I read this last week: giving birth is the easy part. Raising a child is the hard part, because there's no epidural for motherhood. And I'm sure there are some days that you wish there was an epidural for motherhood. One of my favorite stories is from Tony Campolo. He's a sociologist and a professor at a Christian college. He's very popular. His books are widely read. So he's often invited to speak in other parts of the country. And when he travels, often his wife Peggy, who's the mother of two children, travels with him, and she finds herself in receptions for him with women who are very powerful and very accomplished. And she describes how, in one reception, a well-dressed woman in a very condescending voice asked this question: "What work do you do?" Peggy replied, "I'm nurturing two Homo sapiens into the dominant values of Christianity, in order that they might become instruments for the transformation of our country and bring in the eschatological reign God envisions in the Bible." And she paused, and she asked, "Well, what do you do?" And this woman, in a very humble voice, said, "Oh, I'm just an attorney." I love that story, because it makes the point that the most important thing is for a woman to raise a child in the values of Jesus Christ, because that's transforming. Mothers shape the future of America by shaping their children with a Christian conscience and Christian values in their heart. Napoleon got it right when he said mothers shape the future. And just as an aside, a little historical note. You look at where we are as a country now. Even 20 years ago, you could not imagine the sorts of things that are being believed and also espoused by many of our politicians. This gender confusion and all the rest of it. Do you know where that started? In the '60s, my generation, with rebellion against parents. And all of that has just continually evolved into where a lot of parents aren't parenting anymore, and Christians aren't raising their children as Christians. It was probably 20 years ago in this church. A man busted into my office. He was really upset. He said, "My son, who is in college, has become an atheist and will have nothing to do with the church. How could this happen?" I didn't tell him, "I haven't seen you very often in church, and you're not in any kind of Christian service." I didn't tell him that. But I can tell you why that son is not in church: because he didn't see his parents in church. And he saw at home that his parents really didn't live the Christian faith. That's why. Children become our echo. It's not hyperbole to say that the future of America is in the hands of America's mothers. Yes, it is. And that's why mothers deserve a special day for us to say thank you. It's never been harder to raise children than today. I don't think anybody would argue that there is a swarm of influences competing for the heart of your children, mothers. The list is long. And now we have to add foolish school boards introducing gender choices. Not four, but 30 different genders, and trying to teach really young kids, "Choose your gender." And the 1619 Project, which scholars have just poked holes all through. And porn, showing porn to children under the auspices of teaching them about sex. Schools don't teach our children about sex. We do, as their parents, not schools. [applause] Brave mothers have challenged school boards. And if you read the news, they have succeeded in recalling members of school boards who have lost their mind, who are like sheep being politically correct, and replacing them with sane board members. America's future depends upon its mothers being brave. I think it's wonderful that we have a special day for mothers. You know, most countries do not. This is an American invention, because mothers need encouragement, and they need to hear thankfulness from all of us. But I'm also very aware that Mother's Day is a very hard day for women. And you may not know it, but it's one of the hardest days for a preacher to speak. I know that some women have intentionally avoided coming to worship this morning because this day resurrects pain in their life. My own Susie, today, is a mixture of pain and joy. Joy over her daughter and over her two granddaughters, but pain over the suicide of her son John. It's a heartache that is beyond description, for a mother who has carried this son inside of her for nine months, and then nurtured and sacrificed for him, for him to be gone. He developed paranoid schizophrenia and eventually hung himself. I will never forget the night. It was late afternoon, and I was sitting in my home study in Salinas, and the phone rang, and it was the police from Missouri. I had gone there to try to find John. This detective said, "We have found your son. We found his body. He's dead." I can't tell you what it was like to prepare to go in to tell his mother, who was cooking dinner. I just hesitated for maybe five minutes to steel myself for this. And when I told her, she convulsed into deep sobs. Susie's not a weeper. I have never seen her sob except that night. And I've never seen her sob like that since. He always sent Susie loving and funny Mother's Day cards, but there will be no card this weekend for her. So many dreams that a mother had for her son are dust. And I'm sure that there are others here who have lost a child as well, and you know what it's like to stand in her shoes. There's no pain like a mother's pain on Mother's Day. Others of you have regrets about how you mothered. Or surely there is a mother here whose child has cut you off. I hear stories of your children cutting you off and not allowing you to see your grandchildren. That's more common than we realize. So this day is painful. Other women want children very badly, but for whatever reason, that blessing has not come to you. And this day is painful. That's why I say Mother's Day is complicated. But I'd like to encourage mothers with a Mother's Day card that