Double Down Mom // Pastor Julie Wells

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

I know all these kids in here are gonna be so sweet to their mamas today. How many moms would like your kids to clean up their stuff? Oh, well, praise the Lord. Look at this, children. How many moms would like for you to clean up their stuff? How many moms would like your kids to take out the trash without anybody asking them to do so? Oh, I got an Amen in the back. All right, an Amen in the back. All right. How many moms today would say, I would like someone to just recognize that the bathroom needs to be clean and take care of it? Hallelujah. What else? What else? I would also like to know how many moms would like to just take a nap today without any interruptions. Would you raise your hand right now? Now I want you to look around this room. I want you to look around this room, family, and make it happen. All right, all right, already. All right, I did my the best I could, moms. How many moms had to cook today for Mother's Day? Sometimes we need a different day, don't we? We need a different day. Gentlemen, you can wait upon us for the morning offering. We like to give our offering. Reggie, did you pinch that baby? Well, a mom's job is never done. Isn't that right? Isn't that right? We like to give our offering, some of us during worship, because we believe that giving of our time and our talent and our treasure is an act of worship to the Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. This is a talk back church. Tell your neighbors, say, this is a talk back church. Don't forget to talk back. I'll tell you, like my dad told me. Um, if you if you amen me, I'll preach better. And if you amen me, I might preach shorter. Now you're really gonna do it, aren't you? Now you're really and I'm like, amen, amen. All right, let's go to Exodus. Can we go to Exodus today? I want to talk today about some moms in the Bible that I would consider them double down moms. Everybody say, double down. Now, if you dare someone to do something, and they are like, I don't know, or whatever, they might not be sure, or they might say yes, and then they're like, You can't do it, I know you won't do it, and you double down, what does that mean? Oh, you're gonna do it. That's right. If I double down on something, then it's gonna happen. I or at least I will die trying. All right. Can any of you believe that I have a personality like that? That it if I double down, uh-oh, uh-oh. It is going, even if it's the wrong thing, I will make it so that I have to apologize to 25 people because I doubled down. I'm not proud of that. I'm just saying that's a confession. Feel bad for me, feel bad for me. I can't not unlike the rest of you, y'all can get away from me when I'm annoying. I cannot get away from myself. I am stuck with me 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So, have you ever, moms, had to double down? Yeah, you have. And I'm gonna tell you this right now. If you raise girls, there comes a day when you and that girl, you are gonna have to double down. Because that girl will think she's bigger than you, and she's better than you. And you're like, listen, until you live on your own, I'm the boss in this house. And we're gonna have to have it out. Now, I love my girls, two of them are here, one is on her way, maybe. I think that in my household that Lena and I sometimes had the most head butting because we're our personalities are very much alike, and I'm so proud of Lena. Lena is doing incredible work for vulnerable children in our family with the Department of Child Services, and I'm very proud of what she does. Yes, give her a hand because she's anointed to do a great work for the Lord. So, since I complimented her, now I can tell the truth. So, when she was little bitty, a tiny, tiny little thing, she was already trying to double down on me. I would put that girl in timeout, and I was like, listen here, you're gonna sit in this chair and you're gonna sit here until I tell you you can get up. And she would flip herself upside down and put her legs in the air and say, I'm gonna sit in this chair like this, and whoop herself around. And and I mean, I would think, okay, I'm gonna wait her out. I'm gonna let her all the blood run to her head and just see till she and she would not, that child would rather pass out than turn back around. And she did this thing, it was probably our fault. You know, any of you, like, if you've raised children, they tell you, like, you know, all these ways to get your kids to sleep, and don't get up in the middle of the night and help them, you know, you gotta let them cry it out. I don't know, I wasn't that good at that. In fact, I got pretty much sure I got an F if the kids were crying. Because listen, I'm tired. I'm tired and I just want to go back to sleep. Can any moms understand that? Just say amen. Now, for those of you moms who let your kids cry it out, kudos to you. I could not do it. I just couldn't do