“Behold Thy Mother”: A Mother’s Day Reflection on What We’ve Lost—and Must Restore
“Honour Thy Father and Thy Mother”
“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
—Exodus 20:12 (KJV)
Before there were schools, therapists, or Sunday morning sermons, there were fathers and mothers—ordained by God to raise the next generation in truth and love. To honor one’s parents isn’t optional. It is one of the Ten Commandments, written by the very finger of God, and the first command with a promise attached: that your days may be long and full upon the earth.
Over the years, I’ve told my daughters—and anyone who has ever asked me about a future spouse—the same two things:
1. Are they saved—and are they truly serving the Lord?
2. How do they treat their mother?
Because you can tell nearly everything about a man by the way he treats the woman who gave him life. Not just on birthdays or holidays, but in quiet moments, in conflict, and in sacrifice. And yes, the same goes for women: how she speaks of the one who bore her shows much of her heart.
No, not every parent is worthy of full trust, and not every home was godly—but honor is a command rooted not in perfection, but in position. And on this day, we turn our hearts especially toward motherhood—not as the world defines it, but as God does: selfless, sacred, and enduring.
And Now……..
“Behold Thy Mother”: A Mother’s Day Reflection on What We’ve Lost—and Must Restore
“Behold thy mother.” —John 19:27
It is sobering to look back on the original intent of Mother’s Day and compare it to what it has become.
Anna Jarvis envisioned a day not to celebrate biology, but to honor the lifelong, sacrificial labor of good mothers—those who raised, nurtured, taught, and loved their children with steadfast devotion.
Mother’s Day was never meant to be a reward for giving birth.
It was a day of gratitude, where children, molded by loving hands and godly instruction, would rise up and call their mothers blessed.
“Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.”
—Proverbs 31:28 (KJV)
⸻
From Motherhood to Birthing-Hood
Today, in an age of abandoned children, abortions on demand, and delegated parenting, Mother’s Day has too often evolved into a shallow ritual—a reward for reproduction rather than a recognition of true motherhood.
We now honor those who have given birth, but not always those who have given themselves—their time, tears, truth, and discipline—to raise the next generation in love and righteousness.
Motherhood is not an event. It is a calling.
Not a moment of conception, but a lifetime of covenant.
Not a title bestowed, but a life lived in sacrifice.
⸻
The Bible’s Vision of a Mother
- The Mother Who Would Rather Lose Than Harm (1 Kings 3)
When Solomon faced two women claiming the same baby, he offered to divide the child in two. One woman said, “Yes,” but the true mother cried out:
“O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it.”
—1 Kings 3:26
That wrenching moment revealed the real mother—not by blood, but by self-sacrifice.
And Solomon, in godly wisdom, gave the child to her.
He rewarded her motherhood, not her claim.
- The Woman Who Pleaded for the Womb (1 Samuel 1)
Hannah, barren and ridiculed, wept in prayer and vowed to dedicate her child to the Lord if only He would hear her.
“For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition… therefore also I have lent him to the Lord.”
—1 Samuel 1:27–28
Her motherhood began in the temple, not just the womb. And she kept her vow—even when it meant giving Samuel back to God.
- The Crown of the God-Fearing Woman (Proverbs 31)
She is not praised for bearing children, but for teaching them, serving them, loving them, and walking with the fear of the Lord.
“Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.”
—Proverbs 31:30
⸻
Behold Thy Mother
And then—there is the moment at the foot of the cross.
In His final breaths, Jesus looked down and saw His mother.
He didn’t turn to Rome. He didn’t instruct a temple official.
He gave her to His disciple—John. And gave John to her.
“Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.”
—John 19:27
It was not a casual gesture, but a sacred command:
Honor her. Care for her. Love her.
Not because she bore Him—but because she stood by Him to the end, faithful, full of sorrow, yet full of grace.
⸻
A History They Would Weep Over
Before we move toward that grace, we must pause and remember the history of this “holiday”—because the women who gave it to us would not only be rolling in their graves for what it has become; they were, in fact, driven to those graves in anguish and poverty trying to preserve its dignity.
Anna Jarvis, the daughter who founded Mother’s Day to honor her godly mother, spent her final years fighting the holiday’s political and commercial corruption. She was committed to an asylum, dying blind, broke, and childless, betrayed by the very people who had twisted her creation into a profit-making spectacle.
This is no secular holiday to be trampled underfoot,
like so many others we’ve defiled—
Turning Memorial Day into a drunken excuse for sports, fireworks, and debauchery…
Reducing Resurrection Sunday to chocolate bunnies and retail discounts…
And now Mother’s Day?
Into a mere card in the mail, bought from Christ-rejecting merchants and printed in soulless Chinese factories.
God help us if we cannot see the sacred in what He intended to be holy.
⸻
A Refrain of Compassion and Truth
Let us be clear—
We are not talking about perfect mothers.
We are not honoring mothers who have done everything right every day of their lives—
For such women, like perfect wives, would be rare indeed.
We are talking about the mothers who did their very best—
• Mothers who raised their children under dire circumstances,
• Mothers abandoned by their husbands,
• Mothers who sacrificed to raise their children with no father at all,
• And yes, mothers with a loving husband by their side who still bore the weight of motherhood with grace.
We are talking about the mothers who have shielded their children from harm,
And even those who, despite failures not fully their own,
Have clung to love with trembling hands.
Some mothers have lost their children through tragedy or mistakes—
And still love them with every breath.
Life is complex.
I have met women in prison, women homeless, women separated by the state—
Who have never stopped loving their children.
Some gave their children away with regret,
And in some cases, even needfully, for protection or provision.
And then, yes—
There are those who have treated motherhood as a transaction—
State-supported breeders more concerned with their own ambition
than the well-being of the children they bore.
They speak of “hard decisions,”
But what they mean is selfish choices.
I do not say this to judge—
God is the Judge.
But when you see the horrors,
When you witness the tragedies,
When you feel the weight of real brokenness…
You learn to speak with tears, not stones.
“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”
—Isaiah 49:15
And that mother who stood before Solomon—
Willing to let go of her child rather than let him be harmed—
She still teaches us today.
She did not win an argument.
She won a reward: the recognition of true motherhood.
And as for me—I thank God for my mother,
Who always loved me.
And whom I cherish always.
Today would have been her birthday—born on Mother’s Day, 1942.
⸻
The Path Back
If we are to restore meaning to Mother’s Day, we must return to that kind of honor.
• Not the Hallmark sentiment,
• Not the brunch table flattery,
• But the biblical model of selfless, godly, courageous motherhood.
Let us behold not just those who bore children—but those who raised them in love and truth, those who stood before God like Hannah, who laid their own claim aside like Solomon’s mother, who walked the hard road like Mary.
That is the mother who must be honored.
That is the mother who will be remembered.
And that is the mother whose children will, in God’s time, rise up and say:
“Blessed.”
