How to Be A Great Mom

I guess we all have assumptions as to what makes a good mom. Some of those assumptions go back to our mothers and what they were like and how important they were to us. Some of those assumptions really have become quite stereotypical like this list that someone drew up. But good mom never makes biscuits from little cardboard tubes that go pop or from a bag you can get at Sam's. A good mom appears instantly whenever any family member yells, Mom. Those exactly what Garmin each child wants to wear to school each day and has it washed mended and hung in the closet ready to go. A good mom is always home when you call. A good mom plans menus a month ahead, uses coupons to save a minimum of $50 on each visit to the grocery store. A good mom never raises her voice, never dreads teacher conferences that tens every tea ball, soccer and basketball game, never leaves the kids her kids with running oses in the nursery. Never says no to the PTA keeps a regimented family schedule of daily chores, piano practice, and a lot of moms when they hear lists like that get kind of guilty because they don't feel like they measure up. But we're here this morning to look at what the Bible says about what a good mom really is. There are lots of information in the Bible about a good mother and about what mother should be and what they should do. Obviously the portrait in Proverbs 31 is a familiar passage to most families. There's a New Testament portrait as well in Titus chapter 2 that we have looked at on other occasions. And then there are those individual examples we've seen one recently in our series of messages on Moses, his mother, Jacob did was a faithful and godly mother. Then there's Eunice, the mother of Timothy, of course Mary, the mother of Jesus. But there's another mother that I would like to focus on this morning. Her name is Hannah. And her story is described for us in the book of 1 Samuel, chapters 1 and 2. Now Hannah's story may not be quite as familiar to many of you this morning. And so we're going to read the first chapter of 1 Samuel so that we can really understand what's going on with this mom and how she serves as such a model of a good mother. You have your place in 1 Samuel chapter 1, follow along with me as I read. There was a certain man from Ramaphim, a zoo fight from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Al-Khanah, son of Jerohem, son of Elohim, son of Tohyeu, son of Zuf, and Ephraim Ait. He had two wives. One was called Hannah and the other Pininna. Pininna had children, but Hannah had none. After a year, this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Haftnian Phineas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. Whenever the day came for Al-Khanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Pininna and to all her sons and daughters, but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. Because the Lord had closed Hannah's womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. Rival, obviously, meaning the other wife. By the way, let me pause this long enough to say, God never intended, nor did He ever approve of, polygamy. This story, as we read on, is one of the examples as to how difficult, tragic consequences would flow from that disobedience to God's original intent given to us in Genesis 2 for one man, one woman, together for life. Let's pick up again in verse 7. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she whet and would not eat. Her husband, Al-Khanah, would say to her, Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons? Now, guys, I would not suggest you ask that question. To your wife, not sure what Al-Khanah was thinking. You might try one son, but ten, that's pushing it a little bit. But anyway, that was his thought. Obviously, an expression of his love for her. Verse 9. Once when they had finished eating and drinking, and Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now, Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord's house. In her deep anguish, Hannah prayed to the Lord weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant's misery and remember me and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head. As she kept on, by the way, no razor being used on his head would indicate that he was to be especially separated and dedicated to the Lord, fulfilling what the Old Testament described as a Nazarite vow, a vow of dedication to someone who was totally given to the Lord and his service. She promised that if God gave her a son, she would give him back to the Lord, basically. Verse 12. As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart and her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, how long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine! Not so, my Lord. Hannah replied, I am a woman who has deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer. I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman. I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief. Eli answered, going, peace, and made the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him. She said, may your servant find favor in your eyes. Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast. Early the next morning they arose and worshipped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. How can I made love to his wife Hannah and the Lord remembered her so in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, because I asked the Lord for him. Bible names often had meanings and Samuel sounds very much like the Hebrew expression heard by God, and that is the reason she named her son Samuel. Verse 21, when her husband Elkanaugh went up with all of his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow, Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, after the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord, and he will live there always. Do what seems best to you, her husband Elkanaugh told her. Stay here until you have weaned him only made the Lord make good his word. So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him. After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an