Praise Moms – Proverbs 31
When someone quotes Proverbs 31, they often skip over the first few verses. They’ll read the familiar verse of Proverbs 31:10 “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.” But that isn’t where this section of Proverbs begins.
This famous section of Proverbs that tells us about godly mothers actually starts with King Lemuel reciting advice that his mother had given him when he was younger.
In those first few verses, the king says his mother told him:
- Not to hang out with questionable women (that’s in verse 3).
- Not to drink alcoholic beverages because it will cloud his judgment (vs. 4-5)
- AND because he was King, to be sure to stand up for those who couldn’t stand up for themselves. (vs. 8-9)
Now, she might have told him a few other things as he grew up too, like stand up straight, brush your teeth, and eat your vegetables, but those pieces of advice obviously didn’t make the cut. It was the previous three pieces of advice that stuck with him as most important throughout his life.
I got to thinking that if King Lemuel thought it was appropriate to praise his mother, I could do the same for mothers today because there’s no better example of what abiding love truly means.
King Lemuel says that a virtuous woman is successful if, “Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.” (Proverbs 31:23) Proverbs 31 also tells us that a Virtuous woman “… speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.” (Proverbs 31:26). Such a woman isn’t just satisfied if her son or daughter are good at math and science, or successful in the business world, because until her children understand the value of God’s will and his Word, she knows that their success in this world will be empty. As Jesus said: “what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36)
Some of the greatest men of our nation recognized the influence of the abiding love of their mothers. Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying, “All that I am I owe to my angel mother.” And George Washington echoed almost that exact same sentiment saying, “All that I am I owe to my mother.” General Douglas MacArthur said, “My sainted mother taught me devotion to God and a love of country which have ever sustained me. To her I yield anew a son’s reverent thanks.”
It’s my prayer that every mother might have the honor of having “her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also,” praising her, as it says in Proverbs 31:28-29, by declaring “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”
What greater testament can there be to a mother’s abiding love than that. Happy Mother’s Day!