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Lessons from Bible moms aren’t hard to come by. If we dig into the Word of God, we can easily find the stories of Godly mothers and extract wisdom from them.
As a Christian mom, I take many lessons about parenting–and life in general–from the Bible. My faith is a fundamental part of who I am. Another crucial part is motherhood. In order to be the best mother possible, I need to use the lessons from Bible moms as a guide.
Faith Like Sarah
When we are first introduced to Sarah, it’s before God changes her name from Sarai. She is over 60 years old and doesn’t have a child. God promised her and Abraham, her husband, that they would have a son. She was taken aback by the news and even laughed when she heard it.
Lessons from Sarah
Laughter
I found out I was having my daughter when I was 24. I can’t imagine wanting a child my entire life only to be over 60 and childless. However, when the angels told Abraham the news, Sarah heard it and laughed.
There are many reasons why she could have laughed.
The Bible says that Sarah laughed in disbelief. Wouldn’t you? I know I would have!
There are other things that could have caused her laughter as well.
Fear and Delight.
She had wanted a child her entire life. When she thought it was impossible, God decided He was going to give her a son. I would be delighted and terrified!
I don’t know about you, but I laugh when I’m happy and when I’m scared. You don’t want me to get nervous and try to stay quiet. I am the friend that will start snorting because I’m trying so hard not to laugh.
Trust
Sarah trusted God and her husband. She knew that Abraham had a special relationship with God, and she had to draw from that relationship so she could trust God as well.
Has God ever told you He was going to give you something you really wanted? Did you have to wait for it? Last question, did you have to trust that God was going to do what He promised?
Sarah had waited her entire life for a child. God promised to send a son. She had to put all her trust in God to receive that promise. In the end, God delivered.
Patience
If there was an Olympic gold medal for impatience, I would hold several of them. I am the most impatient person ever.
Ask my parents, I was born at home before the ambulance could get to the house to take my mom to the hospital.
I hate waiting.
I often tell people that I got out of line the day God was handing out patience. (Get it?! I didn’t want to wait!) Ok, I know! That was a bad joke.
However, Sarah had patience. She waited and waited for a child. Sarah thought she would never have a child. Then, she waited for the child to be born.
The first few months of my pregnancy with my daughter were great. It was cool outside, and I wasn’t huge. By the time I graduated (with my Bachelor’s degree) and the school year ended (as a Sign Language interpreter), I was huge. I waddled everywhere, and I was miserable.
My daughter was born in August. I graduated in May; school ended in June. We also moved 2 hours from where we were living (to be closer to my family) in June. For the month of July, I stayed inside near a fan. By the time August arrived, I was ready for her to get here. Unfortunately, she (and God) decided I needed more patience. She arrived 8 days after her due date.
Now, I look at Sarah’s story and think about all that she went through to have her son.
Could you imagine? Would you have been able to wait that long for a child?
There are many things we can learn from Sarah as we delve into the lessons from Bible moms. What’s the strongest thing we can learn from her? Patience when we are waiting for God’s promise.
Pray Like Hannah
God uses many of the women in the Bible to teach us lessons. We could use Hannah as another lesson in faith and patience.
However, I think the most important things we can learn from Hannah are Turning to God and Prayerful Resilience.
Turn to God
Hannah, like Sarah, was childless. She wanted a child, but God had not blessed her with one. Her husband’s other wife made fun of her because she didn’t have any children.
When the time came to gather for a feast, Hannah refused her food and went to the Tabernacle to pray. She prayed so hard, and the Spirit of God fell on her so strongly, that she moved her mouth without saying any words. The priest thought she was drunk, but God was moving in her life.
Prayerful Resilience
Hannah made a promise to God while she was praying. If He would allow her to have a son, she would give her son back to God. When she had a son, Samuel, she returned to the Tabernacle and gave him to the priest to raise and train.
Samuel became a mighty man of God because his mother asked God for something, made a promise to God, and held on to her promise.
Be Like Hannah
As we look for lessons from Bible moms, we need to consider what Hannah did in order to get what she (and God) wanted for her life. She prayed until she had an answer, and she made a promise to God. We can pray for things that we earnestly want. Sometimes, when we pray, we make promises to God. To be like Hannah, we have to remember to keep our promises to God. He is faithful and just to keep His promises to us, but we have to do the same in return.
Love Like Mary
What would you do if you were a young, unmarried lady and an angel appeared to tell you that you would have a Son, whose name would be Jesus, and He would be the Son of God?
Would you freak out a little bit? A lot? I’m sure I would have. Considering that I like to argue, I can imagine I would have tried to debate this with the angel. Mary didn’t. She accepted her job as the mother of Jesus with grace, dignity, and honor.
