Mother’s Day Special

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Short Summary

The discourse presents a heartfelt tribute to motherhood, exploring its appreciation through life examples, biblical teachings, and scientific insights. It highlights the selfless care and protective instincts of mothers in both humans and animals, reflects on scriptural commandments to honor parents as a foundation for strong families and society, and considers spiritual motherhood within the Christian faith. Additionally, it discusses mitochondrial DNA research supporting a recent origin of humanity, symbolically linking all people to a universal “mother,” thus honoring the pivotal role of mothers across various dimensions.

Long Summary

Introduction and Structure of the Talk
– The discourse is a special three-part tribute to motherhood, inspired by life, creation, and the Bible.
– The format likens the talk to a special meal served in three courses: appetizer, main course, and dessert.
– The speaker acts as a “waiter” presenting these parts:
– Appetizer: Appreciation of motherhood through human and animal examples.
– Main course: Biblical lessons and reflections on motherhood.
– Dessert: A scientific exploration related to motherhood.

Appetizer: Appreciation of Motherhood
– Mother’s Day is recognized and celebrated worldwide, largely influenced by the official U.S. holiday established in 1914, originally inspired by Ann Jarvis’s efforts post-Civil War.
– Mothers are universally appreciated for their unique role and characteristics, despite some commercial aspects of the holiday.
– Definitions of mother and motherhood:
– Mother: Female parent who gives birth, nurtures physically, mentally, emotionally; supported by fathers and family.
– Motherhood: Characterized by instinctive protection, selfless, unconditional love, enduring support, and deep emotional and spiritual connection.
– Animal examples:
– Eagles Jackie (mom) and Shadow (dad) in Big Bear Valley, CA, show cooperative parenting and protective instincts.
– Biblical reference: Deuteronomy 32:11 (NIV) — “As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions, so the LORD alone led him…”
– Psalm 91:4 emphasizes protective care: “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.”
– Other examples include swans providing “free rides” for their young, mountain goats forming protective herds, and ducklings following mother’s lead.
– Human motherhood is unique:
– Human children develop slowly compared to animals.
– Neural development and acquisition of culture, language, behaviors rely heavily on parental interaction.
– Children learn by mimicking and reflecting, with potential for self-improvement.

Main Course: Biblical Lessons on Motherhood
– Acknowledges that motherhood can be desired but sometimes impossible; such feelings deserve empathy and patience.
– Motherhood is often learned through experience, with ups and downs influenced by family, spouse support, economic conditions.
– Challenges faced by mothers of children with disabilities or special needs are recognized with deep empathy.
– Personal anecdote from speaker’s childhood involving a medical treatment (hip brace) illustrating mother’s care and sacrifice.

Biblical Commandments and Teachings
– Honoring parents is commanded with a promise of long life (Exodus 20:12): “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”
– Leviticus 19:3 emphasizes reverence: “Each of you must respect your mother and father…”
– Colossians 3:20 and Ephesians 6:1 encourage children to obey parents, pleasing the Lord.
– The commandment does not explicitly command love toward parents; as noted by commentator Dennis Prager, this reflects Torah’s realistic understanding that love may not always be possible, but honor and respect are required.
– Jesus’ teachings:
– Mark 7:10-13 (Complete Jewish Bible) rebukes traditions excusing neglect of parents.
– John 14:31 shows Jesus loving His Father by obeying His commandments.
– Jesus’ relationship with His mother Mary is noted at key moments: His youth (age 12), first miracle at Cana, and entrusting Mary to John at the cross (John 19:26-27).
– Two-way relationship:
– Ephesians 6:4 instructs fathers not to provoke children but raise them with discipline and guidance from the Lord.
– Jesus’ teaching in Mark 10:37 about loving Him more than father or mother emphasizes priority of spiritual duty.
– John 12:25 and John 16:27 highlight the call for agape love, surrendering natural life for God’s service.
– Practical ways to honor parents:
– Respect and dignity.
– Communication, empathy, learning from their life stories.
– Forgiveness of their imperfections.
– Encouragement and assistance as they age.
– Cherishing memories and passing legacy to next generation.

Spiritual Motherhood
– Reference to Romans 16:13 mentioning “Rufus’ mother” as a spiritual mother to Apostle Paul.
– Spiritual mothers provide support, advice, and encouragement beyond biological motherhood.
– Biblical examples include Deborah (Judges) and wise women (2 Samuel).
– Encouragement to recognize and cultivate spiritual motherly and fatherly roles within the community.
– 1 Corinthians 4:15: “There are many tutors and instructors, but few fathers.”
– 3 John 1:4 expresses joy when spiritual children walk in truth.

