PRAYING MOTHERS

 

The story has been told of a minister who was making house calls.  When he rang the doorbell of one home, a little girl opened the door.  He asked for her mother, and she said, “Are you sick?”

“No,” he replied.  Then she asked, “Are you hurt?”  “No,” was the answer.  Then she asked if someone else was sick or needing help.  When he said he did not know of such a need, she said, “Then you can’t see my mother just now she prays from nine to ten o’clock each morning.

It was then twenty minutes past nine, but the minister sat down and waited forty minutes to see her.

At ten o’clock she came into the room with the light of glory on her face; and the minister knew why that home was so bright.  He knew why her two sons were attending a seminary and her oldest daughter was a missionary.  Once when Billy Sunday told this story he said, “All hell cannot tear a boy or girl from a mother like that.”

I thank God for praying mothers.  They have wielded more power for good than will ever be known this side of eternity.  They are the Lord’s best helpers and the nation’s greatest treasurers.

Nearly every man whose life has been a blessing to humanity has had a Godly mother.  Think of Moses, who grew up in a heathen court; his mother’s influence upon his life was so great that he turned his back on all the royal pleasures of sin, and became a mighty leader of God’s people.  Think of Samuel: he was a small child when his mother brought him to the temple and left him to live with Eli and his wayward sons; yet the influence of her early training and her early prayers kept him pure and upright all the days of his life.

The world has heard a great deal about John and Charles Wesley, the founders of the Methodist Church, but how many have heard of their consecrated mother?  It was she who trained the boys and fitted them for their great work.  Suzanna Wesley was the mother of nineteen children.  She must have been a very busy woman, and yet she found time to give each child individual attention and to bring it up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

A biographer of Mrs. Wesley wrote: “This wonderful woman wrote three elementary books on Christian theology for the instruction of her children.  She taught them together as a class, and once a week had a private conversation with each child.”

John Newton, the hymn writer, attributed his salvation to his praying mother.  He was a wicked, debased young man, engaged in slave trafficking.  He was a blasphemer and a drinker.  But his mother prayed for her son before she left this life, and Newton said that he never forgot her prayers.

One day when out at sea, he was missed from the crew.  He was found down on his knees praying, “O thou God of my dead mother, have mercy on my soul!”  God heard his prayer, and John Newton gave us some of the most beautiful hymns that we sing in our churches today.

The mother of Charles Spurgeon said, “Now, Lord, if my children go into sin, it will not be from ignorance that they perish, and my soul must bear swift witness against them at the day of judgment if they lay not hold of Jesus Christ.”  God heard that mother’s prayer and saved young Spurgeon, and he became one of the greatest preachers of all times.

We could go on and on mentioning the saintly mothers, themselves little known, who have given to the world its most illustrious sons.  One mother whose children had grown into outstanding Christians was asked the secret of her success in training them.

She said, “This was the secret.  When, in the morning, I washed my children, I prayed that they might be washed in the fountain of the Saviour’s mercy.  When I put on their clothes, I prayed that they might be arrayed in the robe of the Saviour’s righteousness.  When I gave them food, I prayed that they might be fed with manna from Heaven.  When I started them on the road to school, I prayed that their faith might be as the shinning light, brighter and brighter to the perfect day.  When I put them to sleep, I prayed that they might be enfolded in the Saviour’s arms.”

In others words, her heart was continually going out to God in prayer for her children, even while she did her work.  You may be sure that if this mother lived in such an attitude of prayer, the Lord helped her to set a Godly example before her children each day, and He gave her wisdom to know how to instruct them properly in all the things which they needed to know.

Like the virtuous woman described in Proverbs 31, the children of such a mother would surely rise up and call her blessed.  D.L. Moody paid an affectionate tribute to his mother at her funeral.

Holding the old family Bible in his hands, he stood by the body of his mother and said, “It is not the custom, perhaps, for a son to take part in such an occasion, but if I can control myself, I should like to say a few words.  It is a great honor to be the son of such a mother.  I do not know where to begin.  I could not praise her enough.  In the first place, my mother was a very wise woman.  In one sense, she was wiser than Solomon; she knew how to bring up her children.

“Whenever I wanted real, sound counsel, I went to my mother.  She never complained.  It is a great thing to have such a mother, and I feel like standing up here today to praise her.”

May the Lord give us more Christian mothers like these to uphold the ways of righteousness.  Praying mothers are sorely needed in this day of shaking faith and crumbling morals.  They are God’s best gift to the world, outside of His own beloved Son.  “Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.” (Proverbs 31:30)