I Samuel 1:12-28

If there was just one gift that you were able to give your child in this life, what would that gift be? Some people would like to give a gift that would give their child assurance of a secure future. Someone else might desire to bequeath the gift of learning or various other things.

No matter how good these things are, there is a legacy that every mother can give her child. It matters not what your financial status may be, for this is a legacy that money cannot purchase. The mother in today’s Scripture recognized the significance of this legacy and passed it on to her son.

• Example
  • There is no greater gift than the gift of a good example
    • A woman of worship
      • It was the custom of this woman to be found in the house of the Lord
    • A woman of prayer
      • She had come to know the joy of motherhood because she prevailed in prayer

In this day of life’s complexities, every mother needs to know the power of prayer if she is to give proper training to her child.

• Training

“Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6

Someone paraphrased these words as, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and go that way yourself.”

One of the tragedies of our day is that too often a mother is at work during the day and cannot give the much-needed guidance and training that would so strongly benefit the child’s growth and development of character.

It is evident that Hannah, Samuel’s mother, was very careful in this training. She had made a promise to the Lord that if He would bless her with a male child, she would lend him to the Lord for service. This meant there were only a few years when she could give her son this much-needed training. Her training had to go beyond the usual sphere, for her son needed to understand why he would be parted from his parents at such a young age and the purpose of his work at the temple.

The training of the child is that which helps him to understand the meaning and purpose of life. Providing three meals a day and clean clothes is not enough to meet the child’s needs. There are many mysteries to this life, and the mother is called upon to explain and untangle these mysteries.

• Service

Showing a child his responsibility for Christian service is one of the greatest legacies a mother can give her child.

We need to be instilling in the hearts of our young people that they are not the masters of their own destiny. If there is ever a lesson that we should reveal to them, it is the fact that they are responsible to Jesus Christ for their lives. This is so because of the redemption that our Lord made possible for all by His sacrificial death.

• We are accountable to Jesus for that which we do, and He will take account when He returns
• Service should be to glorify His name and further His cause

There is a great misunderstanding today as to the role of the church. Many feel that the church is a place where the individual takes his ease and that it exists to serve him. The truth of the matter is that the church exists as a channel through which we can serve others. We ought not to be asking so much what can the church do for me, as what can I do for the church. When we take this perspective, we discover far greater blessings than we had ever anticipated.

There comes a point in service where the parent must also be willing to surrender their child completely. If the Lord calls your child into His specialized service, will you be willing to let him go?

The legacy of a good mother is not demonstrated by the material gifts that we may bestow, but by the intrinsic values that we may implant into their character. Today, Mothers, we honor you for the task you have done, and exhort you that you become not weary in your well doing.