HAL BRADY: Time keeps on ticking

Years ago there was an advertisement for a certain brand of watch which had this phrase, “It takes a licking but keeps on ticking.” This statement might also be a good description of the subject of this article – the family.

 Who of us can deny that the family has undergone some very significant, if not radical changes? Many people have talked about a change in the family’s purpose, structure, function, and form. And who can deny that the family in our time has been under full attack? As someone observed, “It has been inspected, suspected, disrespected, rejected, dissected, examined and re-examined.” Its demise has been predicted, analyzed and decided. But while taking a licking, all the time the family keeps on ticking.

 In the light of all this, we are approaching Mother’s Day!  Now, we know that Mother’s Day is not an official religious festival. You won’t find it officially mentioned anywhere in the Bible. Actually, it was started in 1907 by a Sunday School Superintendent in a small American town and proclaimed by the President of the United States in 1914. Since then our North American society has included it in the realm of “civil religion,” and most churches have observed it as an unofficial Christian festival. And this is rightly so, because there is something divine about it.

 Personally, I think we lost something a few years back when we in the church substituted “Christian Family Week” for Mother’s Day. Of course, that was a protest against sentimentality and over indulgence, but Christian Family Week never captured the imagination. So I’m grateful that Mother’s Day has come back into its own as a time when we make a big fuss over mother. Why not?  As a rule, mother is still the best supporting character in the family drama. And all too often she doesn’t get the recognition and respect she deserves.

 A woman who was chosen by her community for special honor as a mother responded, “Who me? I’ve never done anything. I just brought up a houseful of kids to be decent men and women, that’s all.” That’s all?

 Now, despite the mixed bag of feelings and emotions some folks bring to this day, I have a few very important challenges to issue as we approach Mother’s Day, 2016.

 First, to those of you whose mothers are or were less that perfect-may God break your chains! A well know minister tells of a woman he counseled. She had grown up in a home where she had received very little love and affirmation as a child. In recent years she had made peace with her mom, but she was still angry with her father, who had died several years before.As the minister described the woman he used a very helpful metaphor. He said that as long as she remained angry with her deceased father she remained “chained” to him.  And with this, she remained chained to the broken past and chained to the pain.

 This Mother’s Day there may be some of us who need to allow God to help us to forgive, and, in so doing, break the chains of the past and heal our memories.

 Second, to those of you who are mothers-may God be within you!  What an influence mothers have!  Sometime ago, a poll was taken and people were asked who was the most influential person in their lives. By far, the largest number of people polled replied, “My mother.”

 I remember my stepmother (my

birth mother died when I was ten ) spending extra sessions at the dining room table with me tutoring me in high school algebra. I remember learning to drive with her as she allowed me to drive her car. I remember those late night conversations in the den with her after arriving home from a date.

Then I remember her quiet tears as she heard me pray or preach and so many other things. I am sure you get the picture.

 Abraham Lincoln put it this way, “All  that I am or ever hope to be I owe to

my mother.”

 Third, to those of us who are husbands or children-treasure your wife and your mother!

 A capable wife who can find?” (Proverbs 31:10). Now, the author is not suggesting here that capable women do not abound. But the author is suggesting that a capable wife and/or mother is one of the most precious of all life’s treasures. And these words are directed specifically to husbands and children-treasure your wife, treasure your mother.

 So how do we treasure our wives and mothers?

  1. Refuse to take them for granted!

  2. Show they are appreciated!

  3. Lend them a hand!

 Love, someone pointed out, is best spelled T-I-M-E, and it is! Happy Mother’s Day!

The Rev. Hal Brady is an ordained United Methodist minister and executive director of Hal Brady Ministries, based in Atlanta.