it. Number one, I couldn't stand that they were crying. Number two, I was just exhausted, right? I mean, I would love to say, like, I couldn't take it, but my kids were crying. The truth is, I was tired and I just wanted, I just need some sleep. And so I started this terrible habit with Lena when she would wake up in the middle of the night, I would get her a bottle or even a sippy cup. That's how big she was. And she was my milk drinker, and she wouldn't want just milk, she would want chocolate milk. It got to the point that we would prepare the sippy cup before we went to bed because we knew at some time that she and it was exhausting, like we'd have to get up and get the milk, and da-da-da-da. And she's screaming. I'm thinking maybe she'll fall back asleep. No, mm-mm. She is not gonna fall back asleep. And so one night, I don't think we heard her, and she here she comes down the hallway. I can hear her little feet. You know, anybody have a kid like that that they come fast? They come fast. But here she comes, right? Here her little feet, stomping on the banging on the door, and I swear she liked John Wayne to the door, and she kicked the door open, and she's tiny, and she's little, and she says, Get me some chalky. Because that's the way she called chocolate milk. And I don't know. Something inside of me was like, It is time to double down. And I got up and I said, Listen to here, little girl. You are not getting any chalky. You need to go back to bed. It is nighttime. We do not drink chocolate milk in the middle of the night. Now, see, I just whooped it on her all of a sudden. It was just like cold turkey. You can't come off a chalky cold turkey. That was difficult. And so she did what she should do in that moment was this. She threw herself on the floor and she's throwing herself a three-year-old tantrum, and um, her dad was trying to sleep. And so I scooped her up and I took her in the bathroom. It's big, it's a big area. I took her in there and I shut the door. Well, she then she just escalated to cry louder so no one in the house could sleep. And so then I'm standing between her and the door, and I said, We can do this all night. You can just scream all night, but I'll tell you this: you are not getting any chocolate milk. And I was doubled down. Tell your neighbor, double down. Then I looked behind me, and here comes James Wells with a sippy cup. That poor man just wanted to go to bed. And don't you know I turned around on him and I said, You better get the chocolate milk out of here. Because I done double down on this girl and I cannot go back. So we waited it out. Me and Lena just battled it out, and that was the last night she ever John waned my door. And look at her now. She sleeps all night and doesn't get up in the middle of the night for chocolate milk. It all worked out. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Somebody say, double down. I mean, when you double down, you're serious. I'm gonna show you some women in the Bible that doubled down. Let's go to Exodus chapter one. Now you remember the children of Israel are enslaved, right? And they get there because of a blessing, because of Joseph. It's good for a period of time, it's good for the children of Israel in Egypt. But then the Bible tells us Joseph dies. And then a new king gets in power and he doesn't know Joseph. He has no favoritism towards the children of Israel, and they become enslaved. And all of a sudden, this king gets worried because the children of Israel are prospering. Their population growth is very rapid. And he worries that if they continue to grow at this rate, there will be more Israelites than there are Egyptians, and they could potentially overthrow them. So this Pharaoh gets an idea that he is going to create some kind of population control. So in verse, in chapter one of Exodus, in verse 11, or let's look at um, yeah, let's look at verse 11 in chapter 1. So they put slave masters over them to oppress them how? With forced labor. Tell your neighbor, forced labor. It wasn't an option. It wasn't an option, forced labor. And they built Pitham and Ramses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. So the Egyptians began to dread the Israelites. Now let me tell you something. If the enemy is going to cause an affliction in your life, I want you to just speak this and claim this over yourself. You might afflict me, but the Lord is gonna multiply me. I am not living under the dominion of a ruthless king. I am living under the dominion of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. So sorrow must come, travesty must come, affliction must come, but I will not. You gotta be doubled down. I refuse to lay down and be whooped up by the devil. I'm not gonna do it. If I have to fight you with one hand, I'll fight until my knuckles are bloody. Because once I double down, I ain't going back. Anybody else stubborn like that in here? Don't point. Stop pointing. And definitely do not point at your mother. Not on Mother's Day.

