Mother’s Day is a sweet opportunity for Christians to celebrate one of God’s most significant means of his common and redeeming grace. For most, there’s some bitter flavor somewhere. We live in a fallen world. All mothers are sinful—even Jesus’ own mother knew well her need for a Savior (Luke 1:47). Whether your own mother monumentally failed you, or you’re a mother who’s all too aware of how you’ve failed your children, there is goodness and grace to acknowledge and appreciate in almost every situation, even when deeply tarnished by sin. The world definitely needs to hear a gospel-oriented Mothers Day speech for church.
But for many of us, our hearts soar in thanksgiving when God brings to mind our mothers and grandmothers, or our wife and mother of our children. Among those of us raised in believing homes—in which our parents were faithful in teaching and modeling the faith—we may enjoy, all the more, the priceless privilege of fulfilling Proverbs 31:28 on Mother’s Day: “Her children rise up and call her blessed.”
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Mother’s Day Speech for Church
The great English Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) had such a privilege. When he writes about his “Early Religious Impressions,” he not only says “fathers and mothers are the most natural agents for God to use in the salvation of their children,” but in particular he celebrates his mother.
I am sure that, in my early youth, no teaching ever made such an impression upon my mind as the instruction of my mother; neither can I conceive that, to any child, there can be one who will have such influence over the heart as the mother who has so tenderly cared for her offspring. …
Never could it be possible for any man to estimate what he owes to a godly mother. Certainly I have not the powers of speech with which to set forth my valuation of the choice blessing which the Lord bestowed on me in making me the son of one who prayed for me, and prayed with me.
If anyone would have had the powers of speech to set forth the blessing of a godly mother, it would have been Spurgeon. And yet he knew how invaluable and ultimately indescribable is the good a godly mother is for her children. It was his mother, more than any other mere human, who was God’s means in making Spurgeon great.
A Mother’s Unforgettable Sway
He continues,
How can I ever forget her tearful eye when she warned me to escape from the wrath to come? I thought her lips right eloquent; others might not think so, but they certainly were eloquent to me.
How can I ever forget when she bowed her knee, and with her arms about my neck, prayed, “Oh, that my son might live before Thee!” Nor can her frown be effaced from my memory—that solemn, loving frown, when she rebuked my budding iniquities; and her smiles have never faded from my recollection—the beaming of her countenance when she rejoiced to see some good thing in me towards the Lord God of Israel.
And it was not just her example and beaming countenance, but her words, communicated with manifest grace and gravity.