I believe God would send to you. In the Scriptures, He tells us what He'd write in your card. Imagine Him sending you a Mother's Day card. First, God would say, "I'm so thankful for all the sacrifices you made for your children." You may have had a mother who wasn't so good. She made a lot of mistakes. Maybe you were even abused. But whatever the case, even that mother made sacrifices for you, believe it or not, because it's in the DNA of mothers. Maybe you mothers don't get many thank-yous from your kids or your husband. No. But no matter. God sees all that you've tried to do, and He would write "thank you" in His card to you. I love what one mother wrote: "My kids call it yelling when I raise my voice. I call it motivational speaking." You will never know all the sacrifices your mother has made, just as your kids don't know all the sacrifices you made for them. This is a true story that I'm about to tell you that happened in the Nazi death camp of Dachau. The rule in these death camps was that you stayed alive as long as you worked. If for any reason you could no longer produce, you were thrown into the ovens. In the family of Solomon Rosenberg, the first to be thrown into the ovens were his parents, who were in their 80s. They just couldn't keep up. Solomon knew that the next to die would be his youngest son, David, because David was crippled, and it was hard for him to keep up. Each morning, families would be separated into work details and sent off to work. At the end of each day, Solomon would rush back to the barracks and scan the room of all the people, looking for David and his family. And one evening, he not only could not find David, he couldn't find any of his family, until he spied Jacob, his oldest son, slumped in a bunk, weeping. The father said, "Did they take David today?" "Yes, Father. He couldn't keep up." "Jacob, where is your mother?" "Dad, when they took Jacob, he cried because he was afraid. And so Mom said to him, 'Don't cry, David. I'm coming with you, and I will hold you close to me. I will be with you.'" Mama went with David to the ovens so he would not be afraid. She died with him. True story. That's a mother. And that's why they deserve Mother's Day. Your mother did not die for you in Dachau, but I promise you she would have, if you had needed it to stay alive or to be comforted. We need to say more often, "Thank you, Mom, for all you've done for me." Secondly, God would write in His Mother's Day card to you: "Remember, even God has rebellious children. Stop blaming yourself for the choices of your children." Dr. James Dobson, who's a family psychologist and founder of Focus on the Family, once did a survey of 35,000 mothers. And he asked just one question: "What is your dominant feeling as a mother?" More than 80% wrote back, "Guilt and regrets." 80% of 35,000 mothers. But when you read about the mothers in the Bible who had some very rebellious children, you find that God does not blame them for the choices their children make. For example, in Genesis 16:1, it says, "Ishmael is a wild donkey of a man." Hagar's not blamed for that. He was born a wild donkey of a man. And my guess is some of you have a wild donkey as a child. Stubborn, rebellious, complaining. Don't you? That donkey may be sitting next to you. Or take Cain. He murders his brother. Eve is never blamed for that. Because our children are not robots. They are free individuals who are responsible for their choices, not their mother. The idea that mothers are to blame for how their children behave is simply silly. One of my favorite poems is about a mother who cannot control her children. The poem is called "It's Your Move, Daughter." And it goes like this: "I gave you life, but I cannot live for you. I can teach you things, but I cannot make you learn. I can teach you right from wrong, but I cannot make you do what is right. I can buy you beautiful clothes, but I cannot make you beautiful inside. I can offer you advice, but I cannot make you wise. I can teach you about marriage, but I cannot make your marriage good. I can teach you about sex, but I cannot make you pure. I can pray for you, but I cannot make you pray. I can teach you about Jesus, but I cannot make you a Christian. I can teach you about life, but I cannot live life for you." That's something every mother must take inside of themselves. Children make their own choices. The best we can do is train them up. Timothy's mother and grandmother taught him the Christian faith, but they couldn't be brave for him. He was timid, and Paul is calling him to be brave. It's not their fault he's not brave. It's his choice. I'm very sure God would write in every Mother's Day card: "Guard this. Never compare yourself to other mothers. Their children were compliant and obedient from birth. Your child was a wild donkey in your womb." You know, that's a real mistake of mothers. They look at some families, and these children are so obedient. You know, they're the mothers with the sticker on the back: "My daughter or son is an honor student for the last four years." You know those. You just want to scrape it off, because you can't get yours to study. That's not your fault. You've beaten them, and you've starved them, all of it. It doesn't matter. They were born a wild donkey. You should never compare yourself to another mother. Some others have it easier than you. Sigmund Freud said, "Children are born blank slates. Whatever personality they develop is because of their mother's training." What stupidity. Every mother knows that's not true. If you have more than one child, you have two children, you've got two very different personalities. You've got four children, you've got four different personalities to deal with. Am I right? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Some children are born like Ishmael, a wild donkey of a person. Surely there's a mother here who has a wild donkey in your family. Third, God would write this in His Mother's Day card: "The past cannot be changed, but God can change the future." Which means no child is hopeless in God's hands, if you put that child in God's hands. God fixes the unfixable. Where mothers are helpless, God is not. He is omnipotent. Nothing is impossible for Him. And that's why a mother always must be optimistic if she believes in Jesus Christ, because Jesus does miracles. And one of His greatest miracles is fixing the wild donkey of a child you have. All mothers worry. Many "horribleize." And that means they worry the worst is going to happen. And some of you as mothers are professional worriers, even though it does no good at all. God would write in His Mother's Day card a verse from the Bible, First Peter 6:7: "Cast all your worries on God." You do that by praying. Praying turns worries into miracles. Praying is putting your problem child into the hands of God. Turn your worries into prayer. Give your worries and fears to Jesus in prayer. In Matthew's biography of Jesus, in chapter 15, a mother asks Jesus to fix the impossible: her daughter, who is demon-possessed. Notice that the daughter does not come to Jesus to be fixed. Her daughter does not pray. Her daughter shows no interest at all in Jesus. It's the mother who comes, and not with the father. She comes alone to Jesus for help, for a miracle. And notice she's a Canaanite woman. Canaanites were some of the most evil people in the ancient world. That means this woman most likely has a very sordid and dark past. She is a very undeserving mother for any miracle from Jesus. But she calls Him Lord. She knows that He can do miracles. She knows her past makes her unworthy. But she's heard about Jesus. Maybe she's seen Him do some miracles. She calls Him Lord, and she comes to Jesus to do a miracle in her daughter. This shows that Jesus will answer the prayers of even mothers who have a very dark past. And some of you have a past as mothers that you wish to God you didn't, but it's there. And God would write in your Mother's Day card that He gives second chances and third chances and 10 chances, if necessary. He loves mothers, even mothers with a dark past. And He loves children. God's mercy is so wide for mothers with a past, and their children. So wide. Don't miss that a mother can believe for her far-from-God child. It teaches that a mother's prayer can move the hands of God to do things that would not have happened except that she prayed. This child is far from God. But her mother isn't. And her prayers make a miracle in that child's life. And notice that she does not have a husband by her side praying with her. She's very much alone as a mother praying. And yet she is not alone, because when a mother prays, Jesus is right there next to her, listening. If you pray, you are not alone. He is there with you. Fourth, God's Mother's Day card would say, "If your children develop character and virtue, it will only be because you taught that to them." They're not going to learn virtue and character at school. They're not going to learn it from their friends. They're not going to learn it from music today and from TV. They are only going to learn virtue if you teach it to them and show it to them. Virtue is very underrated. It's moral excellence, and moral excellence is far more important than athletic excellence or making a lot of money in life. I can tell you lots of stories of people who didn't invest in their children's spirituality, whose children are making a lot of money, and they are a wreck, because they have no moral compass, no conscience. Moral excellence is more important than IQ. It's simply character and a conscience. And ultimately, everything depends upon character. Character determines a person's future. It is actually protection. Honestly, how important is character and morality in a marriage? That translates into faithfulness instead of an affair. How important is that? How important is unselfishness in a marriage, or being truthful and not lying? I mean, what does lying do to a marriage relationship? How important is morality? Truthfulness, and keeping your promises, and being kind. And how important is forgiving each other? That's moral excellence. And I want to tell you, in a marriage, when forgiving is rare, there are problems. There has to be lots of forgiving with ordinary human beings. But that's a virtue question. Walker Percy got it right when he said, "Some people get A's in school but flunk life." An ounce of character is worth a ton of brains and athletic ability. And it is. We all see stories of great athletes who are failures. They get F's in what matters in life. One of the greatest things that a mom can do is teach her children virtue. That has to be intentional. Every mother is homeschooling her children, because her children are watching and listening. They are learning from us how to talk, how to behave. If you want to change a child, draw a circle around yourself and begin to practice virtues and character. There's a battle going on for your child's heart and mind. The internet, the videos the child will see at someone else's house when you're not around, the things other kids at school will introduce them to. There are so many things competing for your child's heart and mind. So how does a mother compete? She lives virtue out herself. She's an example. Leadership is always, always, always being an example. Nothing substitutes for being an example. Leadership is going first. And that means being regular in worship. Yes. Being in a Bible study, maybe, because you can't give what you don't have, and starting to learn the Bible. A mother goes first. I think God's Mother's Day card would finally say, "I'm on your side. Be optimistic." Let me pray for you. Lord, I pray for all mothers who have a hard road to hoe, that this message will make them believers. Strengthen them. Give them strength and wisdom and courage. Make them brave. We pray it in Your name, Jesus. Amen.