Motherhood and Biblical Covenants
– Apostle Paul’s allegory in Galatians 4:22-26:
– Abraham’s two wives: Hagar (bondwoman) and Sarah (free woman) represent two covenants.
– Hagar = Old Covenant of Law (Mount Sinai), associated with bondage and earthly Jerusalem.
– Sarah = New Covenant of Promise, associated with freedom and the heavenly Jerusalem.
– Keturah (third wife) possibly symbolizes the future millennial covenant and the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2).
– These allegories show motherhood as creating environments for growth, paralleling God’s plan for different ages of mankind.

Dessert: Scientific Treat on Motherhood
– Focus on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), inherited exclusively from the mother.
– mtDNA mutation rates allow tracing human ancestry and population bottlenecks.
– Scientific findings support a recent common maternal ancestor (“Mitochondrial Eve”) about 6,000 years ago, aligning with Biblical flood timeline.
– Dr. Wise’s research contrasts evolutionary expectations of many mutations over millions of years with observed data supporting a recent bottleneck consistent with the biblical flood.
– The three wives of Noah’s sons align with the restart of human genetic lines after the flood.
– This scientific evidence is seen as a beautiful confirmation of Biblical history regarding human origins.

Conclusion
– The discourse honors mothers universally — biological, spiritual, and symbolic.
– Encourages love, respect, service, and support for mothers in all forms.
– Draws on nature, scripture, personal experience, and science to portray motherhood as foundational to both family and spiritual life.
– Ends with blessing and hope that the audience’s Mother’s Day celebration is meaningful.

—

Noted Bible Verses Cited or Referenced:
– Deuteronomy 32:11 (Eagle stirring its nest)
– Psalm 91:4 (Covering with feathers)
– Exodus 20:12 (Honor your father and mother)
– Leviticus 19:3 (Revere father and mother)
– Colossians 3:20; Ephesians 6:1-4 (Obedience and raising children)
– Mark 7:10-13 (Jesus on honoring parents)
– John 14:31 (Jesus loves the Father)
– John 19:26-27 (Jesus entrusting Mary to John)
– Mark 10:37 (Loving Jesus more than family)
– John 12:25; John 16:27 (Agape love and discipleship)
– Romans 16:13 (Mother of Rufus)
– Galatians 4:22-26 (Allegory of Hagar and Sarah)
– Revelation 21:2 (New Jerusalem as bride)
– 1 Corinthians 4:15 (Few spiritual fathers)
– 3 John 1:4 (Joy in children walking in truth)

This detailed summary captures the key points, biblical references, personal stories, scientific insights, and the overall thematic structure of the discourse on motherhood.

Transcript

Today we have a very special occasion. We called this talk Mother’s Day Special, a three part tribute to motherhood inspired by life, creation and the Bible, and really it’s going to be some sort of a Mother’s Day special, as though all the mothers who accompany them were at a place, perhaps a restaurant or a home, where there is special meals served. So that’s what we would like to offer and suggest, and I will be your waiter, Chris, in just one second, I’m going to make sure that I know what I will be saying, which is right here.

So in a matter of speaking, I’ll be your waiter today, and for you, dear mothers and all the attendees, we will have first an appetizer, then the main course, and then finally a dessert. I know that there are a variety of diets and tastes and preferences, but I hope that everyone will find something they will like. Just remember to eat your veggies as your mom told you. So this is a very special occasion.

In the appetizer, we’ll talk about the appreciation of motherhood and perhaps, perhaps share some definitions, some examples from the life of humans and animals as well. For the main course, we’ll have some soup and some meat and potatoes, information that we’ll share from the Bible, and then finally for dessert, if we get to it, a scientific treat. Hopefully we’ll get to it if the waiter is not too clumsy again. Okay, so shall we start with the appetizer Appreciation of motherhood.

And you know these charts, because why shouldn’t we have charts? They illustrate that there’s actually quite a wide recognition for the special day of Mother’s Day. So these are the countries on the left side that actually celebrates today. It’s a large majority, and I think it’s by the example of the United States, as someone has previously shared from this platform. The Mother’s Day holiday was introduced in the United states sometime in 1914, officially.