unknown 11:14

Not on Mother's Day.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Do you know how diamonds are created? No diamond can be created without pressure. So pressure creates something valuable. God was using this affliction. I don't really understand that totally, right? I don't understand sometimes why God doesn't intervene into injustice. I don't get it. It's okay. I don't have to understand everything about God. Has anybody else achieved that in your relationship, in your walk with the Lord, that you don't need to understand everything about God because at some point you recognize it just isn't possible. You cannot understand a limitless God with a limited bind. Amen. It's okay to try. It's okay to try. It's good to try. So pressure creates something valuable. The population control tactic did not work. The children of Israel continued to prosper. So the Pharaoh comes up with a second plan. And he's going to include women to execute a very devious and wicked plan. And so if we look at verse 15 in Exodus chapter 1, let's go there. Exodus chapter 1, verse 15. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shrah and Pua, When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him. But if it is a girl, let her live. The midwives, however, feared God. Period. I feel like there could be a period right there. There are some women that are more afraid and give more honor to God than they are going to give to any system that works outside of God. They are more concerned with pursuing light than being afraid of darkness. God help you if you have encountered a woman who has doubled down in her spirit. She might look complacent on the outside, she might look quiet, but on the inside, she's like, You are messing with the wrong mom with a smile on my face. I'm about to tattle on Jesus about you. These women were not playing. They do not argue with the Pharaoh. They do not tell him that they refuse to do it, but they take the instruction to kill every baby boy as he is being born, and they decide in verse 17 that they feared God and they did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do. And they let the boys live. Good for them. Good for them. How wicked is it that he wants to infiltrate the community and use the very women that are used to bringing life into the world to do something so heinous and so terrible. He doesn't want to do it himself. He wants to use a woman to do his dirty work. Filthy. Okay, I'll just say it like it is. I have had such a privilege at GLAAD Adoption Agency to help women. One of the things that they do at GLAAD is we provide labor support to women who don't have anybody to go with them when they're having a baby. Nobody should be by themselves. This is what my mom always used to say. No one should be by themselves when they're having a baby. We should help them. We should be there to say she needs an extra pillow. Can she have some ice? Move the blankets around, do everything that we can do. Can someone please check on her? She's in pain. Anything, just anything to be there to be a comfort. Because I do think it can be scary to deliver a baby by yourself. And so I've had a beautiful opportunity to watch many babies be born. And as I think about this story of Shifra and Pua, I think of how many babies they welcomed into the world. And all I can tell you, I just say in the early service, I don't even feel like I tried to see like what words could I use to describe what it's like to watch a baby come into the world. A baby that began from a two-celled organism that became a whole person with its totally in different intention and it's a mind of its own. You know, if you have been pregnant, if that baby wants to lay sideways and upside down, they're gonna do it. They already know how they wanna be. They're not, they don't care how you move and get them all situated into something that's comfortable for you, they will go right back. Again, Lena, sorry, Lena. She was always up in my gut. I could not breathe. I would be like, oh dear God, I can't breathe. I would I would just make her go back down. Just lovingly shove her down. And the minute I could take a deep breath, guess what she would do? Herp. She already had a mind of her own, right? Before she was even born. How many know that newborns, some of them are docile, some of them just give little tiny cries? There are other babies that come into the world screaming and a yelling and just wanting you to know they're here, right? Babies have their own temperament. They're unique little beings that come into the world and they're precious. Amen. Amen. They're created by God, it's miraculous. How treacherous is it that this Pharaoh asks the women who witnessed the majesty and miracle of God's creation to now kill these baby boys? I can't imagine the angst in their heart. Now you know at this time there was a lot of women that died in childbirth. In fact, if a woman was engaged as she's preparing her wedding garments, at the same time, she prepares her burial shroud. Do you know why? Because so many women died in childbirth. So it makes this request all the worse because you have a woman who's gonna live and deliver a healthy baby, and you want me to kill this baby because it's your own greed for power. That's gross. Would you agree with me? That's gross. Happy Mother's Day. Is that what you were expecting on Mother's Day? Somebody say that's gross. So the Pharaoh calls them in and he's like, What's going on? You're letting the Hebrew baby boys live. You're not doing what I told you to do. And in verse 19, I love this answer. And so these sweet women with a smile on their face said, We can't help it. The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, they are