BY CAREY KINSOLVING AND FRIENDS
“I love my mom because she is cool. She works in the library, so I do not have any fines,” says Katherine, 12.
Having no fines on library books could be important. Recently, I found a library book due in 1976. No, it wasn’t mine. At 10 cents a day for 30 years, that’s $1,095.
I once produced a video for a Mother’s Day live event. Even though I don’t know their names or ages, here are some gems that emerged much to the delight and sometimes to the embarrassment of parents in the audience:
“She laughs really nice. It’s loud, but it’s real easy to find her. I like it a lot.”
“Practically every kid’s mom does this. When you have a dirty face, she licks her hand and smears it all over your face.”
“If I get a bad grade in school, then she’ll laugh about it because she remembers the time she got a bad grade in school.”
Most of us can only wish our moms had laughed at our bad grades. There’s a lot more moms like the one Morgan, 8, describes: “My mom is patient and kind. She loves me with all her heart. Now I wonder why she makes rules.”
Moms make rules because they don’t want us to be ruled by our laziness, bad habits and shortsighted decisions. Mom’s first priority is to make sure you survive. Can you even imagine a world in which moms didn’t care? The world would end because no one would survive childhood years.
Sometimes moms have to raise more than one boy, says T.J., 10, and he’s not talking about his brother: “My mom makes sure I have no sicknesses, and she always plays games with me. She cooks good. She makes sure my dad don’t get in trouble.”
Let’s boil it down to mom essentials, says Alexa, 7: “She’s loveable, huggable, kissable. There you have it.”
Although the entire Bible is profitable for instructing children, Proverbs 31 contains a mother’s advice to her son. The son is a king called Lemuel, which many Bible scholars believe to be a name of endearment used by Bathsheba for her son Solomon. Translated, the name means “Belonging to God.”
Mother Bathsheba warns her son against drinking in excess and getting involved with the wrong kind of women, which she describes as giving your strength to women. Although many men and women have ruined their lives by drinking, the consequences are even worse for judges and leaders. “Lest they drink and forget the law; and pervert the justice of all the afflicted” (Proverbs 31:5).
Drunkenness clouds the judgment and promotes forgetfulness of the law, which in this context is God’s Word. You may know the Bible, but if you drink to excess, amnesia will overcome you. When leaders drink in excess, those who depend on them suffer. Justice is perverted.
Instead of drinking, Solomon’s mom urged him to “judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:9). Make righteous decisions and stand up for those who have little or no voice, the poor and the needy.
On a Habitat for Humanity project, former president Jimmy Carter said that most Americans don’t even know a poor person. The Bible promises great blessings for those who help the poor (Proverbs 22:9).
As for giving your strength to a woman, every mother should read to her son Bathsheba’s advice about the character traits of a virtuous woman (Proverbs 31:10-31). Her worth is far above rubies.
Think about this: If men stayed sober and married virtuous women, the world as we know it would dramatically change.
Memorize this truth: “My son, keep your father’s command, and do not forsake the law of your mother” (Proverbs 6:20).
Ask this question: Do you value the kind of virtues in women praised in Proverbs 31?
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Kids Talk About God is designed for families to study the Bible together. Research shows that parents who study the Bible with their children give their character, faith and spiritual life a powerful boost. To receive Kids Talk About God three times a week in a free, email subscription, visit www.KidsTalkAboutGod.org/email.
COPYRIGHT 2021 CAREY KINSOLVING
