The Joy of Being a Mother

“I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure dwells in you as well.” -2 Timothy 1:5 (ESV).

On Mother’s Day we thank God for godly mothers and honor them as the Bible teaches us to do. Paul, in the focal verse from Timothy, praised Lois and Eunice for their godly influence on Timothy. For our thoughts today, I offer to you a poem, “This Clay to Mold” as a reminder of a mother’s responsibility to bring up the child or children entrusted to her in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

This Clay to Mold

(A Mother to her Baby)

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old,he will not depart from it.” –Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)

Tiny infant, flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone,

A living, breathing person gifted to our home.

What lies ahead on roads that twist and curve

As you grow up? Can we insure that you not swerve

From precepts learned at mother’s knee

And still give you the sense of being free

To choose what paths are suited to your gifts,

Give you assurance that the right way lifts

Above a mediocre path, a difference makes

In what you give to life, and what you take?

These are my thoughts, as close against my breast,

New-born, you take succor and sweet rest.

I’ll teach you of faith, for that intrinsic quality

Yields hope extending beyond reality.

I pray you learn to love, for love is giving

And colors all of life that’s worth the living.

Forgiveness must come, too, and greed must go;

And neither must offense nor selfishness sow

Their bitter seeds to sprout and grow at will

To choke your character, lend potential ill.

Your human clay is mine to shape and mold

Into a person of worth, rarer far than gold.

May God give me wisdom laced with humility;

Fill my Mother-heart with God-endowed ability.

I thank God for circumstances ensuing

That made our dream worth seeking and pursuing.

I dedicate myself anew to God’s great plan,

Accept humbly the touch of His loving hand.

-Ethelene Dyer Jones 05.10.2015