your daughters to aspire to be mothers. Now, if this was Father's Day, I would say you ought to have your sons ought to aspire to be fathers. Husbands and fathers. Wives and mothers. It's not easy work. Do you want to please God? Do you want to, you know, a funny story? Since I just looked at my son, it wasn't this one. You remember a few weeks ago I told one of my sons to be quiet in the middle of the service? Do you know that when we went home, he said to me, Daddy, you embarrassed me during the sermon.

I think he said at the dinner table. I laughed at him. I said, honey, I didn't embarrass you. Your behavior embarrassed you. I just told you to stop it. Being a father is the sweetest thing you'll ever do as a man. And being a mother will be the most rewarding thing you could give your life to. I know you guys don't, so many of us are young and don't have many kids and have whole lives ahead of us and don't know what it's going to be. And there'll be bumps along the roads and sorrows and hardships. Persevere in it. Trust God to get married. Trust God to have children. Trust God to help you raise them. Ask for help when you need it. With your children, with your marriage. Kids put pressure on marriage. Do you know that? Lots. Oh, yeah. I bet every married couple in here has fought about their kids once or twice. Give yourself to the work. If you want to be a Christian, you will be doing a very Christian thing.

by loving children and opening your hearts and your homes to them. When your wife's scared about it, I don't know. Remember I said earlier, they have, you say, okay, we can have a baby and they're scared, but then they have a baby. And then if the idea of having a second baby, like just the idea of it, I won't be able to love that baby enough. Give your wife a hug, love her, encourage her, strengthen her to do the work. God will give her. Maybe a better way to say it is God will give your children what they need through her and through their siblings and through their father and through their aunts and their uncles and their Sunday school teachers and all the rest. Watching my wife become a mother ten times over has been the most memorable and sweetest highlights of our marriage. She could have done lots of other things, but she quit grad school to get married and, Lord willing, and now.

to have children, and I'm thankful for it. I'm the beneficiary. My children are the beneficiary. You all are the beneficiary of her motherhood. So give your life to it. Give your life to it. Don't be afraid of it. When you are afraid of it, persevere anyhow. Let's pray.