vigorous, and these babies are born before we can ever even get to the house. Sorry. So, verse 20. God was kind to the midwives, and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. How God loved them because they did something that required courage. Courage. All right, can I just help you with the with the um definition of courage? Are you ready? If you're ready, say amen. If you're not ready, I'm sorry, just deal with it. Courage means this having the mental fortitude, the moral conviction, and the physical strength it takes to face something that is dangerous or you're afraid of, and do it anyway. It takes the mental fortitude, the moral conviction, and the physical strength to face something that you are. It's dangerous and you're afraid of it, but you've doubled down and you are gonna do it anyway. How many people do I have in here? If you're a woman and you say, I'm a double down, I am a double down. Carly, you know, Carly, raise your hand. You are a double down right now. Raise your hand, big and all right, that's what I like to see. My girls bear have their hands raised. I know y'all are double downers. I've had to double down with each and every one of you. Do you know? Whenever right now I work at the Evansville Psychiatric Children's Center as a therapist, and when we get girls there that are 10 or 11, 12, sometimes the staff will say, like, oh my gosh, this girl is so grumpy. And I mean, I'm so calloused by girl eye roll and behavior like that that I'm like, are they grumpy? They're grumpy? What are they doing that's grumpy? I don't even notice. Any moms of girls in here? Sorry, Jade, you already know. I mean, Harper's just a tiny one. And she's already got girls all over her, doesn't she? She is just, she's gonna be a leader. She's gonna be a leader. That's what we know. How many people know little girls like that? You're like, I don't know what this little girl's gonna do when she grows up, but she's gonna be the boss. She's gonna be the boss. It's okay. So we have these midwives. Now it's interesting that it says that the Lord gave them families of their own, but in some uh rabbinical interpretation, that word families can also mean house. So is there's some thought that Pua and Shifra were midwives in the house of Pharaoh, maybe enslaved to him, and that they were responsible for his harem. And when it says God gave them houses, it really means God gave them freedom from slavery. I mean, you can force me to do this, that, and whatever, but you cannot own my praise. Come on. I mean, I am preaching good, and y'all ain't saying nothing. How many people know you you can force me to do this, that, or whatever, but you cannot take my praise. You cannot tell me what I'm gonna do inside, internally. Uh-uh. No. I'm gonna do, I'm gonna fear God more than I fear you, and I'm looking for women out here that today is a celebration of moms, and I guarantee you, if somebody's gonna threaten your child, dear God in heaven, I will shun you for 8,000 years if I have to. But you come after one of my babies. Where they call it what comes out? Mama Bear. Have you heard that term before? Oh, Penny, I know you got it too. I know she has it also. In fact, I will let it come out for any child that I feel like is vulnerable. Will you? Will you stand up for children in vulnerable places? My kids, though, if we're out in public and there's some kind of scuffle going on that involves a child, I'll be looking. And you know what they say? Mom, don't get involved. But one time I did get us a discount at JCPenney during one of those crazy um this is the truth, Melissa. One of those crazy Thanksgiving shopping. Remember when it was like, oh, this is great, we're gonna have them all open all night long. So there was music and lights, and we were shopping, and the deals were great, and all of a sudden it's like three o'clock in the morning and we're eating Chinese food. I don't even know. And there was this boy that was kind of being attacked by this gang of girls. And I was like, what in the world? And all these grown-ups are just like okay with it. And so I had to act crazy. And I my kids were already saying, Mom, don't, mom, mom, don't look over there. Mom, don't get involved. This is none of your business. And of course, I was like, act at all crazy. You gotta act crazier than the people that are acting crazy, and then they'll settle down. Some of you know. I already understand. You have to have courage to preserve the next generation. That's why Shifra and Pua were so intent on no way, no how were they gonna take the lives of this baby because they were intent on pursuing and protecting the next generation. Can you say amen? These women were serious, and they were in no way were they gonna back down. And I feel like there's a special anointing that comes with protecting the next generation. I have had such a privilege of being a part of GLAD Adoption Agency. My parents founded the adoption agency out of their own adoption experience. And I grew up around adoption. Like women that were pregnant lived in our homes. Sometimes we were the foster family, we were the everything. I mean, I get the up-close and personal look at the amount of sacrifice that it takes for a woman to surrender her baby like that. It was very powerful to me, very powerful. And even in college, like it directed my career path. And for many years I had a beautiful opportunity to work at GLAD with my mom and loving on women who were in crisis pregnancy and finding all kinds of compassion for people that are in that kind of situation. And I worked with women that placed babies for adoption. I worked with women that um parented babies, I worked with women that had abortions, and I felt compassion for all of