Love
Mary had to love God so much that she was willing to stand out in a crowd. Unwed mothers were not accepted. People were going to talk about her. No one was going to believe that this was God’s baby.
However, Mary loved God. She held onto that love and gave birth to Perfect Love.
Grace
Even when people talked about her, Mary was graceful. When she thought that she wouldn’t have a family because of the baby, Joseph still married her. As she stood at the foot of the Cross watching her son die, Jesus acknowledged her.
Because of Mary’s grace under pressure in her life, we now have Amazing Grace.
Be Like Mary
As Christian moms, we are expected to have grace under fire and show love to our children and family. When things get hard, we need to focus on what is most important. Like Mary, we can focus on our relationship with God. His Grace will bring us through any situation we are facing.
Wisdom Like Jochebed
I have read through the Bible several times. However, there is something I had missed until I wrote a post about 12 Women of the Bible.
Jochebed is Moses, Aaron, and Miriam’s mother.
All my life, I thought she was like Lot’s wife–a person with a title and no name. After writing that article, I realized that I had missed that part of scripture. This year, as I’m reading through the Bible again, I’m taking notes in my Bible. When I arrived at that scripture, I made a note so I wouldn’t forget it again.
Wisdom
Have you ever been in a situation where someone, who had authority over you, was telling you to do something, but you knew it was wrong? That’s the situation Jochebed was in. The pharaoh said that all male children under a certain age had to be killed.
The pharaoh was insecure and didn’t want Israel to be able to come against him to defeat him. The only way to guarantee this was to kill all the male children so they couldn’t grow up to become warriors.
Unfortunately for the pharaoh, Jochebed was wise enough to know that she needed to do something to save her son.
What did she do? She made a basket, fixed it so that it would be waterproof to float, and covered it. She put Moses in it and sent him floating in the river.
After a little while, Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses. His sister, Miriam, was watching and offered their mother as a nurse for the baby. Moses was allowed to go back to his mother’s house to live and grow until he was weaned.
Courage
It took a lot of courage to put Moses in the basket and let him float away. If God’s hand had not guided him to Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses could have floated in the basket until he died.
But God!
After raising Moses to the point of being weaned, Jochebed had to return him to Pharaoh’s daughter. That took even more courage. She had to believe that God was going to continue guiding her son and keeping him safe. Jochebed had to turn him loose to go live with someone else.
Like Jochebed
I don’t know what you are facing today, but have courage. God has His hand on the situation.
Are you sad because you just dropped your child off at college? God’s got this.
Did you just watch your “little girl” walk down the aisle to become someone’s wife? God’s got this.
Was your past weekend spent celebrating with your child who is officially out of her teen years? God’s got this.
The Bible says to be strong and of good courage (Joshua 1:9). God is sovereign and in control. Just hold on.
Strength Like Elizabeth
Elizabeth was Mary’s cousin. She and Mary were having babies at the same time, and when Mary went to visit Elizabeth, her baby (John) jumped in her belly.
An angel came to Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband and told him that they were going to have a son. Zechariah didn’t respond to the news very well because he and Elizabeth were both older. When he asked, “How will I know it’s true?” The angel caused him to be mute until the baby arrived.
Strength
Elizabeth had to be strong to carry the baby at her advanced age–physical strength.
She had to handle the fact that her husband couldn’t speak to her–mental strength.
When John was born, she had to allow him to be what God needed–spiritual strength.
Elizabeth allowed John to grow in the Lord and become the voice crying in the wilderness that Jesus was coming. Having strength in the hard times is one of the lessons from Bible moms that we should probably hold to tightly.
Faith
Like many of the other moms on this list, Elizabeth was older when she found out that she was having a baby.
She had to have faith that God was going to fulfill that promise. Also, she had to believe and trust (have faith) that God was going to sustain her and Zechariah through the process of raising him.
She knew that God made a promise, and she had to stand on it. Standing on the promise of God is one of the lessons from Bible moms that we need to learn and hold on to.
Like Elizabeth
Here again, I have to ask if God has made a promise to you. If He has, hold on to it. No matter how long it seems like it is taking, just hold on. The fulfillment of that promise is on the way. Everything happens in God’s timing–even when WE think that we know better.
Amazing Moms
Each of these women holds a special place in the Biblical timeline, historical timeline, and in the timeline of God’s faithfulness. He set every one of these women in the places they needed to be at the times they needed to be there.
In doing so, He made it possible for them to become the mothers that we know about today. His plan is always greater than ours.
If you want to learn more from these amazing moms in the Bible, take the time to study their stories. During your daily Bible reading, dive deeper into their lives.
Get some scholarly books, references, and/or dictionaries to use in order to learn the lessons from Bible moms that you need for your life. Start with these moms, and then work your way through all the other lessons from Bible moms.
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