And it was really in tribute to a very hardworking mother of a woman named Ann Jarvis, who arranged for many decades special efforts to help mothers, especially after the Civil war in the United States. Well, today the whole world seems to find and the need to appreciate the role, the person, the characteristics of the mother figure in their life, whether it’s those who have a mother and of course, everyone has had a mother, but those who are mothers and who really learn to appreciate their responsibilities and duties like that, and as time went on, we see here in the second chart, that is actually the last few decades that actually kind of adopted the mothers, the countries in the world, Adopted Mother’s Day. Perhaps there is something commercial in it as well, but I don’t think that the mothers really mind that. Here is a cartoon that I think depicts how the special Mother’s Day should be different.

The one on the left is a normal day, and the one on the right is Mother’s Day. In case you don’t know what the differences are, there are just a few things that are different. But otherwise the Mother’s Day is just as busy. So what is a mother and what is motherhood? Well, on the left side is an attempt at some definitions.

It’s really probably intuitive, although sometimes we seem to struggle with these definitions. But I would say that this would be a female parent who gives birth to a child, and it’s a mystery of a new life. A mother is equipped to provide an internal and then external conditions to nurture the child physically, mentally, emotionally, and the mother does best with an assistance from the father.

Well, in fact, without the father, there cannot be a mother, right? As we know. But even after the child is born, the assistance and support of the spouse, of the maid is very important. But also the whole family, those activities that are so necessary to support the mother’s hard work, which in some situations, there are some things that are only exclusive to the mother, and what is motherhood?

Characterized by instinctive protection and care, and that’s done in action. It’s a selfless, unconditional love, enduring support, and profound spiritual and emotional connection between the mother and the child. As we ponder these things, we definitely can appreciate that that’s the case between us and our mothers, and there are some examples in animal creation.

For example, here you have a nest of two eagles. These eagles have become quite famous. Many people follow this eagle nest cam for already a couple of years, maybe three or four. These parents here are called Jackie and Shadow. Jackie is the mom, Shadow is the dad.

And here is their. They’re actually in California, in a place called Big Bear Valley, and you can actually find that on YouTube, and if you did, you would find that there is a streaming scene of those eagles sitting there and nesting their new or the new two eaglets, whose names are Gizmo and Sunny, I believe, and they are the new generation for this year.

But what’s interesting is that the mom seems to be extra specially sacrificing herself. This is in the snow of this area in California, and that snow actually is there quite frequently. She is sitting here. This is probably still nesting the eggs while the dad does what he can. In fact, There was one scene in which the mother needed to go and find some food for herself, so she flew away.

The dad, kind of hesitating, did take over and sit on the eggs. Then when he became comfortable, the mother came back and there was like this awkward time of, like an exchange, it seemed like, and she would almost say, excuse me, actually, I think I belong there. I have to sit back where I was, and it’s.

It kind of happens every once in a while. So you will see that if you watch that. I don’t have that on the video, but we do remember Deuteronomy 30:11, as an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings. So does the Lord care for the nation of Israel? And even though I try to find, because why not a video of an eagle carrying their young ones on its wings, apparently that’s not exactly confirmed today.

And perhaps there is another breed of eagles, another kind of eagles that do that. The scriptures does record that, and maybe we will see it one day. But in the meantime, here is this, and a swan that does something like this, free rides for the babies, and we Read in Psalm 91:4, he shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.

His truth shall be thy shield and buckler, and even though here it’s talking about the Lord, our heavenly Father, yet we understand that his qualities are very much like those that a mother would offer, and when mankind was created, Adam and Eve, right, we know that they were divided, and certain qualities of that original man were divided and especially delegated to the mother, and so those are some of the qualities that we see here, some other pictures, in fact, this would be the video of those chicks, because we also know that there’s this protection, protective instinct of the mothers or the parents, and here is one that actually will show how the babies are alone for a while.

But then I think the parents do see some sort of a reason to be alerted, and they come back and they make a little noise. I really won’t play that sound, but you will see that hopefully right here.

So here is one of the parents. This might be Jackie. They say she’s bigger and nicer looking. But you see the babies are here, and Jackie sees something and she makes a noise, and then Shadow flies back from the other side in a second.

Yeah, there we go. There they are, and see that bird over there on the other end? I think they saw that bird coming, coming, flying, trying to perhaps get at the nest, and they wanted to protect it.

So beautiful illustration in action of this instinctive protective behavior, and here is a video that Marta and I took in one of our trips in Canada of some. I believe they are mountain goats. They could be mountain sheep. I usually get confused by those.

But. But here is how not just the mother and not just the father, but the whole family creates a protective atmosphere and a herd. Here’s a curious one that was looking at us and we should have just a little scene of how when it was just a little too uneasy, they form a nice clump and a herd, and yet he still wants to look at us. So the herd also protects, and that’s a beautiful example for us that we all form families as we support the mothers who are working hard and have that unique function.

