I'm A Momma's Boy



My mom, Jan, and I at my wedding.
This is P.B. (pre-beard), for me, not my mom.

I once heard pastor and author Calvin Miller say that most preachers are momma's boys. I don't remember the exact percentage, but the overwhelming majority of pastors in the US claim that their mother was the primary spiritual influence on their lives. Well, count me in. Abraham Lincoln once said, "All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." I would have to concur.

As we look forward to celebrating our mothers this Sunday, I think back on the influence that my mom had on me. In our home, my dad was not the spiritual leader. It was my mom who made sure that my brother and I went to church and modeled being a follower of Christ for the two of us. So many moms are raising the children on their own, even in homes where dad is there physically but he's absent spiritually (like the home I was raised in). I want to encourage moms to not grow weary in doing good.

Here are a few things I'd like them to remember:

1. You Are the Greatest Influencer in Your Child's Life I meet so many parents, especially moms, who downplay the influence they have over their children. No, you may not be the hippest, or the coolest, or the greatest mom in the world, but you are still the only mother your children will ever have. Never discount how great your impact is on your children.

2. You Don't Have to Be Perfect Looking back now, I realize my mom wasn't perfect, but I didn't know it at the time, and, more importantly, I don't care now. She did the best she could in a hard situation with a spiritually uninvolved husband. Yeah, she may have made some mistakes, but remember, "love covers a multitude of sins." Families need to be laboratories where we learn to extend grace and forgiveness, and to get along with others.

3. You Never Know the Impact that You'll Have Your job is to be faithful to do what God has called you to do, and leave the results up to Him. You may feel like what you're saying is simply going in one ear and out the other, but they are hearing and eventually it will take root. Now, if you're not being faithful to train your children the way God has commanded you to, you should be worried about the results and I encourage you to make some changes. But in the end, the results of your efforts will not come to fruition for years maybe even decades. "Train up a child in the way that he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6). There's a promise there, if you train a child correctly, even when they're old, they won't depart from your teaching.

God bless mothers, "for the hand that rocks the cradle, is the hand that rules the world." Be faithful, perservere, never doubt the influence you have on your children and God will bless your efforts.