them. Because the world is trying to align us with a culture of death. I can't speak for you, but I can tell you this about me. God has called me to align myself with a culture of life, and God has not called me to be judgmental to women. God has called me to be judgmental to a prosperous business that makes money off of the tragedy of women, and I'm not okay with that. And I'm not afraid to shit say it. And I don't have to be ugly, but I will if I have to. Don't you know some poor kid? Um, I was on a campaign trail and they were doing old-fashioned knock on doors, and he said, Are you a one-issue voter? And you know, I just stepped out on my porch and shut the door, and I said, I am so glad you asked. I was pretty sure I got a big X on my house. Like canvassing of the neighborhood. Don't even bother with this lady in her house. But I told him, Listen, I don't know what you believe happens after you die, but after I die, I believe that I'm gonna be standing before a righteous God. And I am in no way, shape, or form not gonna tell him that I aligned myself with a culture of death that fed itself on the death and the terrible destruction of unborn children while they were yet in their mother's womb. I'm not doing it. And you don't have to do it either. And so from there, a few years ago, the Lord allowed me to go to the Evansville Psychiatric Children's Center where I have been able to be a therapist there and work with children who have been severely traumatized by unspeakable. I knew people were evil, but I did not know people are this evil to do these kinds of things to children. And I've had the honor and the greatest privilege in the world to work there and to be an advocate for children, and to say to them, like, you did not deserve that. You're amazing, you're such a great kid. I love spending time with you. And I got to work in a whole hospital of people that loved children through the hardest time of their life, and I feel I don't I don't even know. I can't say honored, privileged any more times. It just was a blessing for me, and so now I have another transition. Thank you, thank you, thank you, whatever. You would do it too. I have another blessing, a big transition. And it's been it was a hard decision for me because I love the work that I have been doing at the Evansville Psychiatric Children's Center. But now the Lord has led me to a different position. And so I will, on Monday, tomorrow, is my first day to be the executive director of Indiana Right to Life of Southwest Indiana. Praise the Lord. You know, I believe that she knows and that she sees, but it would make my mom so happy knowing how devout she was. So I ask you to pray for me because I'm gonna need courage, I'm gonna need mental fortitude, moral conviction, and physical strength. But I feel like I'm already doubled down, and there's a spirit of double down that comes. And sometime while Puwa and Shifra were saving babies on the birthing stools, there was another mom in a small village who maybe was pregnant or had just given birth. And her name was Jochebed. And she could see, because after these tactics of population control did not work, Pharaoh even escalated his culture of death. And he said, I'm gonna take all the newborn baby boys and I'm gonna throw them in the Nile River. And so the Bible tells us that Yochebed hid her son until she could hide him no longer. I cannot imagine. You know, I I love that Pastor James reminds us that we have hindsight bias, we know the outcome of the story, and so we sometimes don't always feel the agony of the person that's faced with this thing. She hid her vulnerable, sweet baby boy for as long as she could hold him, and then she made him that little ark, and she placed him in that godforsaken river in hopes that God would somehow save him. And before he was Moses, his mother called him a different name, and I about fell out of my chair when I read this. I thought I just can't even understand how cool God is. She named her baby Yakusiel. Yakusiel with the emphasis on L, E L is God in the Hebrew. And so, of course, I was like wondering, what does Yakusiel mean? What does that mean? It means God is my hope. When her son was facing certain death, and she did the most tiniest thing that she could do is make him a waterproof basket to send him in a dangerous river. She called him, God is my hope. He was her only hope at that point. No one else could have saved her. Saved the baby, saved the mama. And so you know, Pharaoh's daughter finds Yucusio. And what does she name him? Moses, which means drawn out of the water. And Miriam, his big sister, ran along the shoreline, and she sees that Pharaoh's daughter picks her baby brother up out of the water, and she says, Would you like me to find a Hebrew slave that can nurse him? And Pharaoh's daughter says, Yes, thank you. And who does she go get? Her mom. The mother of UQCL. Now, can you just let me wander for a second? Can you? And physicians? Musicians, you may come for the music. If the physicians in the church came for the music, that might be awkward. I don't know how talented they are. But can we just can we just think about something that's not in the scripture? What in the world happened? I cannot imagine how worried Yokebed is about her baby. That is something terrible gonna happen. The basket doesn't work, it sinks, the baby drowns. There's some kind of animal or predator that gets the baby. Miriam can't save the baby, and Miriam comes back to the house and says, Mom, you're gonna get to nurse Yacusia. What happens the first time they put that baby back in her arms and she knows he's safe? Does she cry? Does she just hold him and stand still? Does she pray and thank God? Does she whisper to him, Yakusiel? God