But we can help.

And here is another one. This one reminds me of that picture that brother Mark Kendall had on his Zoom background. So we remember our dear brethren and of course those ducklings that just exactly know that they need to do what their mom is showing them, and you know, it’s so special, every once in a while we get these birds nests by our house. Sometimes we try to prevent that because maybe we have some work that needs to be done and we really want to avoid it, but it’s sometimes just not enough time.

And they nest, and we remember that commandment to not disturb these things, even from the Old Testament. So we try to abide by that. But what’s also very true is that it does not take very long for birds to both hatch and develop those basic skills, like even the eagles will only take a few weeks, and then they’ll spread their wings, they’ll start to exercise and practice their flight and they’ll leave their nest.

Sometimes the parents actually reduce the food to encourage the children to try and look for the food by themselves. But where we are going with this, that it only takes weeks, maybe a couple of months for those children to become independent. But not so with the human beings. The human beings are very unique. Each child, each individual has like this super unique set of qualities.

They are kind of slow compared to the animals in their development, and the experience and interaction with the parent is essential. Without it, you would not be able to achieve this growth, this neural development, and the child must learn new things, things that they did not see or know before. But they mimic the speech, the behavior and all kinds of responses.

And those behaviors are often culture based. So by the time a child has grown up, they know the language, they know the various ways to act because of the culture they’re in, and a human being is capable of reflection and improvement of own development. Those are those unique things that are so special in the creation of a human being. These are some observations from a researcher who has given that information to us.

And now I think the appetizer is done. We’re going on to some meat and potatoes, the main course, and in fact, part of this main course will be the chicken no chicken soup for the soul. Now, why you would ask why we use this name? Well, Marta, as you know, is a vegetarian and she does make a super nice mimic of a chicken soup, which, as recently we found out, Abby Ledwinka called the chicken no chicken soup or chicken no chicken said fast, and it really is great.

It really tastes like chicken. But if you miss the chicken in this chicken no chicken soup, then you just add chicken and then it is the chicken no chicken with chicken soup. But where we get this from, of course, the whole connection is that notion of chicken soup for the soul. Right. This is a set of books that I believe was authored by Jack Kendall with various stories of encouragement and just support and empathy for various roles, in this case, for the role of a mother.

So maybe we’ll have a couple points like that. That’s why we called it, and then some meat and potatoes, lessons from the Bible. Couple examples that will make us think about the role of the mother and our own behavior and injunctions from the scriptures. So let’s dive in.

So, as you see here, there is a cartoon from Motherhood Inc. Human Resources, and then the mother finds out. One vacation day a year. That’s all I get.

Like today, and the person explains, well, we call it Mother’s Day, but technically you still have to work. But what are some lessons for motherhood? Well, sometimes motherhood is desired but not physically possible for various reasons, and we don’t necessarily go into those. But as you know, that desire in a woman in her life may exist and will exist most likely to be a mother.

But sometimes for different physical or social reasons, it may not be possible, and we have to respect that and appreciate that this is a feeling that is deeply felt and how much patience and acceptance we may need to have when it’s not possible, and yet sometimes in the life of others, other women, it is easy to and taken for granted. Those are some things that we deeply see and ponder. That realization of what motherhood means often comes through experience.

You can’t really find it in the manual. You don’t really get a manual given to you, but you do it through experience, oftentimes by observing your own mother and oftentimes by dealing with all the experiences of it yourself. There are some ups and downs expected as time goes on. It would be wonderful and ideal if the motherhood experience was all very level and always very positive. But it is so frequently an experience dependent on many things that happen around you, whether it’s the support or presence of your spouse, whether it’s the family situation, whether it’s some economic things.

Many mothers have gone through hardships having to maintain and upkeep family while the spouse was not able, not willing to be present, and so our emotions and empathy goes to all those who have gone through these different situations, and sometimes it may be a hard lifelong trial. We know some parents among us who have taken on a responsibility that they didn’t know they would be signing up for when their child is unwell, when their child has a disability and how tough of an experience it is for the mother and how strengthening it is for them, more so than for those perhaps who have a very lovely experience of the motherhood and how much we can learn from them. Our thoughts and our empathy should go toward those parents and we appreciate them very much.

There’s one story that I was previously going to share, like some time ago and I chickened out speaking about the chicken, but today I’ll share it for a second. This is actually me and my mother, and this is before color photography was discovered. So that’s the year 1866. Actually, no, it is 1966 and color photography was not yet very well known in Poland, but nevertheless, I’m sure it was already available.

