January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Honouring our mother should not be an annual event
In the Bible, the first commandment with promise is:
Ex 20:12 - Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
This commandment is also reiterated in several passages in the New Testament.
What a beautiful instruction. Who could or would ever argue with the call to honour our parents? Permit me to focus on honouring mothers for the remainder of this article.
Bermuda, imagine what the world would be like if children honoured their mothers. What about taking it a step further? What kind of Bermuda would we live in if our mothers honoured their mothers? This would be wonderful. We would have three generations who live in an honourable way.
When looking at the biblical context of the word 'honour', I found that 'honour' means to be weighted down with or to be burdened with (in a good way). In other words, the children should be willing to hear from their mother, understand what their mother is saying, and then live in such a way, as to demonstrate an appreciation for what their mother has been through.
I noted that the honouring of mothers was not limited to specific days. This tells me that we should honour our mothers continuously. Yes, we should live this life to show that we are carrying the weight and the legacy of our mother.
When children truly honour their mothers, their mothers have the opportunity to actually honour who their children have become. In other words, mothers who are honoured, become mothers who end up honouring their children.
Bermuda, our challenge is not to honour our mothers this Sunday. No! This is quite easy to do because it is the commercialized mandate for the day. The real demonstration of our love towards our mothers is to honour them everyday, because every day she is our mother.
Like most of Bermuda, I believe that we can give credit to our mothers and grandmothers for shaping the person we have become. Indeed, there are genetic tendencies we lean towards and then manifest that have come through the biological bloodline of our mothers.
Personally, I have a great love towards seniors, because as a young teenager, my mother took me along to visit the rest homes, as she ministered with the evangelism team of our church. To this day, I visit rest homes weekly and minister at the Extended Care Unit of the hospital monthly.
There is something mighty precious about looking into the eyes of our seniors and knowing that because of what they lived through and worked for, I have been blessed today. I am proud to say that my eldest daughter also visits the Rest Home weekly (when she is in Bermuda) and her ambition is to become a geriatric nurse.
I firmly believe that because of the legacy of watching my mother love my grama, I have children who will likewise love and care for their mother and grandmother. The legacy of honouring mothers has been demonstrated and will continue to be passed on to the generations to come.
Bermuda, let us seek to honour mother every day, and permit Mother's Day to be an extra-special day, when we go the extra mile to say what we have been saying all year long.
This year will be the first time in my life that I will not be able to say to my Grama, "Happy Mother's Day, Grama". So, I live on to demonstrate the legacy of love we have inherited from Grama and we are sure that as we demonstrate this love, she will indeed, "rest in peace".
(Written in honour of Pastor Seaman's grandmother, Juliet Simons, who will be funeralised today.)
Rev. Maria Seaman serves as the Pastor of Shekinah Worship Centre, worshipping at the Victor Scott Primary School, Glebe Road, Pembroke.
[[In-content Ad]]
Comments:
You must login to comment.