is my hope. And remember, the biblical definition of hope is not a wish. Like, I hope this works out. It's not the same as English. Hope means the confident expectation of something good. So the woman who was brave enough to say, God is my confident expectation of something good. God rewarded her by allowing her to participate in her son's life in such a meaningful and powerful way. You can't tell me, and you can't convince me that God doesn't love life. He said, I created you. While you were yet in your mother's womb, I knew your name. I knew the number of your days. There's no such thing as an accidental pregnancy. God is the author of all life. If he begins to weave a life in the womb, he has the destiny for that baby. I had so many beautiful experiences at GLAD, but do you have just a couple minutes for me to share one more brief thing? Sometimes at GLAD I would just be so wild and crazy. My desk is a mess. I can't find my car keys. I lost my phone. I mean, whatever. Just a thousand things. James says when he gets to heaven, he's gonna ask the Lord how many days of his life were spent looking for things I could not find. Poor guy. And we were at the hospital, and I was with this mom, and she was placing her baby for adoption, and I cannot tell, I don't have a right description to say how difficult it is for any woman to do that. When people would say to me, I don't know how anybody wouldn't want their baby, my response would be, I don't know that either, because I never met that woman. In all my years of Glad I never met a woman who did not want her baby. She felt like she was saving her baby from something. That's the only reason somebody can do that. It's compassion, it's love. And so biological moms sometimes want to name their babies, and there can be a lot of significant meaning in a birth name, a name that she gives. And she said she knows that the adoptive family may change the baby's name, and she's okay with that, but she had grown up in a Christian household, but she had wandered far from the Lord, stumbled into drugs, addiction, a lot of bad things, and all of her children had been removed from her care. And so her emphasis in her life was to get straight so that she could get her kids back. And she felt like trying to take care of a newborn was just it was too much in her early sobriety. And that was why that's wisdom. That was wisdom on her part to put all of her effort into getting her kids out of the system. But still, she has to say hello and goodbye to this baby on the same day. And she said, I'm gonna name my baby Malachi. Do you know what Malachi means? And I said, I don't. She said, Malachi means messenger of the Lord. Woo! That's a double-down moment right there. She's like, I may be sinful, I may have been lost, I may have wandered far, far away from God, but I'm gonna honor the Lord in this moment, and I'm gonna call this baby messenger of the Lord. She's like Yoko Bed. I'm sending him off, but I'm believing that God is gonna take care of him. So I take this baby in this little bassinet, and I get the joy of rolling him into the room where there's an adoptive family waiting for him. A mom that had waited a long time to have a baby, and she was struggling with lots of infertility. And at the same time, her sister had just given birth. That had been very hard for her. She wanted to be happy for her sister, but also she herself could not conceive. It was just very hard. And the grandmother was like, I am so elated for my daughter that just had a baby, but I can't be too happy because I don't want to hurt. Can you understand that, moms? Can you understand that struggle? So I roll this baby into the room, and I mean there are just tears and laughing and joy and picture taking and all of these beautiful things happening. And they said, Did we tell you that we're gonna name the baby Samuel? Do you know what Samuel means? And I said, I do not. They said, Samuel means the Lord has heard. I tore across that hospital, like I could, I'm sure those nurses thought this lady is a complete loon, and they just let her be in charge of stuff. I just ran across there. I was like, I gotta tell you. You named your baby the messenger of the Lord. They named him the Lord Has Heard. How good is God? Can you stand with me this morning? I want you to be a double-down mom. I want you to tell the enemy, like you think you're gonna attack my family, you better think again. You mess with the wrong girl, you mess with the wrong household. I'm like Pua, I'm like Shifra, I'm like Yokebed. I will not accept a terrible destiny from my children and their children and their children's children. It's not just about my kids, it's a generational blessing. So, Lord Jesus, we just come to you this morning. We thank you, God, for that spirit that you have put inside of moms. That there is no end that they will not go, there is nothing that they will not do, and we are like that in the spirit. We are tenaciously pursuing you and seeking you, God. We love you, Jesus. You are good to us, and we know that affliction must come. But we stand on the word of God that says we are pressed but not crushed, we are persecuted but not abandoned, we are struck down, but we are not destroyed. In fact, we are multiplied greatly to give glory and honor to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. So we thank you, Jesus. May you encourage each and every mom that is here today, God, that their place in life, their role as a mother is anointed, and that you are gonna give them the strength to do everything that they need to do as a mother. And we thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, and let the house of God say amen. Amen. I hope you have a beautiful day today.