effa, about 36 pounds of flour, and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, and she said to him, pardon me, my Lord, as surely as you live I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him, so now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord there. Just ten verses of chapter two describe her prayer of praise to the Lord for answering her prayer and for giving her her son, Samuel. Hannah demonstrates four characteristics of a good mom. As you see her story, no doubt some of them jumped out at you, but we're going to summarize this morning four characteristics of a great mom. This is meant as first of all a challenge, obviously, to all women and mothers, because what is said here describes not only mothers, but also any godly woman. But it's also intended to be a sign of respect and honor for those women who do strive to the best of their ability by God's grace to measure up to what the Bible teaches a good mom should be. A great mom first of all is a woman of faith. There are lots of things in this story about Hannah that demonstrates she was a woman of faith. Obviously, her prayer in chapter one indicates that she had a very personal relationship with God. She called herself in verse 11, his servant indicating again a personal relationship with the Lord. And then we didn't reach chapter two, but if you look at the first two verses, look at how amazing this is in her reference to her God. Then Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoices in the Lord, in the Lord, my horn or my strength is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies where I delight in your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one beside you. There is no rock like our God. People don't pray that way unless they have a personal relationship with the God they're praying to. And so I've convinced that Hannah was a woman of faith. She was saved. In the Old Testament understanding of that concept of being saved before Christ came, she had placed her faith in her Lord, her rock, the God Almighty, the God of her salvation. And so she was a saved woman, a saved mother. I think it's important that we stop there and dwell on how important that is. So let's take a moment to stress the importance of salvation. You cannot be a godly mom, a great mom, a good mom without knowing Christ as your savior. It's important on two levels. First of all, it's important to you personally because it is the only way that you can know your eternal destiny is taken care of, that you are right with God and that you will live with him eternally in heaven someday. The only way you can know that is if you are saved. Now when we use the word saved, what we're talking about is to be delivered. That's what the word literally means. And when we talk about it from a biblical perspective to be saved means that you are delivered from God's wrath and God's judgment. That you have accepted the way of salvation which God has provided and that you have thus been forgiven of your sin delivered from his wrath and judgment and you are now in his family. That's what it means to be saved. You can only know for sure that you're going to heaven if you know that you're saved. If you've been delivered from God's wrath from his punishment, from his judgment through Christ your savior. So it's a matter of your eternal destiny whether or not when you die you will go to heaven or spend eternity separated from God in a place of punishment called hell. Your eternal destiny depends upon whether or not you're saved. So it's critically important to you but it's also critically important to your children. You cannot be a complete mom unless you know Jesus as your savior. Now you can be a good mother in some respects. You can be a good mother in some respects. There are lots of things that mothers take care of. You can minister to the physical needs of your children. You can feed them. You can keep them healthy. You can address their physical needs and their little bumps and bruises and scrapes. When they fall you can do all of that regardless of whether or not you're saved. You can minister to their mental needs. You can teach them things. You can train them. You can help them to understand various things. You can make sure they get a good education. You can minister to those mental needs. You can even as a mom regardless of whether or not you know Christ you can minister to their social needs and be a good mom in that way. You can influence them as to what friendship really is like. How to look for good friends. How to be a good friend. How to be comfortable in social settings and interact with other people. You can teach all of that regardless of whether or not you know the Lord. In some ways you can be a good mom but you cannot be a complete mom. You cannot be a godly mom without being able to give spiritual training to your children as well. You cannot begin to meet the greatest needs they have unless you first of all know Jesus as your Savior and can communicate what that means to your children. I was interested to read this week of a survey that was done in the United Kingdom involving 1000 mothers. The survey found that the most quizzed people on the planet, the people who are asked the most questions are mothers, even more than Alex Trebek on Jeopardy. Mothers get asked the most questions of anybody on planet earth. This survey showed that on average from breakfast until afternoon tea time, remember this is done in the United Kingdom, the average stay at home mom faces one question every two minutes and thirty six seconds. That adds up to 105,120 questions per year. Now some of your moms were thinking I get that many in a day. That's a lot of questions isn't it? The survey went on to indicate the questions spike during meal times when you're sitting down together hopefully around the table and the families together. Interestingly enough, four year old girls are the most curious and ask the most questions. Asking an incredible 390 questions