Anyway, here’s my mom and me, my dear mother, and when she had me, she was 39 years old, so that’s kind of late by average, and she was a very conscientious, very hard working and loving mother, and I see glimpses of her when I interact with Emilia. I’m glad this is not the appetizer or else it would get quite soggy.

But here is me in my happy childhood. Although not too many colors here. But you can see here in this next picture that I am enjoying some sort of a picnic. But what you see here in the back of my shoes is some sort of a board or a bar of sorts. Well, as it turned out, when I was about a year old, this is probably how old I am here.

I’m not exactly sure because I’m forgetting what details they were, but my mom would tell me that when she went to the doctor and he checked my hip bones, and it turned out that one of the hip swords was not completely formed, and so what was required was something called. I believe they call it a brown bar, and here is a better picture of it where the child’s legs are or shoes actually are put on this bar, and they are at a special angle, and the child’s legs have to be kept at this distance as often or maybe all the time for a number of months.

And so, as you can see, this was definitely an experience that was necessary. Otherwise I probably would not be walking as well as I’m grateful to be walking, and those are some of the trials that mothers have to go through. So we’re very grateful for that and many, many efforts of those conscientious mothers that come our way.

So now we go to some deeper things and God’s commandment with a honor your father and your mother so that your days may be long upon you in the land which the Lord God gives you, and one author that I’ll quote in a second also says, you know what? It actually shows us that God makes no distinction between the hierarchy of the father and the mother. Because here in Leviticus 19:3, the word is, every one of you shall revere his mother and his father. So here the mother is first.

And we read a confirmation of that too, in Colossians 3:20 and Ephesians 6. Two, children, obey your parents, and everything for this purpose pleases the Lord. So these words, honor, revere, obey, and somehow this commandment is with a promise, and the Apostle Paul reminds us in Ephesians that, yes, indeed, this is a commandment with a promise, a promise that if you do this, then you will live long in the land that the Lord gives you, and we ask ourselves, why is that?

Well, some thoughts on that are that if you don’t do this, if you yourself do not honor, do not respect your parents, then it will be a very quick downhill journey because your children will see that they will not respect you and they will leave you. Your family will disintegrate prematurely, perhaps they will not care after you, and the society will go down the drain, and such is the case. Many societies who have prioritize some political loyalty, like in China, have really shown disintegration of family in those systems. But therefore, as we know, the nation of Israel is very strong in the support and cherishing of family bonds and family connections.

And I think we see that those results are very strongly felt. In fact, there is more of a joint atmosphere of bringing up children. The Jewish people Will say, these are our children. In fact, when a mom sees that somebody else’s child does something that’s not exactly right, she should be fully authorized and feels that they should to actually point that out. I don’t think we have exactly the same thing built in our culture.

So we have these verbs here. Honor, revere, obey. In fact, this word revere is fear, and so what verb, however, might we expect here and not see? What do you think?

Love. That’s right. The word love is not here, is not in this commandment, and that seems to be causing a little consternation to this author that I really respect. His name is Dennis Prager, and I’ve been reading the commentary on Exodus, Deuteronomy and Genesis by him.

And here is his thought about this. The Torah commands us to love our neighbor, and he does not mean only the ten commandments, because that’s not exactly inside of the commandments. But the Torah commands us to love our neighbor, to love the stranger, and to love God. But it does not command us to love our parents, only to honor them, and we are not commanded to honor anyone else.

According to Mr. Prager, this level of psychological sophistication is remarkable for any moral code, and let alone one written 3,000 years ago, and he continues, he feels that it is hard for us to expect that we will always love our parents, and the Torah, he says, does not command the impossible, because he says, Torah recognizes that some people are simply unable to love their parents and that many people experience periods in which they are more in touch with anger toward their parents than love them. All this is in a document written thousands of years before people started seeing therapists, as you know, you know, dealing with anger toward parents or some.

Some other difficulties that that occurred might be part of the. Of therapies. But is there truth to it? Do we sometimes, despite this close connection, find it difficult to love our parents? They’re so similar to us, they’re so familiar to us.

They have similar imperfections that bother us about ourselves. They have some inconsistencies that we really see very keenly day in, day out. There is this authority that they have over us and some frustration that we cannot do the things that we want to do. So was it right for this fifth commandment to not say the word thou shalt love your father and your mother? Perhaps we don’t necessarily.

