A Faithful Mum // Little People Used by a Big God, Part 8

Being a mother would have to be one of the toughest jobs going around. And mums often feel that they go unnoticed, that nobody values their enormous sacrifice. Today we’re going to meet a faithful mother, who, as it turned out, ended up having a huge impact in this world.

Of all the jobs someone could have in life, have you ever wondered what would be the toughest one? I’ve had a chance to think about it and I reckon being a mother would be the hardest of all. Of course that’s not an option to at least 50% of us. Being a Dad’s hard sometimes too, of course. But I don’t know, to me there’s something so incredibly special and sacrificial about mums – carrying the child, the pain of childbirth, the night feeds and mostly these days, it’s still the mum who stays at home with the teething and the dirty nappies, you know! Rewarding, but tough.

And so often the mum has to put her career on hold, it must be really tough. So often mum just wants to be her own person for a while, have some adult conversation for a while. My hunch is that some days mums feel undervalued, ignored and forgotten by everyone.

And yet you know the two sides of the motherhood coin, the sacrifice on the one hand and the reward on the other, they’re so special. I think the sacrifice is so much a part of the reward, seeing the kids grow up, seeing them develop, seeing them become independent. And you mix mum’s sacrifice in all of that, what must go on in a mothers heart who has borne this child?

You get a sense of that as a Dad. But I think you’d agree being a mum is so very special. Through all those different stages, through bearing the child for nine months, through the pain of childbirth, and then the feeding, and the toddler, and the school, and the teenage years and the young adult.

They all have different stages and different joys and different challenges. But they all along involve sacrifice. They all involve giving, making a long-term investment. And you know when I was a kid I never appreciated what my parents did for me, not even as a young adult. It’s not until you kind of have to start making you own way in the world and bring your own children into the world that you realise the enormity of the sacrifices that your mum and dad made for you.

And so much of being a mum is mundane, it’s routine, it’s a grind. Women often say no one notices, no one appreciates me. I do this stuff day after day, takes me all day sometimes half the night and no one appreciates me, no one even notices.

Let me ask you a question, does God notice? I mean does God show up to that place?

This week and last week on A Different Perspective, we’ve been going through a little group of programs called Little People Used by a Big God, because you know something? I think we need to know that God does show up. I think we need to know, and I think mums need to know in those difficult times God’s in that place with you. He hasn’t left, he hasn’t departed, he knows exactly what’s going on. God is in that place with you.

I’d like to introduce you to two mums today. One’s called Lois, and one is called Eunice. The Apostle Paul was responsible for telling much of the known world in the first century about Jesus. And he wrote almost half of the books in the New Testament of the Bible. You’d have to say Paul is right up there on the Bible “A” list. You name Abraham and Moses and David and the Apostle Peter and Paul, he’s one of them. He’s one important high profile dude.

Did God notice Paul? Of course, He did. Paul was a superstar and yet along his journeys Paul meets a young man who effectively becomes his apprentice, a young minister. His name was Timothy. Now Timothy is not as well-known as Paul, he’s not one of the “A” list names. You’d probably have to say Tim would be on the “B” list.

Paul writes two letters to Timothy in the New Testament. They’re letters of guidance from an old hand in ministry to this young fresh but really talent and gifted minister. And they’re beautiful, warm and loving letters. In the second of those letters in Chapter 1:5, the Apostle Paul writes this verse. He said;

I really, really want to see you again Tim, I’m reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois, and then your mum Eunice, and now lives in you. For this reason, let me remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you. (2 Timothy 1:4-5)

So Paul writes to Tim and he remembers Tim’s mother, Eunice. And he remembers Tim’s Grandmother, Lois. This one verse is the only place in the whole of the Bible that Lois and Eunice appear. But what a beautiful reminder of the impact that a mum can have from one generation to the next.

If Paul is on the “A” list and Tim is on the “B” list, well Lois and Eunice are really just extras. You know their names gets mentioned once. Yet Paul speaks of a beautiful faith that’s in Timothy and he says, “Look you know where that faith came from Timothy? It came from your grandmother Lois then she passed it on to your mother Eunice, and your mum Eunice she passed that faith Tim, on to you.”

And young Timothy ends up impacting hundreds even thousands of people’s lives with God’s love. Being a mum is one heck of a sacrifice. It’s an investment that lives on.

I imagine that when Lois was bringing up her young daughter Eunice, I imagine there were some tough days. There were no disposable nappies in those days. I imagine that when Eunice was a teenager, Lois had problems with her and yet somehow through all of that time Lois talked to her about God. Lois passed her faith on to Eunice and then Eunice gave birth to Timothy. He was a boy, he did all the stuff that boys did. He probably did all the stuff that teenage boys did, all the stuff that maybe your teenage boys have done, and yet Eunice talked to him about God and passed her faith on.

They experienced all the things that mums do today and then some. And yet Timothy went on to touch hundreds and even thousands of people with the love of Christ because of what Lois passed on to Eunice and what Eunice passed on to Timothy.

Some days we wonder whether these kids that we’ve loved and sacrificed for, whether they will ever turn out okay. God’s message to each mum today is that you have such an incredibly important job to do, from Lois to Eunice to Timothy to thousands of people.

And on those days that days that you look at your teenagers and you just want to scream, on those days when you as a mother feel as though no one notices and no one cares and no one understands what you’re going though. On those days, Jesus Christ is with you in that place, on those days He notices, on those days he wants you to taste and experience His love and encouragement for you.

As you grow in your relationship with Him, as you develop a faith and a joy of knowing Jesus, you have the most incredible opportunity to put that seed in to your children, like Lois did for Eunice, like Eunice did for Timothy. And Lois and Eunice must have looked at that boy Timothy as he grew up into a young man and started doing things in the name of Jesus Christ. They must have said, ‘What an amazing harvest, what an investment that was so worthwhile’.

God uses little people, like Eunice, like Lois, to plant seeds, to serve children, to make them ready to go and do things that God wants them to do.

He’s a big God. He uses little people like you and me.