My beautiful Mother’s day Flowers
Good Morning,
Ponderings from Sunday morning’s Mother’s Day lesson:
Judges 4:4 -5 And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
Judges 5:7 The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.
The Brother told us of Deborah, the judge and mother in Israel, how god led her and guided her as she and Barak led the children of Isael in battle. He told how the battle was won and how the betrayer was slain by another woman, Jael.
There was a need in the early church for the care of widows, guidelines were set so the neediest and most worthy could receive care.
1Timothy 5:1-3 Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity. Honour widows that are widows indeed.
1Timothy 5:9-10 Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.
I was sitting between Emily and Mary, (Aaron’s family were sitting on the other side of Emily). After 1 Timothy 5:10 was read Emily said ‘You’ve done all that.’
What a high standard to try to reach, a mother in Israel.
I thought, I didn’t start serving God thinking that one day I might be a widow and over 60 years old and I needed to do all these things so I would qualify for care if I needed it.
I started serving God:
by being obedient to what I knew to do
by being a help when there was I need
by being hospitable more than once when asked to open our home to strangers as they became established in our community
by thankfully participating in the ordinance services
by praying for the afflicted
When I started serving God, I just doing my best to be a help and not a hindrance in the congregation.
That is all God asks of us — do what you can as well as you can.
God will strengthen and perfect us as the potter does the clay,
creating a mother in Israel.
Now I am over sixty.
I am not a widow.
I don’t consider my job done.
My desire remains the same.
but now I can say. . .
I want to be a help, as a mother in Israel.
Trust God for our day . . .Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie
Thoughts of Grace 