At roughly 8:30pm on June 5th 2019 my oldest "baby" graduated from High School. Talk about being proud. It was almost a surreal moment for me personally. Obviously I know that this day was coming and had been slowly and steadily approaching over the last 18 years but here it was finally appearing in all of it's glory.
One of the most overlooked people in all of scripture is found briefly in Acts 16:1 and 2 Timothy 3:14-15. If you read these passages you won't even find her name but you will find a description of this amazing woman. We don't know much about her but what we do know about this woman's identity is that she was Timothy's mom. We also know that she was married to a non-believer who did not raise his son in the Lord (Acts 16:1). We also know that from childhood mom taught Timothy "the sacred writings which were able to give him the wisdom that lead to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:14-15). This mom taught her son the scriptures that eventually lead to his salvation.
Over the last few months, I've had several folks tell me what a great young man Ryan is and how much he stands out from his peers. They tell me that Stef and I did a great job raising him and that we should be proud of him and ourselves. While I appreciate their comments I give all glory to God alone. Especially when I think about all the things we did wrong or that we would do over if we could. I think that one of the most misunderstood passages in all of scripture is from 1 Timothy 2 where Paul talks about God's design for leadership in the church and in the home. There is NO question that God ALWAYS pours out His grace when situations are less than ideal but there is no doubt that the relationship between a mother and her son is unique. It just is. The relationship that my wife has with my sons is different than mine and always will be just because she's mom.
Timothy's mom taught her son the scriptures from childhood since dad did not and she raised up a Christ-like young man that God used to literally change the world and write part of the New Testament. He graduated from mom's high school and then he left for "college" to hang out with Paul and the rest is history. I think that a lot of times we, as passionate Jesus followers, desperately want to change the world around us and that is GREAT THING! However, sometimes we overlook the fact that as parents and in this case specifically as a mom, there are seasons in life where the most important contribution we can make to the Kingdom of God is not WHAT WE DO for the kingdom but WHO WE RAISE as It's citizens. For all the moms out there DO NOT under value your service to the Kingdom by thinking that you are "JUST raising your kids" in Christ. You don't have to preach to the masses or lead a bible study or evangelize the world to be effective or useful to the Kingdom of God and the cause of the Gospel. If you want to change the world, start by loving and discipling your family first. Your primary and most important job is to "teach the sacred writings" to your children so that they will grow in knowledge that may lead them to salvation. When this is a priority for you, you never know what could happen. Years from now after all the long nights filled with crying and changing diapers are gone and the weekend sports games are over and the music lessons and family dinners and math homework are no more. When your midnight visits to the ER disappear as your little one finally graduates from your family home and moves out to start the next chapter of their life... you might not have ever noticed it before, but looking back I pray that God show you glimpses that you have be raising your own little Timothy the entire time. What's more I pray for your son or daughter as well as mine that one day the Spirit of Jesus Christ will send them out to change the world in their own way and in their own time for the honor and glory and praise of the name of Jesus Christ.
"I have no greater joy than this,
to hear of my children walking in the truth"
3 John 4