per day. I would say although the survey does not indicate it probably half of those are why. That's a lot of the questions aren't they? You know who asked the least questions? Nine year old boys asked the least questions. I guess by that time they got it all figured out. They don't have any more questions. According to this survey the moms claimed there were several questions that were the hardest to answer. They listed them these five. Number one was why is water wet? Number two where does the sky end? Number three what are shadows made of? Number four why is the sky blue? Number five how do fish breathe underwater? Some of your mothers are smiling because you've been asked those questions or some like them. But what if your children comes what if your child comes to you and says who is God? What's happened like? What happens to people when they die? Because they will ask those questions and many like them that have to do with their soul, with the spiritual life, with God and his Word. And if you don't know Jesus as your Savior you cannot begin to address the most critical questions your child will ever ask you. And so this being a woman of faith is absolutely essential. It is essential to know the Lord in a personal way. Well, it's obviously impossible to touch on that without describing very clearly for you the way of salvation. Not only the importance of salvation but the way of salvation. If it's so critically important to be saved then how do you know that you're saved? The Bible makes very clear the way of salvation. The gospel is the way of salvation, the gospel which has to do with the death burial resurrection of Christ is the way of salvation. Now the gospel, the word itself means good news but the way of good news begins with some bad news. In order to understand the good news you have to first of all be convinced of some bad news related to you personally. The beginning point for the gospel to know how to be saved is this. Ladies and men, the beginning point is this you must recognize that you are a sinner. Romans 3.23, very familiar verse, says, we all have sinned and false short of the glory of God. Now that verse is very important for two reasons. Number one, it tells us that we're all in the same boat. We've all sinned. We've all sinned against God. No exceptions. We all sinned. And the second reason that verse is so important is it describes that we all fall short of the standard that God expects for us to meet to get into heaven. Did you know that the standard God expects for you to meet, for you to get into heaven is his glory which stands for over he is in his character, his holiness, his righteousness, his majesty, his perfection. You say, well, John, I, nobody can measure up to that. That's the point. We all fall short. I don't care how good a person you are. I hope you are a good moral, law-abiding family providing kind of person. That doesn't matter when it comes to getting into heaven because that will never get you into heaven. The only thing that will get you into heaven is the absolute righteousness and perfection of a holy God. And none of us measure up to that. We all fall short. So we have to come to the point where we realize I'm a sinner. I've sinned against the holy God. And I fall short of the standard that's expected of me to get to heaven. But we also have to recognize the second fact in order to understand the way of salvation. That is that we are unable to save ourselves. You are unable to save yourself. Look at this verse on the screen. Isaiah 64, verse 6, all of us have become like one who is unclean. And all, notice again, the all, no exceptions, all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. We all shrivel up like a leaf and like the wind, our sins sweep us away. There are no exceptions to this. We all are guilty sinners. And we are all unclean in the sight of God. And even the good things you do, when measured against the perfection of a holy God, measure up like filthy rags. That's how they look in the eyes of a holy God. So even the good things you do, living a good life, joining a church, getting baptized, whatever it may be, good things that you may do, even a religious nature. They don't get you into heaven. Ephesians 2 says it very plainly this way, for it is by grace you have been saved. Grace is the free offering of God in His love and mercy to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. It is by grace you have been saved. Through faith. That's how we receive it. Through faith. And this is not from yourselves. None of this comes from us. It doesn't start with us. It's not generated from us. It doesn't depend on anything we do. This is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God not by works. So no one can boast. So here's the point, my friend. If you as a woman, a man, a child, if you are depending on your own good deeds to get you to heaven, you will never be there. If you are depending on the fact that you are a pretty good person, and really you don't measure up badly when you think of some other people. Isn't it interesting when we think of others that we should measure ourselves against? We always find someone that obviously is worse than we are. But remember, that's not the standard. The standard is the perfection of God, the holiness of God. So nothing we can do is good enough to get us into heaven. So you cannot save yourself. We are sinners. We cannot save ourselves. But now here's where the gospel becomes good news because it can't be good news unless it delivers you from the bad news. The good news begins here. God loved you so much that He sent His Son Jesus to die for you. And chapter 5 8 tells us this very plainly. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this while we were still sinners. And it was while we were still opposed to God, apart from God, even our good deeds like filthy rags in His sight, unable to save ourselves when we were in that shape Christ died for us. The fact is Christ died for us in our place to be a substitute for us on the cross. He died to take your punishment. God's wrath against your sin fell on Christ when he died on the cross. God loved you so much that He wanted you to be a part of His family and knowing that you could not save yourself, He sent Jesus to be your savior. He took your place on the cross. He died for your sins and took God's punishment. But you must trust Jesus as your savior. John 316, very familiar verse, it's on the screen. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son. But that's not the end of it. It's not enough just for Jesus to die on the cross. He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. How do you escape the judgment of God, eternal, condemnation and hell by placing your faith in Christ as your savior? All God is asking is that you recognize that you are a sinner who cannot save yourself, that Jesus died on the cross for you and you are willing by faith to receive Him as your savior. That means to turn away from all of your own efforts to get into heaven by your own good works and placing all of your confidence and trust in what Jesus did for you on the cross to get you to heaven. That is the way of salvation. Let me ask you this morning, moms, grandmoms and let's include all the guys as well. Are you a person of faith? Have you placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your savior? Obviously, on this mother's day, let's bring it back to mothers, you cannot be a great mom unless you are a woman of faith. That's where it all begins. But Hannah was not only a woman of faith. Secondly, she was a woman of prayer. That may stand out as much if not more than anything in this passage. She was a woman of prayer. She knew what prayer was all about. She knew that prayer was not just a matter of knowing the right words to say or fancy words that she had heard someone else say and thought sounded really cool. She knew that prayer was more than that. She knew that prayer was more than putting on some kind of special tone like you have a steeple in your throat or something and you got to talk in a different way to talk to God. She knew that it was more than that. She knew that it was different than a special prayer language. There are four things that stick out about her prayer that really amaze us about her prayer. First of all, is her burden. Look at it in verse 10, her burden. In her deep anguish, Hannah prayed to the Lord weeping bitterly. Now, that is true prayer. That is sincere prayer. This is prayer that is not regulated by the clock or a particular time that you've said, I'm supposed to be praying at this time. This is coming from her heart. This is coming from anguish. This is coming from a deep burden, not out of a duty, not out of responsibility. Although that's fine. That can show a personal discipline of prayer, but this is coming out of a burdened heart. In verse 15, she had said to the priest who questioned her what she was doing. She said, I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Well, we need those kind of burdened moms today who will before God pour out their soul. Pray from a heart that is burdened and anguished over the needs of their family and others that God made burdened and for. Burdened moms, praying with a burden, but notice also her promise in verse 11, she made a vow saying, Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant's misery and remember me and not forget your servant, but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life. In other words, you'll be under the Nazarene right vow. Her promise of vow to God was that she would give her a son, if God would grant her a son, to the Lord completely. Now, there's a couple of verses and ecclesiastes that say, if you make a vow to God, be careful to keep it because God takes our promises seriously. And verse five of ecclesiastes, these five says, it is better not to make a vow than to make a vow and not keep it. So this is very important. When you make promises to God, God expects you to keep them. And she did. She did not back off one bit of her promise to the Lord. That's impressive about her prayer. Third thing that impresses me about her prayer is her transformation. When she prayed, it transformed her. Look at verse 18. After the priest had spoken to her, she said, may your servant find favor in your eyes. Then she went her way and ate something in her face was no longer downcast. You compare that with verse eight where her husband is asking her, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you so downhearted? It was obvious from her actions and her expression that she was in despair. She was discouraged. She was downhearted. When verse 18, after she prays, she eats and her face was no longer downcast. You know, it's often said that prayer changes things and I believe God does in real time and real ways answer prayer. But more than that, prayer changes people. Prayer changes us. It should change us. It certainly changed her. When she was done praying, she didn't pick that burden back up and take it with her. She left it with the Lord. Her countenance changed. Her appetite changed. Everything changed when she prayed because she trusted God. She acted on the basis of her prayer too often. I pray, maybe you do too. I pray and then pick that burden right up and take it with me. Don't really leave it with the Lord. Don't really commit to him in faith trusting that he will answer. He will work. Her transformation speaks a lot about her prayer, but then notice her praise. Chapter two, we didn't read it, but in chapter two, her praise is amazing. As she praises the Lord, if you had to read through that prayer, it's one of the great prayers in all of the Bible. You'll find information of amazing insight and understanding of the scriptures and of who God is. She talks about his knowledge, his holiness, his power at the end of her prayer. Even seems to make a reference to the promised Messiah. She seems to understand that God has promised that he will send his Messiah. Wonderful prayer of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. Don't ever forget to