My answer to this would be, don’t necessarily expect that the commandment should have the word love, because I don’t think it has the word love, even toward God. The commandment to love God is in a different verse in Deuteronomy, but not here in the Genesis Exodus 20 commandments. So should it be here or should we find it somewhere else? Should we even think that we don’t need to love our parents?

Well, I would say that we probably want to look at the implications of what it means to honor and revere and obey your parent, that the activities that you do really, when you apply them, will be the testimony that you love them. It’s like in this song from Fiddler on the Roof when he asks her, do you love me? And she says, well, I’ve been washing your clothes for these 40 years. I’ve been doing all the things that pertain to serving you and supporting you and respecting you. If that’s not love, what is?

But when we look at the commandments from the New Testament, I think we will feel a little better about saying, yes, love for your parents is directly exemplified in the behavior of those who were considered the Lord’s saints. So let’s not make it too difficult. In fact, let’s make it a challenge and resolve in our minds that we do want to love our parents. Jesus, for example, teaches here in Mark 7, verses 10 through 13, and this is from the complete Jewish Bible.

That’s why you see the word Moshe, and Moshe means Moses.

Honor your father and your mother. Moshe said, and if anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death. But you say, he says to those who were the rulers in his day, if someone says to his father and mother, I have promised a Korban that is a gift to God, what I might have used to help you, then you’ll no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother. Thus is your tradition, and so in this case, the Lord says you justify those who would otherwise be helping their parents, that if they make a gift to the temple, that now they are excused from really wanting to help their needing to help their parents.

Another verse that directly says that Jesus loved his father was John 14:31, that the world may know that I love the Father, as the Father gave me commandment. Even so, I do you see how it is that the love toward your parent is demonstrated? You do what they have commanded you, and that’s the way in which Jesus loved his Father, and of course, we would be amiss to not reflect on the relationship that Jesus had toward his mother, and we don’t have too many instances recorded, right, because the Gospels are not for that.

But yet they do make a connection in many places. In a few places, like when he was 12, when he performed his first miracle, and when he was on the cross, when he committed Mary into the responsibility of John, and since that time, the Gospel of John says she became like his own mother, and that’s what Jesus says, son, behold your mother.

So what is it about this relationship between the children and their parents and how can it be improved? Here we read in Ephesians 6:1:3, a verse we mentioned earlier, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. What does it mean in the Lord? Does it mean that the parents have to be believers? Or rather that this is the rule, this is your commitment as a believing child, that obedience to your parents is necessary, for this is right.

Honor your father and your mother, this is the first commandment, with a promise that it may go well with you and and that you may live long in the land, and the complete Jewish Bible, which is the New Testament rendition of how, perhaps how a Jewish person would read it, says, fathers, don’t irritate your children and make them resentful. Instead raise them with the Lord’s kind of discipline and guidance. Beautiful translation that really reminds us to that this is a two way street, that the love between the children and parents is something that needs to be nurtured and supported both ways. We also found an interesting citation here from reprint 2806 in which we see that Jesus himself says about loving father and mother more than himself, that in certain situation that would be an oversteering of our attention and our emotions.

Let’s read that in the comment here. Mark 10:37 he that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Duty love to our family relatives is right, but it must not equal our duty love toward the Lord, else we can never follow him as overcomers. He that loveth his life shall lose it. John 12:25 it is our duty to love life.

It is in the sense of appreciating it and being unwilling to destroy it or waste it foolishly. But he who has become Christ’s disciple, and he who has pledged to walk in his footsteps even unto death, is to remember that he has already surrendered his life as a man, exchanging it for the hope of life as a new creature, a spiritual being. He is no longer to be controlled by the filial or duty love toward the earthly life, but but moved by agape love, he is to willingly lay down his natural life in the Service of God for the brethren, for the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me, and that’s John 16:27. So if we balance these precepts and the comment, we see that there is possibly an extent to which our commitment to family life may be too much.

That, yes, we are obligated to them and to do everything that we can to set an example to support them. But there perhaps is a worldly way in which a family is valued, which, in the perspective of a Christian, might be going too far. Let’s ponder that. Let’s find that in our own lives and see to what extent we are not meeting this and we are excusing ourselves. As Jesus warned those who said, oh, you’re doing something for the temple, so that means you don’t have to care for your family.

And then on the other hand, let’s see what he meant when he said, he who loves those more than me is not worthy.

But so what can honoring mean in practice? Perhaps some actions here that we would suggest. The respect. Treating them with dignity. Communicating and asking.

Understanding and empathizing. Learning about them. As we get older, we have more stories to tell and more stories to be asking about. What did you do when you were my age? How did this come in your life?

