What does the Bible say about Christian mothers?

What a place the mother has in the home. How much she has to do with the children. The father, normally, spends less time with them than the mother who, normally and Scripturally, is the worker at home. How responsible and yet how privileged she is to have such close links with the family in their tender and formative years. What an opportunity for godly mothers to lay a good, Scriptural, and christian foundation in her children.

One of the most valuable services of a mother in the home is the training of children. This is her special work since she spends more time with the children than the father and exercises a powerful influence over their lives for good or bad. Notice how often the mother's name is given in the books of Kings and Chronicles in connection with the various kings of Israel. The Spirit of God thus points out to us what was probably the most important factor in the moulding of the character of the men who ruled God's people the influence of the mother.

The foundation of the child's character is laid in the home training and the mother's hand is the instrument which God delights to use in this work. The mother's most important and divinely-appointed work is in the home with her children and she should devote herself wholly to their care, training, and upbringing. If a mother neglects this momentous work in the home or leaves it to others while she seeks to do service for the Lord in other spheres, she leaves her work undone and will surely fail to rightly accomplish someone else's work to which she has not been called. The teaching and training which children receive from their mothers during their young years when sensibilities are tender is most influential upon their whole after life and will leave an impression upon their young, plastic, and receptive minds and hearts which cannot be erased. How important, then, is the work of mothers in the homes. May it not be neglected.

How delicately, how courteously, how gentlemanly John was in addressing this lady. Young brother, young sister, oh be respectful to your mother. Remember, especially you who have been brought up in Christian households, remember you are indebted to your mother especially for your knowledge of God. The wise man in the book of Proverbs says, “Forsake not the law of thy mother” (1:8, 6:20). The mother has so much to do with the family, more than the father does because he is often at his job all day. If he was like me he would be out of the house by six o'clock in the morning nearly every working day of his life, he would not be back sometimes until half past five, sometimes as late as eight o'clock. You do not see much of your family, they are in bed when you go out, they are in bed when you come in, it is the mother who has so much to do with the children, especially in the formative years of their lives. What a blessed thing for the mothers to be in the way of obedience themselves, to the voice of the Lord so that they can, as this mother (we will consider later in 2 John), bring them up “in the admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).

What a heritage for any child! To know the Holy Scriptures. We may have little to leave our children in the way of earthly possessions, but if we have given them, from a child, the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, we have given them greater riches, greater treasures, than all else this world possesses. Lois the grandmother and Eunice the mother both had real faith, and we may be sure it was they who taught Timothy, while yet an infant, (for so the Greek word means) the Holy Scriptures, for his father was a Greek.

This also had been the case with Timothy. There was unfeigned faith in him, which dwelt first in his grandmother, Lois, and in his mother, Eunice. Both Lois, the grandmother, and his own mother, who had a Greek for a husband (Acts 16:1) had trained the child Timothy in the Holy Scriptures (the Old Testament) and he had known them from the earliest childhood (3:15). Therefore when the gospel of Christ was presented to them this unfeigned faith laid hold upon it at once. It was good ground which had been prepared to receive the gospel-seed. Thus it should be in the Christian household. The promise is "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house." (Acts 16:31). Unfeigned faith will be produced in the young by instructing them out of the Word of God, for "faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17). Without ceasing Paul remembered Timothy in his prayers night and day. He remembered his tears, occasioned no doubt by the second imprisonment. How he desired to see his beloved son to be filled with joy!

For a few years the children of Christian parents are under the special influence, protection, and care of their mothers. Then the moment comes when they must be exposed to the outside world through school and contact with other children in the neighborhood. Knowing very well that she cannot keep her treasures with her for ever, a Christian mother will be careful to take every possible precaution to prevent her child from becoming exposed to harmful influences during this new period. Above all, she will need faith to commit him to the care of the Lord who is able to keep him.

First, she nursed her young son by breastfeeding him (1:23). Applying this spiritually, we must supply our children with spiritual food for their souls. It is never too early to feed our children with such food, which is the ‘pure mental milk of the word’ (1 Pet. 2:2). When they are still young, we read it to them. When they start going to school, we help them read and understand it on their own. Of course, we will respect the age and the character of a child. We will not give them the wrong food. We will not give them too much or too little. Quality and quantity will be well balanced so that they can grow spiritually. Also, breast milk is something which is formed beforehand, and inside the mother. There is no spiritual equivalent of fast food or a ready meal. Our children will only be blessed as we give them something which has been produced and experienced in ourselves and practised by us.

But the question may be anxiously put, How is this to be done? First and foremost, by assiduous instruction from the Scriptures. Thus in the passage already cited from Deuteronomy it is said to the Jewish parent, "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children," etc.; and St. Paul, writing to Timothy, reminds him that "from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures" (2 Tim. 3:15); and it may be inferred, from the mention of Timothy's mother and grandmother, that it was by these godly women that he had been so instructed. It should be a solemn consideration with all Christian parents how far they are doing the same thing. There are many families where the Bible has a place, but not the chief place, in the instruction of the children. But surely "the nurture of the Lord" can only be derived from the word of God; and hence, whoever would be faithful in this matter, must be diligent in its systematic explanation. And what an advantage to the children who are thus taught! The truth of God is brought to bear upon them from the very outset, and used by the Holy Spirit, according to promise, to quicken, form, and direct; they are, under His gracious power, reared in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There may not, in such cases, be any signs of distinct conversion (as is often observed in the case of children of faithful, believing parents), because the Spirit of God uses the Word at the very commencement of life for their blessing in regeneration.

If a Christian mother introduce or allow her child to go into the world, she must expect a strong reaction when her child is in the midst of the world; but God is faithful to the mother who acts faithfully according to the instructions of the Lord. The moment there is a duty, God is there; and God is faithful to make us succeed, though we may have to pass through many a painful hour. But, alas! we like what is most easy; neither is it right for us to use the word as a law to make a child obey. We frequently hear parents say to their children that, if not good, God will punish them, thus putting them under a law; this ought not to be. I ought to be a Christian with my child. God cannot bless parents who make a severe law of the Christian religion with their children; and much less when they allow themselves to go back to worldliness and worldly motives. They ought to be Christian as to their children, and to act towards them according to the truth into which God has brought themselves.

Let us not be afraid to have faith for our children, to lay hold upon God for them before they are able to lay hold upon Him for themselves. People say, A child must believe for himself. You cannot believe for him. Yes, you can in a very real way, as Moses' parents believed for him. Suppose they had not believed for him. Suppose they had said, If he were large enough, he might trust in God; but we must cast him into the river. That would have been the end of Moses as far as human power was concerned. But what a place they put him in! You know how he was taken from the river's brink by Pharaoh's daughter, adopted by her, and then put back under his mother's care until he was of sufficient age to go permanently back to the king's court. Every advantage was given to him; but God's tender care had given him also all the benefit of a mother's love and training in the fear of God and His ways. How diligently that dear mother must have made use of her time! How she must have instilled into his mind the promises of the God of their fathers! How she must have taught that young child that he was identified with those bondsmen who yet were the people of God! How she must have told him of the promises of God, that He would visit them and bring them up out of that land, and give them an inheritance! No doubt she made faithful and diligent use of her opportunities; and, as Pharaoh's daughter said to her (in a higher sense than Pharaoh's daughter meant, she heard another Voice saying,) "Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages." What wages has a faithful mother, if she has spent time and strength and prayers in bringing up her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord!