Mother's Day 2025 | Noah Agnew

[0:00] So yeah, it's a privilege to be here. If you don't know me, my name is Noah. My wife Lacey is in the back and our daughter Selah is probably running feral outside.! I couldn't talk without coughing.

[0:32] I was just sick. And so I appreciate Teddy taking that over for me. So Teddy asked if I would speak today. And obviously it's Mother's Day, so I was thinking, oh, what do I speak on?

[0:43] Do I throw a monkey wrench in things? Do I speak about fathers? Do I speak about the original message that I was going to do? No, obviously I chose to speak on mothers, but what specifically?

[0:53] I'm not necessarily qualified to tell mothers how to be a mother because I'm not a mother. I'm not even really that much of a parent yet. I've only been a parent for two years. So I'm still learning. I'm still trying to figure it out.

[1:05] So I just began thinking about this and I was like, what can I teach about on Mother's Day that is encouraging and that would reflect the Lord Jesus Christ? And I came down to there's characteristics that we see in mothers that are directly correlated to seeing characteristics in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[1:24] And so today I want to talk about seven characteristics of God that we see in mothers. So that's what I'm going with and I hope that's a good, you know, instead of speaking about fathers or something like that, I hope that's good.

[1:37] Now I do want to say as I go through this list, this is not an exhaustive list. These are not the things that make a mother. They have to have these seven qualities or these are the only seven qualities a mother has. Nor is it limited to just mothers.

[1:50] The great thing about our Lord and Savior is that he created both man and woman in his image. We read that in Genesis 1, chapter 1, verse 27. It says, so God created man in his own image.

[2:02] The image of God, he created him, both male and female, he created them. So again, we all have the capacity to have these. These are things as I was growing up and that I was thinking about this that I just see in godly mothers.

[2:17] So as we kind of go on, I have seven things and that's kind of like a little thing for you Bible scholars. Seven in the Bible is usually the number of perfection. Mothers are perfect. Okay.

[2:28] All right. So the first one that I have for you guys is what I see God, I see a characteristic in God and that I see in mothers is that they are helpers. This is kind of a bold one to start off with because in today's society, when you say that a mother is a helper, it's usually viewed as negative in today's society.

[2:46] And I hope to kind of show you that that is not the case whatsoever. And where do we get this idea of mothers being helpers? We read it in Genesis chapter 2, verse 18.

[2:57] It says, in the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. So that's where we get the idea of that mothers and women are supposed to be the helpers.

[3:10] I want to read a few of the definitions of what a helper is. A helper makes it easier for someone to do something by offering one service or resources, to improve a situation or problem, or be a benefit to, to assist someone to move in a specific direction.

[3:30] The action of helping someone to do something and assistance. I don't know about you, but when I ask for help for something, I may be able to do the task by myself, or I may not be able to do the task by myself.

[3:46] This is, I'm going to try to not cry through this one, but I'm going to share a little bit, if you guys don't know about the birth story, of Selah. So, fairly normal start to everything, and then everything went downhill very quickly.

[3:59] So, we went to the hospital, Lacey was induced, and so the doctor came in and said, hey, you're going to have a baby today, and I was kind of shocked, flabbergasted, excited, and all that stuff.

[4:10] And we went in, we started the process, and everything was going okay. Things weren't progressing as fast as people would like, but everything was okay. At one point, Selah's heart rate dropped, and it had been over 24 hours that Lacey had been in labor, and we just decided, let's go with a C-section.

[4:26] It's not worth trying to fit our birth plan to this, to risk Selah's life. So, Lacey went in to get the shot, or whatever it is, to numb them up.

[4:37] That didn't work, and so they apparently put too much of the drugs in, and they couldn't go to the next step, which would allow Lacey to stay awake. So, they had to put her under. And so, I wasn't actually allowed to be in the room when they took Selah out.

[4:53] Okay? So, I'm sitting there waiting, pacing back and forth. And up until this point, I had no idea what the gender of our baby was. Lacey knew this whole time, and I did not know this whole time.

[5:04] People thought we were weird for that. But I just wanted to be surprised, and Lacey wanted to know. So, the doctor came in with the baby, and she says, it's a baby girl. And I was so excited about that.

[5:17] And I was just like, the nurse said, so since she was on anesthesia, she has to go to recovery. There was a little bit of an issue, but it's taken care of now. We had a little bit of extra bleeding. But it's taken care of now.

[5:27] She's going to go to recovery. She'll be here within like 30 minutes or so. I was like, okay, perfect. I was so excited. My parents were there and everything. And then things started to take a turn for the worse.

[5:40] I won't go into all the details, but basically the bleeding started again. And Lacey almost lost her life. There was multiple hours and multiple moments where I was holding Selah, and I was trying to tell myself, how am I going to do this without her?

[5:55] How am I going to do this without my helper? How am I going to do this without my wife? How am I going to teach her to do her hair, to dress right, to all the things that a girl needs to know, that needs her mother for? There was multiple hours of like going through this.

[6:08] And at one point, I was so sick and tired of things just going wrong, going wrong, going wrong, that I was sitting there cursing the Lord. I was like, Lord, I'm done. I don't want anything to do with you.

[6:19] I'm done being a warrior for you. Like, this is dumb. I'm done. I want my wife back. And as I was praying that, I realized that that was dumb of me.

[6:29] That was stupid. I'm talking to the God of the universe who has given me everything. And of course, he will give me everything that I need to take care of this little baby, regardless if Lacey was there.

[6:40] But I told him, I was like, it would be a lot easier if she was here. And if she's not going to be here, Lord, I'm going to need a lot of help from a lot of people. So with that to say, mothers, you help out a lot with your children.

[6:54] You also want to know who else is a helper in this scripture? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a helper.

[7:05] And he is by no means inferior to the others, to Jesus and to God. He is sent as a helper to us. Obviously, you see that Lacey is here today.

[7:15] And that you see that my daughter is alive and well. And we're both all doing great. And she has been a fantastic help with raising our daughter. And I could not have done it without her.

[7:26] At least not as efficiently as it should be done. God gave you mothers this characteristic specifically. And it's the same characteristic as the Holy Spirit.

[7:36] I want that to sink in. It's the same characteristic as the Holy Spirit. Don't ever think that helping is a negative thing by any means. John 14, 16 says, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever.

[7:52] John 14, 26, later on in the chapter, it says, But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to you remembrance all that I have said to you.

[8:05] I'm so glad that we don't have to be confined by the negative definition that the world has for a helper. We can bask in the fact that our infinite God is also a helper.

[8:17] It's not something to be viewed as negative. And it's something that is needed and is necessary. It's not something to even take lightly to be a helper. There are things that I would not be teaching Selah as well if I did not have Lacey here with me.

[8:33] I know that I would have not grown up the way that I am without the help of my mom and other mothers like you guys. You guys fed me.

[8:43] You changed me when I was helpless. You were there for me. You all encouraged me in my darkest hours. You showed me what a godly mother can be. So I can give this message in some sense.

[8:55] You taught me how to walk. You taught me how to talk. Everybody helped with that. You all took a part in helping. And the Lord Jesus Christ sending the Holy Spirit takes a part in helping us every day to love our Lord Jesus Christ more.

[9:13] Being a helper is not a negative thing by any means. It's a privilege and it is needed. We see that in the scriptures. We needed a helper. We needed somebody to come save us. The Lord Jesus Christ came and died on the cross for our sins.

[9:25] And he sent the Holy Spirit so we can better be sanctified in our walk with the Lord. He helps us understand the scripture. He helps us work for the holiness of the Lord, for the glory of his kingdom.

[9:38] He is a big helper. And we could not make it through this life without them. So that's my first point. Also, my goal is not to make you cry the whole time or anything like that.

[9:51] My idea is to not cry as well. So we'll try to sprinkle in some lighthearted stuff. The second characteristic that I kind of came up with that I see in mothers, godly mothers, is beauty and aesthetics.

[10:07] So how many of you guys are concerned with the aesthetics, the color coordination of your clothes, your household, the throw pillows, all of that? I know that I'm not, but Lacey is.

[10:18] And I'll tell you a quick little story about when we first got married. I hate throw pillows with a passion. I think they're kind of useless. But, and I expressed this adamantly, like I don't want any pillows.

[10:32] Like I don't want any pillows on the couch or anything like that. Like I just think they're pointless. They're not good enough to sleep on. You can't really hold them to like snuggle up with. Like I just don't like throw pillows.

[10:43] And so Lacey was like, no, we're going to have throw pillows in our house. Like I'm going to decorate the house. I was like, no, we don't need them. It's fine. We don't need to waste money on them, all this other stuff. So we went on our honeymoon and we came back and my house was full of throw pillows.

[10:56] My buddy Jeremy went to Goodwill, like several Goodwills, and bought all the throw pillows. He said he washed them. I don't know if I believe him. He said he stuffed my house full of throw pillows.

[11:07] And I still have one of those throw pillows today. It's a heart, half heart. It says BFF on it. And so I kept that for Jeremy. I said that I need to find the other half to give it to him. But anyway, so yeah, we have throw pillows.

[11:19] And as I've grown up and as we've come, as I've grown in our marriage and I've grown as a father, I've realized that aesthetics are important to the household.

[11:29] There's several reasons why aesthetics are important to the household. One is that it helps with hosting. You know, I know that you may have been to a house or you kind of look around and you say, oh, this is a nice looking house.

[11:45] You may not mention it and it may not stick in your mind. But if you go to a house that is torn down, ragged and all the other stuff, it's probably going to stick in your mind a little bit better and it's going to be a negative experience. Lacey made our house a home.

[11:58] And when she was pregnant with Selah, she made Selah's room a place where our daughter could sleep, could grow up, could play, could learn, all of that. She was concerned about the aesthetics.

[12:10] The books go here so she can find them. The toys go here and all that other stuff. I was like, why does it matter where it goes? Now looking back or looking at my daughter who will go to the bookshelf, pick up a book and then do that little toddler scoot, you know, sit down in your lap kind of thing.

[12:26] You guys know what I'm talking about? She'll grab a book and then she'll go back and grab another one. Like I understand now that the aesthetics are important for our child's development. Not only that, again, it's important with hosting.

[12:39] When we host a lot of people being at Turkey Hill, they come and eat dinner with us, they stay the night at our house, and it's important to keep our house clean and tidy and nice looking.

[12:50] I know if I was the decorator of the house, there'd probably be like a Star Wars poster over here, or tools over there, whatever it is, and it wouldn't look cohesive. It wouldn't look organized.

[13:01] But Lacey, as a mother and as my wife, brings that to the house, and I appreciate it so much. One of our little fights when we got first married was how to fold towels.

[13:14] I was the one who did the laundry. We came up with this before we got married. I hate cleaning the bathroom. Lacey hates doing the laundry. So we made the agreement. I'll do all the laundry. You clean the bathrooms.

[13:25] Cool. Works out. So I fold all the clothes the way that I do it, and then Lacey comes and tells me, hey, I want you to fold the towels this way. And I was so frustrated. I was like, why? I'm doing it. Like, it doesn't matter.

[13:36] So it's a certain way to fold the towels. And now, after a while, and realizing that it was not that big of a deal, I did not need to get upset. It looks nicer. It looks much prettier. So when our guests come in, the towels look nice and all that other stuff.

[13:48] But yeah, she brings the aesthetics to the house. You mothers do that. Our God is a God of beauty. You guys don't only bring out outward aesthetics, but you have an inward beauty as well.

[14:02] If you look around the world today, and you see, look at nature, you look at all these things, you can see how incredibly beautiful it is, how incredibly complex it is, both inside and out. You read this in all of chapter 1.

[14:14] After every single thing that God made, He said that it was good. And I'm sure it was so much more beautiful than what we see today. Our God is also a God of inward beauty.

[14:27] If you read through the Scriptures and tell me that God is not beautiful in the way that He weaves His salvation story through the Scripture, throughout all of time, I don't know what beauty is.

[14:38] And that's the same thing with you mothers as well. So I know, and I hope you guys don't get offended about this, I know that sometimes you mothers, you wake up, your hair's a mess. Maybe you got toddler spit up or something.

[14:50] You've been dealing with a toddler. You feel gross, or you don't feel like you're beautiful. Trust me, you have the Holy Spirit within you. You are always beautiful. You will never not be beautiful, because you are the child of God.

[15:03] And your children, they love you just the same, whether or not your hair's a mess or whatever. But you mothers are mothers of beauty and aesthetic, along with our Lord Jesus Christ, who is a beautiful God, who created this world for us.

[15:22] This is the one that I may cry the most at. The third point that I have, the third point that I have, is that you as mothers have broken hearts. Sorry.

[15:37] Sorry. This is something that I don't have, but I'm beginning to learn to have. And I think it's a very important thing.

[15:52] As mothers, you have a sensitive heart for your children. Don't you? There's a sweet spot in there that just hits you. Just right. When we brought Selah home for the first time, obviously, I was overcome with joy, and so was Lacey.

[16:09] We obviously drove her home in a car. You have to put your child in a car seat and all that other stuff, right? Ride home was just fine. Beautiful, perfect. She slept, I think, I don't know.

[16:21] The car rides after that, she would cry. She would just scream bloody murder. Like, I don't want to be in this thing. She would just scream. Now, me, as a father, as a dad, logically, I think through this and be like, okay, I know she's not uncomfortable.

[16:36] She's just been fed. It's for her safety. It's just something that she's going to have to learn through, even though she's screaming bloody murder. And I remember the first time specifically, because this is where I realized I had no idea how sensitive my wife's heart was to our child.

[16:53] I turned to my wife, and she's crying. And I'm like, why are you crying? What did I do? All this other stuff. Like, I'm trying to figure out what do I need to fix and all this other stuff. And she's just like, my heart is breaking because our child wants comfort and she's not getting it.

[17:11] So I know that that's not just a thing for my wife and her mother. It's for her grandmothers as well, because Debbie, Lacey's mother, will say the same thing. And so will my mom.

[17:22] When they're screaming, when they're crying because they're helpless, they want comfort. There's a certain place in your heart that just breaks. You just want to go to them. You want to help them. This is a huge characteristic of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[17:38] This is how our Savior feels for the lost and the hurting. This is how he feels for you when you are lost and you are hurting. In Luke 19, 10, it says, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

[17:54] His heart breaks for those who do not know him. Just like you as mothers, your heart breaks for your child who is crying, who is needing help.

[18:06] We are helpless in our state of sin. We can't do anything to remove that sin. Only the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know that there's people crying out, like how do I get, how do I get saved from this sin?

[18:21] And the Lord Jesus Christ, his heart breaks. And how do I know that his heart breaks? Well, if your heart breaks for your child and you are created in the image of God, he put his characteristics and attributes in you.

[18:35] Therefore, I know that his heart also breaks when we cry out. His heart also breaks when you're going through a tough time, when you're going through something hard.

[18:47] It breaks when sin enters your life again. It says in Psalms 34, 18, it says, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

[19:00] I know that there are several times in my life where I was brokenhearted. I was downcast. There was not a lot that would bring me back out of that.

[19:11] The only thing that brought me back out of that was the Lord Jesus Christ and the people that he sent along the way, the mothers that he sent that would constantly care for me. I know that there's been times where you have been crushed and brokenhearted and you're crying out to the Lord and don't think that he doesn't care.

[19:30] Don't think he's like me sitting in the front seat driving like, that child's fine, they just need to learn how to deal with this thing. No, he's not doing that at all. His heart breaks and he wants you to either come back or he wants that situation to go away for you as well.

[19:45] He meant the world to be perfect. He doesn't want you to be hurt. He wants it to be perfect and obviously we see that in scripture. Eventually, the world will be perfect again. He may be sitting there next to you in the car seat saying, okay, I'm here, don't worry, just a little longer.

[20:01] Just hold out a little longer and I can comfort you. I remember this doesn't only expand to our child as well, Lacey's heart.

[20:17] Her heart breaks for a lot of things that my heart didn't. Her heart breaks for the lost. Her heart breaks for those underrepresented. It breaks for mothers. All these things her heart breaks for, her heart aches.

[20:31] Her heart aches for people to come and know and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not going to share a ton of details about this story specifically, but there was a time when I was in a pretty big conflict with some other believers, two individuals.

[20:48] And I was trying to do everything right. I was trying to go to that individual by myself. I was trying to go to those individuals with a witness. I was trying to ask them, listen, I just want us to be reconciled because we were working closely.

[21:04] Together. And I did not want it to hinder the ministry that was going forth. And every time I came back it was just one defeat after another. There was no resolve. There was nothing.

[21:15] And if I'm being honest, there's not actually a full resolve today with this conflict. But I remember one specific moment that I came home and I said, this is I think the last conversation that I'm going to have because nothing's happening and I'm just going to give it over to the Lord.

[21:30] And so I explained it to Lacey and she's sitting there listening and she starts crying. I'm like, again, why are you crying? Okay, what do I need to do?

[21:40] All this other stuff. And she said, I don't know the exact words, but the basis was, I just want our friends to know that we love them and I want them to follow Christ. That is the Lord Jesus Christ.

[21:53] That is the Holy Spirit talking through my wife right there. That's what he wanted. That's what the Holy Spirit wanted. And I know that's what he wants for all of us. He wants to go and find the one lost sheep and bring them back.

[22:08] Even though the other 99 are doing just fine and he can keep them in there. That's from the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15 verses 1 through 7. We see this picture of Jesus Christ as a shepherd and one sheep wanders off and gets lost.

[22:23] That would be kind of representing a believer. Or somebody who is an unbeliever that Christ wants to go out and bring them back. And he talks about how the shepherd will go out, he'll search for the one sheep even though he has 99 other sheep and he'll want to bring that one sheep back.

[22:41] That is my wife's heart. That is my the mother of my child's heart is that her heart breaks for these individuals that are lost. She wants people to love the Lord and know that we love them too.

[22:53] We see that the God's heart is grieved many times in scripture. I think we need to take a deep look at that word grieved and again realize that it's not just a sadness.

[23:04] It's not just something that like, oh, that stinks. It's grieving. It's almost an uncontrollable emotion of sadness, of depression, of looking at this and saying, how can I fix this?

[23:18] You guys have all been there in a moment where you're just grieving, uncontrollable, ugly crying is what they call it sometimes. Like that is what our Lord and Savior has with our hearts sometimes, with those who are unsaved or if we walk away from Him.

[23:34] Next time you're in a hard time and you're crying out again, know that the Lord's heart breaks for you and He wants to bring you back. We read in Revelation 21.4 it says, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall come and be no more.

[23:50] Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. So again, the Lord Jesus Christ is sitting there. He may not be able to take you out right away.

[24:01] Maybe He's trying to teach you something through this but He's there. He's right there saying eventually this will all go away. All this pain. Just bear with me a little bit longer. He is making you complete and His heart breaks for you and those who are not saved.

[24:17] Alright, we'll move on past that one. Hopefully, don't cry for the rest of them. But, number four, the number four characteristic that I see in mothers that I see in the Lord Jesus Christ is that you guys are good communicators.

[24:33] Now let me finish because I know some of you are going to say my wife doesn't communicate super well about all, everything. But here, my wife, Lacey, is a horrible communicator at where she places things.

[24:46] Where she places her headphones, where she places her, the car keys, where she places her wallet. She's a horrible communicator at that. One time, I was getting ready, I was in a friend's wedding of mine and I had a bow tie and so I had put this bow tie on the dresser and my wife was cleaning the house and she moved the bow.

[25:06] Lo and behold, the day of the wedding comes and I can't find the bow and neither can my wife. She could not communicate to me about where that bow was. But you want to know what my wife is really good at communicating? Scheduling, doctor's appointments, her love for me, her love for our daughter.

[25:20] She's very good at communicating that. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect communicator. We are horrible listeners. Just like I have to ask a hundred times over, what's the schedule for this week?

[25:32] When's that doctor's appointment? If I didn't have Lacey and a Google Calendar with me with all the events on it, I'd be lost. I'd be lost. I would not make it to any appointments. I would forget about stuff.

[25:45] Also, I wouldn't feel as loved as I am today. She communicates very well that she loves me over and over again, whether it's doing the dishes or saying it outright or giving me a kiss.

[25:55] She communicates very well that she loves me. She communicates, though Selah may not understand it all the time, how much she loves Selah, very well to Selah.

[26:06] And I see it as well from an outsider looking in. She communicates extremely well with that. Those moments where they're laughing and smiling and giggling and all of that other stuff brings joy to my heart.

[26:18] She's a great communicator. Our Lord Jesus Christ is a good communicator. Our God is a great communicator. We should try to be better listeners to our mothers, children, to our mothers and to our God as well.

[26:32] In Hebrews 11, 33, it says, Oh, the depth of the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways.

[26:43] In 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17, it says, All scripture is God-breathed and is used for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training and righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

[26:58] The Lord Jesus Christ communicates through His word, but that's not the only way. That is the main way that He communicates. But He communicates through worship, through prayer, through all of these things.

[27:08] And I know you guys have heard this analogy before. If you only talked to your wife, it wouldn't be a great, you didn't listen to her, you didn't spend time with her, you only talked to her, it's kind of hard to build a relationship with her.

[27:19] Even if you do only two of those things, the relationship will get better. Maybe you talk to her and spend time with her. The relationship will get better, but it could be even better. Spend time, talk to Him, listen.

[27:31] That's what we need to be with our Lord Jesus Christ because He is a great communicator. He has communicated throughout all Scripture that He loves us. Obviously, the pinnacle of that being that God sent His only Son to die on the cross for us.

[27:47] As I get older, I appreciate that more and more. As a kid, you're told this story over and over again that Christ died on the cross for you and I. That a father sent His only Son to die on the cross.

[27:58] And obviously, it hits even harder when you become a parent yourself. And you say, oh, I have this child. There's no way that I would give up Selah for really anyone. I'm sorry.

[28:09] She's too cute. But that is how much God loved us, is that He was willing to give His Son up for us. The least we can do is try to listen to Him, right?

[28:22] Because He is communicated perfectly through His Word. And as we read in 2 Timothy, all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, and correcting, and equipping us for every good work.

[28:36] Not just some of the Scripture. I know we have our favorites, and some are definitely a little bit easier to pick things out of than others. But all Scripture is useful to us, to equip us for every good work.

[28:49] Our mothers are very good at equipping us children at doing good works or dressing us nightly. They're very good at communicating that. As they communicate, as we talk with our mothers, and I know as we, as Selah grows up and as we communicate with her more, my wife is very good at communicating the things that she wants Selah to do.

[29:10] And those things are for her better. Hey, we need to change your diaper, because if you keep that diaper on, you're going to get sick. You're going to get an infection. Hey, we need to go inside and eat dinner, because if you don't eat dinner in a little bit, you're going to be cranky and hungry, and it's going to hurt your stomach.

[29:24] She's very good. That's how the Lord is communicating to us. Some things are simple, and some things are way more complex. I don't even want to begin to think about the teenager years yet and how complex of communication we're going to have to do in that.

[29:37] But the Lord Jesus Christ is definitely communicating with you. In Romans 10, 17, it says, so the faith comes from hearing, and the hearing from the words of Christ.

[29:49] Our faith in Christ comes from hearing about Him, from reading about Him, in the word of the Lord. Number five, I think this one is almost one that I could have just left a bullet point and didn't really need to explain about how this characteristic is in mothers and in Christ.

[30:06] Mothers are patient, right? There's so many times, even within the short week, of how many times we've had to be patient with Selah, and I'm sure there's many of stories that you could tell me about myself, where you had to be patient with me, or there's times where you could tell about being patient with your children.

[30:28] I don't feel like I need to over-explain this, but yes, mothers are very patient. I know one point that showed patience in Lacey.

[30:42] When Selah was first born, it took her a little bit. Because of all of the complexities, we were bottle feeding her for a little bit, and then we tried to nurse her and everything. So it took a little bit for that to take place, for Selah to learn to latch and all that other stuff.

[30:58] And so I remember Lacey would sit there for 45 minutes, an hour, waiting on Selah to try to eat. Maybe she would eat just a little bit. You would get her up, change Selah, do all this, and by that time, it was time to try again, you know, being patient with that.

[31:13] This week, so at camp, we have a lot of horses, and actually this year is kind of odd. We normally breed our own horses, and we have about three to four is on average. Four is the high end, and this year we have eight baby horses.

[31:28] And so there's a lot to manage with that. And we, I've been fortunate to actually witness a couple of the births. It's a cool thing, I think. You may not think it's cool, but I think it's cool. And so if mothers know this, and fathers may know this as well, and some other people, but it's very important for a baby to get that first milk very quickly.

[31:48] Within the first hour is usually what they say with horses. And so as you're looking at these colts and these babies, you want to make sure that they're nursing from their mothers. Now horses stand up within the first 30 minutes of their life.

[32:02] They learn how to walk. And it's really funny when they first stand up because they're wobbly and they fall over a bunch, and it's kind of funny. But they're trying to learn. And so eventually they learn how to hold themselves, and you want to make sure that they get that first milk, right?

[32:16] So they're poking around, and they're trying to figure out where to get the milk from and all this other stuff. And we were down there one of the times, and this horse was just born probably five minutes before we actually got down there.

[32:29] And so it just stood up, and it was looking around. And the horse was just standing there, nice, as this colt is bumping its head on its stomach and on, yeah, just bumping it everywhere, bumping it around, falling down.

[32:43] And the mother was just standing there. And every time the colt would come around and be up by the mother's head, she would gently push the colt back to where the milk was. She was being patient, incredibly patient with her colt.

[32:56] And it's such a good picture. God is patient with us more than we deserve, constantly pushing us back in the right direction. 2 Peter 3, 9, it says, The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promises, as some count it slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

[33:21] The Lord Jesus Christ, it may seem like slowness. I know when you're asking for something or you want an answer to something, when I was asking the Lord Jesus Christ to save my wife from when she was delivering Selah, it felt like slowness.

[33:34] It felt like He wasn't answering. But He was being patient with me. If, I don't know, through other life circumstances, if my life would have been different.

[33:45] If I would have been able to come out of that low the way that I did. But I know that the Lord Jesus Christ changed my mind in the way that I was praying after I was cursing Him at the exact right moment when I needed it.

[33:59] Something that I didn't mention, but this was the cool thing. As I was cursing the Lord, I had just gotten more bad news. Lacey was in the ICU tube down her throat, all that other stuff knocked out.

[34:12] And the doctors came out and said, she rejected us removing the tube earlier. And there are a few things that could happen.

[34:23] One is that we try to take the tube out and she rejects it again and we have to cut a trach tube in and your wife will never talk again. Number two is that there's fluid that starts to come into her lungs.

[34:36] Her lungs fill up with fluid. We have to do another emergency surgery and the risk is so high because of all the blood loss. It's, there's a 50-50 shot that she would live, basically.

[34:48] Don't know if that's what they said. This is what I was hearing as well, just so you know, obviously, as I'm crying and trying to get over this. And so that, after I had gotten those news, I was like, the third option is, obviously, everything goes fine.

[35:01] And at that point, I was like, there's no way option three is happening because everything had gone wrong from the beginning. And so, as I'm sitting in the waiting room, waiting for them to come out and tell me the bad news, I'm cursing the Lord and then at the one moment, I realized that it was wrong of me.

[35:20] And so I began praising the Lord as best as I could in that state and asking Him for help and all of that stuff. And about one minute, it was not very long, I don't know exactly how long, but about a little bit after I had finished praying, they came out and said, the Drake tube's out.

[35:40] She's waking up. You'll be able to see her in about five minutes. And I was like, what? Mind blown, right? Of the sovereignty of the Lord. Like, He just gave me that moment and it was so nice.

[35:52] But He was patient with me. He waited for me to vent. He waited for me to get all of that out. And then He said, He helped me change my mind and say, that's not right. He was patient with me. It says, in John 15, verse 11, it says, these things I have spoken to you that you may, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.

[36:15] I know I was going to be happy regardless whether or not my daughter was born and my wife was going to be there with me. I was going to be happy with that. But through the experiences that we went through, my joy of having my wife back and having my daughter and my daughter having a mother was so full.

[36:34] Not only was I full because of that, but I learned something. The Lord Jesus Christ taught me something in that moment. He taught me, Noah, you think that you've been through a lot and you think you don't need me all the time.

[36:48] But that's not true. You still need me constantly. He was patient with me. It took 27 years to do that. And I'm sure I may get that way.

[36:59] I may get complacent again where I don't think I need the Lord as much or I think that I will depend on Him always. And then He may throw another situation at me that I have to fall down on my knees and say, absolutely not.

[37:10] I can't do this at all. I need you even more, Lord. and He will be patient with me then. It says in Isaiah 41.10, it says, Fear not, for I am with you.

[37:24] Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Mothers, you are incredibly patient with your children.

[37:36] I know with your husbands. At least I speak for myself. My wife is incredibly patient with me. And I know that you are patiently pushing your children towards the Lord Jesus Christ and towards Him.

[37:47] Just like the Lord Jesus Christ is pushing each and every one of us towards Him, towards holiness, towards our joy being made complete.

[37:59] Number six kind of goes along with number five. And I'm going to try to go through these a little bit quick. But, is kindness. The Lord Jesus Christ is patient with us, but He does it with kindness.

[38:11] He corrects us in kindness. I know as mothers, you try to correct your children with kindness. We never want to correct out of anger and out of love. The great thing about our Lord Jesus Christ is that He's always kind.

[38:23] He doesn't lose His temper. He doesn't have a bad day or anything like that. In Hebrews 13, 8, it says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He will always be patient with you and He will always correct you in kindness.

[38:38] Again, remember, He wants to wipe away every tear and He wants to make your joy complete. We read that in John 15 and in Revelation 21. My last point is that mothers are good at accepting gifts.

[38:53] and this was kind of like a weird little thing, but I hope I don't offend anybody with this, so I'll try to speak from my experience as much as possible.

[39:04] We've all, as parents or mothers, have received a gift from a child that maybe it's a drawing or a piece of artwork or a craft that's like, oh, thank you.

[39:16] This looks so good. And I remember specifically, I was in grade school or maybe even younger and I had an art class and I made this clay shark. To be honest, it looked like a little turd.

[39:30] And I gave it to my mom. I was like, Mom, look what I made for you. And she took it and she said, thank you so much. I love it. My mom had that shark for years.

[39:42] I think it only broke in the last move and I said, Mom, I'm like 20-something years old. You can get rid of this. Like, it's okay. I understand.

[39:54] And she's like, but you made it for me. And that is our Lord Jesus Christ. That's how he views our acts of worship, our service, when we spend time with him.

[40:05] Our gifts don't really look that good to the Lord Jesus Christ. But through his death and burial and resurrection and through the power of the Holy Spirit, God looks at him and says, I love this that you're giving me.

[40:20] I love it so much. I'm going to keep it. And in heaven, I don't think they break. So, he's going to keep those things forever. And with that, I know that Bethel has a little gift for mothers.

[40:33] Children, if you wanted to come up in a little bit and grab a flower. Lacey and I also wanted to share our love and give you guys a gift. I made these little wooden cut out roses for you guys if you guys want to take them for the mothers, for your grandmas, whoever you're visiting.

[40:50] I think there's about 50 here, so feel free. They are a little fragile, so just be careful with that. But, mothers, I just want to let you know that you are loved. You are reflecting the Lord Jesus Christ.

[41:02] You are always needed and always wanted. Your children may not express that all the time, but trust me, you are. So let's go ahead and just, we'll close with a little prayer as if the musicians want to come up or whatever, Lord.

[41:18] Heavenly Father, we just come before you and we just thank you so much for the mothers in our lives. Father, not only our own mothers, but those who you have put in a motherly role.

[41:30] Lord, we thank you so much that we can look at our mothers and see you directly reflected. Lord, I just pray that we would look at our mothers and thank you for them.

[41:42] Lord, and that we would learn from them. Ultimately, Lord, learning from you about how to be more Christ-like, how to be more loving, more kind, more patient. Lord, again, I just pray these things in your son's name.

[41:54] Amen. Amen.