Learning from them and learning with them as they face new challenges. But also forgiving. That’s honoring somebody, knowing that they have weaknesses just like we do. Encouraging them if they sometimes fail. The fact that they are adults, that they have more experience, doesn’t mean that they don’t get discouraged.

So encouragement and sensing those times is probably good and important. Assisting them in many physical things as they become more and more necessary as the time passes. Caring for them and supporting them in many ways that are necessary. Cherishing their memories when they are not with us, following the example that they have left with us, and teaching our children, perhaps passing that legacy from the mothers, from the fathers to our children. But now let’s move on to another kind of motherhood and parenting, the spiritual kind.

Brother Carl had a discourse entitled the mother of the Apostle Paul, and I was wondering, what does he know that I don’t? Well, there is a verse in Romans 16:13. Excuse me. Of course.

Carl knew so much more than I, than I did. But at least on this topic, I was surprised. So the. Apparently there is in Romans 13 a reference to Rufus’s mother, who was a brother in Rome, and he says, the mother of Rufus and mine.

And brother Carl traced the history and the connection of Rufus to be that he was the son of Simon the Cyrenean, the one who carried the cross for our Lord, So he was the son of him. So therefore the mother of Rufus would have been the wife of Simon, and so if we enter that, and if we. Apparently, the name Rufus was so unique that it was very unlikely that there would be too many more such connections, and so when Mark 15 mentions Rufus, it probably was already from a perspective of that individual being in the midst of.

Of the brethren, and that he ended up in Rome is also somehow supported by the fact that there was a connection between those who were freed from Cyrenia, and they would end up as freed slaves. They would oftentimes be in Rome. So all this is connected, and what does this mean?

When it was someone who Paul could call his mother, that meant that this person, that she offered him some support, some advice, some encouragement, maybe things that we have received ourselves from many of those who are not our mothers, but who are in our midst. We recently had these precious, precious memories of Sister Florence or other brethren who have passed on their friendship. Their sensitivity to your needs would have been amazing and reflected on. I remember that very much about Sister Joy Kendall. She would always have this keen eye for what experience you’re in.

And you might actually get a card or you might get an email from her saying, I’m thinking of you, I’m praying for you, and she would find you right in between everybody else to ask how you were doing. These are examples of this beautiful motherly behavior. In fact, the role of mothers in Israel is often mentioned in this context, and this term is used in Judges about Deborah and a wise woman in Second Samuel. So have we had such mothers, spiritual mothers, who may not do everything for us.

They may not be the ones that are totally supporting us, but they are there when you need them. They have just the right kind of advice, not only for us, but for others as well. Do you know one? Do you desire to be one? Are those skills, talents that we have that we can serve and offer to others, younger ones?

And then first Corinthians 4:15, we read that there are many teachers but few fathers, and oftentimes we wonder what that means. Maybe it’s also this fatherly, fatherly role that even though some of us who are teachers don’t pay attention to and don’t utilize, but yet here we read in 3rd John 1:4, such a lovely reference, and he mentions that many more times. I think I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

And we appreciate that role of those spiritual parents that we have among us. As perhaps the final part of our main course here, we wanted to look at the chart of the ages and consider that the role of motherhood, creating a condition, creating a home, creating an environment in which something or someone can grow, is very much an allegory, too, to the conditions in which we see the various classes in the plan of God had to be in and develop in, and so when we consider the Jewish age, the Gospel age, or the incoming millennial age, that there is some conditions that need to be created, an environment and elements that need to be built for that class of individuals, participants to flourish in it, and so it’s very interesting that on this occasion we think about the man named Abraham and about his two wives that the apostle Paul mentions, and that’s Hagar and Sarah, or Sarah and Hagar we should mention, and also then we draw an analogy to his third wife, Keturah.

And so we read here in Galatians 4:22, 26. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, and the one by a bondwoman, the other by a free woman, and he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he who was of the free woman through promise, which things are symbolic. So we reflect on the symbol of. Of a woman, a wife, a mother, being a covenant for these two.

I interrupted. Now Paul continues. For these two are covenants are two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai, which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is in Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem, which is now Jerusalem, which now is.

And Paul here is comments on the conditions of the Jewish nation and is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all, and he here talks to the believers who now are believing in Christ, who are now on this new way that he has opened. So we have here generated three possible images of 1. Sarah, Hagar and Keturah reflect on the sons that they had.