thank God. It's so easy to pour all of our energy into requests that we don't remember to thank him. Her prayer was caught off by a sincere heartfelt, insightful praise of our Lord. She was a woman of faith. She was a woman of prayer and I encourage you mothers to be mothers of prayer. One year ago today, we had the funeral service for my mother. She was a woman of prayer. She learned it from her mother. My grandmother used to have a map up in her room when she couldn't even get out of bed. She had a pen for every place that a family member was. And every day, she would scan over that map from her bed and pray for every one of us. And my mother was the same kind of prayer warrior I told you the story. I told her last week that one of the reasons why I'm in the ministry today is because of the prayers of my father and mother. We need praying moms today. We need moms who will get before the Lord with a heart, burden, and anguish for their families and pray with that kind of burden. When they make promises to God, take them seriously. Prayer that will transform them and lead to praise. That kind of praying mom. But thirdly, Hannah was also a woman of dedication. She was a woman of faith, a woman of prayer, but she was also a woman of dedication. Her dedication is seen in her willingness to give her son to the Lord. We've looked at that already, her promise, but look at verse 28 again. So now I give him to the Lord for his whole life. He will be given over to the Lord. She followed through on her promise and she gave her son to the Lord. Completely giving him over to the Lord. The word to give literally means to make him over. To literally completely give her child to the Lord. So that God could do his work in his heart. To mold and shape him and make him what God wanted him to be. A special servant of God in Samuel would become a great prophet and leader of the nation of Israel. She gave her child to the Lord. There are many ways to express our dedication to the Lord. Moms, there are lots of ways to do that. This is the way you provide for your family and care for your family. In the way that you may serve the Lord in some ministry. In the way that you may be faithful to him in your Christian life. In the way that you may serve in the community to reach out to the needs of people. There are lots of ways that you may demonstrate your dedication to Christ. But certainly one of those ways is to give your children to the Lord. I hope that every mother in this room is willing to give completely your children to the Lord. For whatever he sees fit to do with them. Please, moms, don't ever stand in the way of what God may be calling your child to do. Of what God may be wanting your child to do. Don't ever stand in the way. Don't ever chart your plan for their life. And when God is moving in their heart about his plan, you continue to push your plan and your desires and your expectations and hopes and dreams. For your children. If God's moving in their heart with a plan that is a God-sized plan for them, don't stand in the way of that. Give your children completely over to him and let him use them however he sees fit. There is a reward for that kind of giving. The reward for her giving is described for us in chapter 2. You know, there is no indication of them parting in chapter 1 when she leaves Samuel there at the Tabernacle for him to grow up with the priests, the high priest, and learn the ways of God in a more intense way. There is no indication of them parting. There is no indication of any trauma or crying. I don't know if God gave her unusual comfort and strength or we just don't see what all happened there, but I do know that God rewarded her. If you look down in chapter 2 at verse 18, chapter 2 verse 18, but Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy wearing a linen effort, a priest's garment. Verse 19, each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice. Can you imagine what those meetings must have been like for every year? I mean, travel was not easy in that day. Samuel didn't come home on the weekends. Hannah could not go see him easily. They may be saying once a year, but can you imagine those meetings and that she presented him with this little robe that she had made for him each year? Verse 20, Eli would bless Elkannon, his wife, saying, may the Lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the Lord, then they would go home. And the Lord was gracious to Hannah. She gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord. You see what happened here? God, in a sense, if I can use these terms, God, in a sense, compensated her for her ultimate sacrifice of giving her son entirely to the Lord for his use. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that God will compensate by giving you five other children and some of you moms are happy about that. Doesn't necessarily mean that. That's just the way God blessed her. And it was such a blessing for her because in Israelite society, it was considered a judgment of God, a literal curse to be childless because in their hearts, they were dreaming of being the mother of the Messiah. And so they wanted children so desperately and the way that God rewarded her, compensated her. Blessed her was to give her other children. There are lots of ways that God may reward you. But mark it down. You will never give anything to God, including your children, that he will not compensate you for, that he will not bless you for, that he will not reward you for. Certainly, in heaven, you will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And God will reward you for being an integral part of your child serving God. She was a woman of dedication. But finally, I want to emphasize the fact that she was also a woman of devotion. She was devoted to her family. As you read through this story, I don't know if you caught it. You probably did. She is obviously devoted, first of all, to her husband. She has a loving relationship with her husband. That comes up several times in the passage. Chapter 1, verse 5, when he is giving