MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(Revised: 2016)
TEXT: Song of Solomon 2:15
Today is known as Mother’s Day in the U.S., & for most of us it is a very special day. Telephone companies tell us that it is by far their busiest day of the year. It is a day for greetings & expressions of love. And it is also a day for remembering.
ILL. Someone wrote an interesting article entitled, “What My Mother Taught Me.”
What did my mother teach me? Well, she taught me a lot. For example, my mother taught me LOGIC - "If you fall off that swing & break your neck, you can’t go to the store with me."
My mother taught me MEDICINE - "If you don’t stop crossing your eyes, they’re going to freeze that way."
My Mother taught me TO MEET A CHALLENGE - "What were you thinking? Answer me when I talk to you, & don’t you talk back to me!"
My mother taught me ANTICIPATION - "Just wait until your father gets home."
My Mother taught me HUMOR - "When that lawn mower cuts off all your toes, don’t come running to me."
My mother taught me about GENETICS - "You’re just like your father!"
My Mother taught me how to BECOME AN ADULT - "If you don’t eat your vegetables, you’ll never grow up.”
And her favorite subject was JUSTICE - "One day you’ll have kids, & I hope they turn out just like you. Then you’ll see what it’s been like. I can’t wait for that day to come!"
Well, maybe your mother wasn’t quite like that, but almost all of us have some very special memories about mother & home. And though my mother has been gone for 35 years now, I have so many precious memories of her.
A. Mother & home when you mention one you just automatically think of the other. And when most of us think of home we forget the bad things, & remember the good.
Those of us who are older remember the sounds & sights & smells of home, of screen doors banging in the summer time, the aroma of cookies just out of the oven, & of freshly baked bread.
Home - we enjoyed a sense of acceptance there, & of being loved. And no matter what anyone said, we knew mother loved us. We were certain of that.
But once we left home we found that the world is not as kind. It's always judging us & trying to place us into categories if we're good looking enough or smart enough or ambitious enough or successful enough. And if we don't measure up, then the world rejects us.
SUM. But still, there is home & mother. Unfortunately, home is not what it used to be. So perhaps we need to re-evaluate what is happening within the walls of the home, & in our family relationships.
B. There is a verse of scripture in the O.T. that I'm going to use as a text this morning. It is Song of Solomon 2:15. Here is what it says, "Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom."
That verse sounds rather strange, doesn't it? But I believe Solomon was simply saying that little things can often ruin or destroy the big & important things in life.
C. And I suggest that is exactly what is happening in many homes today. Little things are getting through the cracks & crevices of our homes, & they have been opening the way for its destruction.
ILL. Our great-grandmothers used to enjoy recalling what it was like when they were girls & great-grandfather came courting. That was back in the days when ladies wore dresses that reached to the floor & men wore spats & stiff collars & neat little ties.
Eventually he asked her to marry him. They were engaged for an appropriate length of time, & then became husband & wife. And they knew that no matter what happened, they were together through thick & thin, through good & bad, through sickness & health.
Whatever came their way, they were going to stick it out & face it together. And they raised their children to believe that way, too.
But somewhere along the way, little foxes started creeping in, & when you look at the modern picture of home, it is much different than the picture grandma painted.
D. Why? What has happened? What kind of input is coming into our homes? To help answer that, turn on the TV, & what do we see?
Now I know it is wishful thinking, but I think it would be great if we could return to the golden days of "Father Knows Best."