Isaac was Sarah’s son, the son of promise. Hagar had Ishmael, and Keturah had six sons, and even though the apostle Paul does not mention Keturah, it almost makes sense that we could extend this analogy. So as we consider this, we could possibly see these three environments here represented by these three mothers that Hagar would, as, of course, the apostle illustrated, represent the law covenant, and its environment would be the old Jerusalem, the Ten Commandments, the 613 rules in total animal sacrifices, and the condition of obedience, which, as it turned out proved, excuse me, that there was sin, there was imperfection, that they could not have done it without the grace of God and faith in their own right.

The objective of that covenant was to test Israel and to also serve as a shadow of better sacrifices. Then we have the grace covenant or the covenant by sacrifice which we are under as Christian believers at the current age. This is the New Jerusalem, and I think we want to say the New Jerusalem in preparation. It’s characterized this environment by the holy of the Tabernacle as the beautiful panel discussion that we had last week and the tabernacle studies that we are having on Thursdays now.

The Holy Spirit too, the law of love, that Jesus sacrifice one only opened it and laid the foundation for it, and that the condition of its participation is faith and consecration, and then we have the new covenant of which we hope to be the sealing element. It’s the possible picture of Keturah when the New Jerusalem will be implemented, when it descends. As the apostle, as John writes in Revelation 21:2, that he sees the New Jerusalem coming down like a bride again, a motherly figure ready to be this mother to the whole world of mankind to help and guide, and that’s the part of the bride that we hope to be in.

Well, we quickly go to the last part, which is our dessert. Dessert for this Mother’s Day special is a scientific treat which actually is something that was mentioned in two places. One of them will be quite familiar to Brother Richard because it was in the Beauties of the Truth from 2020. The title of the article was the Mother of Us All, and it is just research consolidated for us about this very special, unique genetic artifact that the women in the humankind have.

That part of the DNA cell, there’s another resident cell that is not exactly the same, and don’t let it take you too deep, because my knowledge doesn’t go that far. But there is this cell called mitochondria, and it by itself, it has a DNA, and that DNA in the woman’s organism is only retained by the woman, and when a new child is first begotten, when the sperm meets with the egg, the DNA of that mitochondria from the father is actually rejected.

And what continues is just the mitochondria, mitochondrial DNA of the mothers. So what that means is that you can actually, as the scientists have proven, you can trace the origin of and possibly the number of mutations of the cell through history, and you can see how many possible times this mutation has occurred, and it probably occurs about once in three generations. If I’m not mistaken.

So here is a similar observation from Dr. Wise, a professor at Truitt McConnell University, and he also says that if we were to believe the evolutionary findings, we should see which, which of course the evolution believes that mankind has been developing for millions of years. We should see such a large number of mutations in this traceable DNA of this mitochondrial cell that we would undoubtedly find those millions of traces. But that’s not the case.

And here he shows that, and this is very similar to the article from Beauties of the Truth, that if there was a flood, which the Bible says there was, then there would be a reduction in the number of women that were living. That really the mankind’s history started again here at the flood, and I’m not pointing as much as I’m pointing here.

Use pointer. I’m just going to just show you see how the chart here. Oh yeah, there is the hand. Okay. So right here is where the flood would be and then another restart.

So that means those mutations would really be, have been erased at that point, and you can see, see the number of them later on, and such is the case. If we were to make a perfect model of this, everyone should come from this one point, from mother Eve, and this would be the mitochondrial Eve, as they call her.

And then it’s actually not even Eve, but it would be the three daughters now of, sorry, the three women that were with Noah, who were the wives of their sons, that would become the originators of these different creations. Well, this is definitely quite interesting, but that is exactly what science finds, and Dr. Wise here says that if you were to create this chart according to evolution, it would be these innumerable lines of expansions and lineages, while the one suggested by the Schwarzenegger history of mankind of 6000 years would be only here, and that is what exactly we find.

See, this is actually the model that is found by science, by experimentation and testing the genetics, and as we read here in the article from the Beauties of the Truth, using this clock, she that mitochondrial Eve would be a mere 6,000 years old. So we come to a beautiful realization that it’s through those motherly women genes that we can prove the timeline from the creation of man, and that is beautiful and I hope this was a good dessert. So in the end, we appreciate and honor all of our mothers.

We love them and we want to learn how to better be of service, how to better support them and encourage them, and we see motherhood beautifully illustrated in the creation used in nature, including our human nature, including those prospects and examples of being a spiritual mother for one another, of spiritual father and being a mother for this new enduring this new age when we hope to be the bride of Christ. May these examples be an encouragement to us and may the Lord bless you as you actually have your Mother’s Day lunch. Hopefully it will taste well. Thank you.

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