parts of the sacrificial meal that the family would share together to his wives, to Hannah, he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. No doubt his love for her caused him to feel deeply for her and her plight, of not being able to bear children. But in verse 8, his questions, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you so downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons? This is the expression of his heart and concern for his wife. They obviously had a close relationship. Did you know that the vows he made to God in Old Testament times, under the law of Moses, her husband, could have annulled that vow. He could have. Look at these verses on the screen, numbers chapter 30. This is what the law of Moses says. If a woman living with her husband makes a vow, or obligates herself by a pledge under oath, and her husband hears about it, but says nothing to her and does not forbid her, then all her vows or the pledges by which she obligated herself will stand. But if her husband nullifies them when he hears about them, then none of the vows or pledges that came from her lips will stand. Her husband has nullified them, and the Lord will release her. Remember what we said earlier about God holding you to the vows and promises you make? But in Old Testament culture and society, into the law of Moses, if a husband said, no, no, no, we're not going to do that, the Lord would release her from the vows she had made. So he could have nullified the vow, but he didn't. He didn't, down in verse 23, when she is told in what's on her heart to do, he says, do what seems best to you. Stay here until you've weaned him, only make the Lord make good his word. Now that indicates they're sharing with one another, they're communicating with each other, they have a good relationship with each other, and I'm also intrigued by the fact that when it came time to take Samuel and give him to the Lord, that he is there with her, down in verse 25, when the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli. So you see, they had a close enough relationship, a good enough marriage to where he was one with her in his heart, in her heart, and shared with her in this giving of their son. That a close and good relationship. I read something this week that I thought might be interesting to share with you. It was from a 1965 May 13, 1965 Housekeeping Monthly magazine article entitled The Good Wife's Guide. Now this is what this magazine said in 1965, this is a good wife. Plan ahead even the night before to have a delicious dinner ready when your husband gets home from work. This is a way of letting him know that you've been thinking about him and are concerned with his needs. Prepare yourself, put on some makeup, put a ribbon in your hair, and be fresh looking. He's been with a lot of work-weary people. Prepare the children, take a few minutes to wash them up, brush their hair, and change their clothes if needed. Remember, they are little treasures, and he would like to see them playing the part. Have a cool or warm drink for him, and arrange his pillow and take off his shoes. I'm not making this up, folks. Over the cooler months, you should prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. After all, Cadehunger his comfort will bring you immense satisfaction. Let him talk first. Remember that his topics of conversation are more important than yours. Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner or entertainment without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his need to relax. Oh, the good old days. Aussie and Harriet, isn't it? Well, time has really changed, hasn't it? And I'm not suggesting that ladies, you need to do all those things to show your devotion to your husband. By the way, not all that's bad. The problem with it was in our culture in that day, it was all one sided. And certainly, the self-sacrificial giving of yourself to the other person goes both ways. Biblically, it does. The husband is to love his wife like Christ, love the church, giving himself sacrificially for her. Be wonderful if both were doing their best to serve each other this way rather than it being one sided as it was so many years ago. But are you devoted to your husband? Are you devoted like Hannah was? But she was also obviously devoted to her children. She had a great loving relationship with her husband. We've already looked at it with her son every year, carefully with loving hands, preparing that little robe to take up to him. And how wonderful those reunions must have been. She loved her son. She loved him deeply. He was God's gift to her, which makes her sacrifice of him to the Lord even more amazing. What kind of mom are you, ladies? Don't feel the pressure to measure up to others' expectations. All those things I read in the introduction about the assumptions, stereotypical assumptions of what a good mom is. That's not necessarily at all what a good mom is. But I will say this, Bidlically a good mom is a woman of faith. Do you know Jesus is your savior? Bidlically a good mom is a woman of prayer. A good mom is a woman of dedication to the Lord so much so that she will give whatever God asks of her and a woman who is a devoted woman devoted to her husband and children. That is a great mom. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for this portrait that we have seen this morning in your word of an amazing mother. Father, I thank you for all of the mothers here today. And Lord, I know that some of them are feeling like they don't measure up, even to what we've seen in your word today. And certainly none of us measures up to the ideal of your word, paints for any of us, as far as what kind of mothers or fathers, women or men we ought to be. But we've seen a good example this morning, Lord, and we've seen a model for our mothers. And I pray that each woman here this morning, regardless of whether or not she's a mother, each woman here this morning would strive to be the kind of woman that Hannah was. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.