Mother
Some possible ways a mother could openly express God’s love through being a friend to her children.
♥ Praise them for whatever is praiseworthy in their lives.
♥ Encourage and comfort them in their need.
♥ Listen compassionately to their hurts, struggles, questions, dreams, ideas, and even to their unloving attitudes, and bear their burdens with them.
♥ Offer loving corrective comments when they need a balanced perspective.
♥ Apologize for her own attitudes, words, or actions when they have been less than loving toward her children or in their presence.
♥ Be there to nurse them back to health when they are ill.
♥ Train them in proper eating, hygiene, and sleep habits.
♥ Give a gentle answer when they are angry.
♥ Play with them and take them on special outings and field trips.
♥ Read to them.
♥ Pray with them.
♥ Teach her girls how to fulfill the proper biblical role of a woman.
♥ With her husband, teach her boys how to fulfill the proper biblical role of a man.
♥ Assign and train the children to do their household chores.
♥ Help them with their homework or home school them.
♥ Be at their activities and support them there – at school, church, sports, music, art, academics.
♥ Be their chief cheerleader.
♥ Tell them how she prays for them.
♥ Transport them to wholesome activities in line with their interests, talents, and abilities.
♥ Seek to avoid embarrassing them in front of their friends, if at all possible.
♥ Host birthday parties or other special occasions for her children.
♥ See that they receive whatever medical attention the family is able to provide.
♥ Patiently help potty train the little ones.
♥ Do special projects or crafts with the children.
Some possible ways a mother could openly express God’s love through assisting her husband in keeping the children under loving control. (See also “Some possible ways a father could express God’s love through keeping his children under loving control.”)
♥ Suggest to her husband what she views as the most important standards of discipline for the children.
♥ Communicate the standards of discipline to the children.
♥ Expect and enforce the same standards for the children when her husband is not present as she does when he is present.
♥ Send the children back to her husband when they attempt to enlist her on their side against him.
♥ Communicate her disagreement with her husband privately on decisions he is making regarding the children.
♥ Tell the children that she reports to their father both the rewards and the disciplines which she gives them when he is not present.
Some possible ways a mother could openly express God’s love through teaching the truths of Scripture to her children. (See also “Some possible ways a father could openly express God’s love through teaching the truths of Scripture to his children.”)
♥ When the father is an unbeliever or is neglecting to teach his children the truths of Scripture, the mother may be the only one who will do so. In such a case, she could teach her children the truths of Scripture with her husband’s full knowledge at a time which is most acceptable to him. If he is hostile to her imparting God’s truth to her children, she could still fulfill her responsibility, respectfully and lovingly, with the knowledge of her husband, though she may suffer for righteousness sake for doing so (1 Pet 3:14). It is advised, however, that she do this when he is not present (Prov 22:3, 27:2).
Some possible ways a mother could openly express God’s love through making her home her priority 10.
♥ Accept her home priority as God’s will for her, and not switch roles with her husband.
♥ See her home as her main focus.
♥ Seek to be at home when the children leave for school and arrive home from school.
♥ Be at home when the children are sick or on school vacation.
♥ Be at home when her children have their friends over.
♥ Try to make sure that the household is clean enough for healthy living.
♥ Supervise the planning and serving of nutritious meals, doing of the dishes, doing of the laundry, and the cleaning of the house.
♥ Attempt to make sure that her outside activities do not hinder what is in the best interests of her husband and children.
10 These suggestions are especially given for the mother who has a husband and has children she is continuing to raise in the home (cf. Titus 2:4-5, 1 Tim 5:14). In the case of a mother who is widowed, is divorced on biblical grounds (Mt 5:32, 19:9), or is repentant of previous sexual immorality which has resulted in a child, the Lord knows her heart and her desire to make her home her priority, and He will be glorified in her life as she continues to trust Him for her own life and for her children’s lives, even if she must work outside the home for a living (Rom 8:28). On the other hand, a mother who is disobediently perpetuating a non biblical divorce should confess and turn from her sin and move to either be reconciled to her former husband – if that is possible and biblically permissible – or remain unmarried until such a time as she is biblically re-marriaged, casting herself upon her compassionate and forgiving Heavenly Father for His guidance and provision (1 Cor 7:10-11, Ps 32:8, Jas 1:5-8).
♥ Suggest to her husband plans or activities for the children and the family.
♥ Organize the children’s chores.
♥ Be at home to guide her children’s choices of t.v. programs, videos, video games, computer or internet use, or other activities.
♥ Place her own priorities for the children and the household below her husband’s priorities, if the two differ.
Insights and concepts adapted from The Heart of Man and The Mental Disorders by Rich Thomson)