Good morning everyone.
Welcome to Christ Redeemer.
Particularly if this is your first time here today, we hope you really enjoy our service.
My name is Jill Kirschner.
I'm married to Steve over there.
And I've been at this church now for five years and absolutely love it.
The messages, the worship, the people, it's fantastic.
I have been asked to come up here to talk a little bit about Mother's Day.
And I've actually been a mum now.
I say mum too, I'm sorry.
It's not going to change.
I know that's a plant over here.
I know I'm not a plant.
I just can't adjust to saying mum.
It's really uncomfortable for me.
So happy Mother's Day to all the mothers here and the grandmothers and the first-time mothers as well.
If it's your first time, I'm excited that you actually made it to Mother's Day.
Have we got any first-time mums here?
Jiding one over there.
Give her a great big hug this morning.
COVID hug, of course.
As I said, I've been a mum for 34 years.
I have two grown sons, both married, whom I adore and I'm so proud of, and I have four grandchildren.
But before I talk a little bit about mums, I'm going to let you know in 1996 I moved here.
I moved here.
I still sound like this.
It's another thing I can't help.
But one of the most important things I brought from Australia was a huge tote of things that my children had made before we left Australia.
This is my eldest son's first Mother's Day card to me.
And I can really understand from this card why Steve married me because I just have the most amazing figure.
Square, no neck.
I mean, what else could you want in a woman?
That's the Proverbs 31 woman right there.
The second one I have is from my youngest son, and it's all made of hearts.
He never told me that this was me, so I'm going to just say this is not me.
But it's really, really cute.
So anyway, I want to talk to you from Proverbs 31 just quickly.
Proverbs 31, it's not a list of rules of what we have to do, it's a proclamation to women, okay, of what can come out of us, what God sees for us.
And I'm reading verses 25 and 26.
25, she is clothed with strength and dignity.
She laughs without fear of the future.
When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instructions with kindness.
Sometimes we think, as mothers, we've just got that really down.
When I had my first son, I just thought I was the most amazing mother in the world.
I looked around at all these other young mums and thought, I could just solve all your difficulties.
Just watch me.
My son is amazing.
Well, then the second one came along.
And I'm telling you, I don't think I ever made it out of the children's church room.
He just never stopped screaming.
He was embarrassing.
He pushed some child off a play area.
He was the kid that would punch someone else out.
I'd go to preschool, and there were scratches down someone else's face, and I went to the other extreme.
I'm definitely not clothed with strength and dignity.
I'm not coming out of my home.
My future is not great at all.
So we've got two ends of the spectrum.
I don't know if you're a mum that always feels good, always feels down.
But generally speaking, you know, this is not something we really like to believe.
But there's more hard days than easy days.
Even for we mothers.
So much of what we do is done in quiet that no one else sees.
But I want to talk to you about a lady in the Old Testament.
She just excites me.
I just love her.
Her name's Naomi.
She's in the book of Ruth.
The book is not named after her.
I'm not denying that Naomi is a fantastic woman, but I'm a cheerleader of Naomi.
Naomi in chapter 1, verse 20, announces to the people in her homeland that she's bitter.
Call me Mara, not pleasant Naomi anymore, but call me Mara, because I've lost everything and the Lord has dealt harshly with me, blamed it all on God.
See, why was she like that?
She'd moved to Moab, a land of pagan gods.
She thought it would be great there.
She lost her husband, she lost her sons, all in the space of about 10 years.
And when you were a widow at that time, if you had no family around you, there was no one to look after you.
You were on your own.
And so she had so much to just be bitter about.
She couldn't have children anymore.
She had no one to look after her.
But you know, in her hard time, we actually see these qualities shine through.
And I believe that's what happens for we as mothers, as grandmothers.
We don't stop loving our kids no matter what they do.
Naomi goes back to Bethlehem, a land of the living God.
And whether this was knowingly wise to her or not, she took one of her daughter-in-laws, Ruth.
So she actually rescued Ruth from a land of pagan gods and took her to the land of the living gods.
Ruth had to get used to a totally new culture.
I don't know if you've ever moved across the world before.
I have.
And while I probably look the same and I sort of speak the same language, if I say anything that's sort of offensive to you, I really apologize.
But Ruth, in her grief, had to acclimatize into a new culture.
She had to get on her feet, she had to find work, make friends.
That would have been so hard.
And yet here's Naomi.
Out of her bitterness, she's pouring kind instruction.
She's pouring wisdom.
Well, then at the very end of the book, we see something absolutely amazing, which often comes out of that shocking crisis as we stay focused on God.
Naomi is holding a little baby boy.
See, she guided Ruth into marriage.
The child that she gave birth to is actually in the lineage of Christ.
And so I don't actually know, but I see Naomi at that moment smiling at the future.
Something that had not been able to be done in her past.
In the Old Testament, Mara, meaning bitter, that's what Naomi named herself.
But as we move through to the New Testament, do you know what that means in the Greek?
Eternally beautiful.
And I think today that God looks down on we mums, moms, grandmothers, and that's what he sees for us.
That no matter what, he doesn't withdraw his love.
We have our bad day with our children, we have our great days, but no matter what, he smiles down and he sees us as eternally beautiful.
Let's pray.
Father, I thank you that you have entrusted us with the next generation.
I thank you, God, that these qualities shine through.
I pray that you continue to guide us, particularly as we go through our trials.
I pray too for our pastor today.
I thank you that we have him as our pastor.
I pray that you guide him in this message this morning, that our ears are open and that we hear what he has to say.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.