Mothers ~ Society Shapers
He referred to her as his angel mother. “God bless my mother; all that I am or ever hope to be I owe to her,” wrote Abraham Lincoln.[1] Though as a boy he had only brief years and limited memories of her, his ‘angel mother’ references in his later life seem to suggest something of remembered early affection.
October 5, 1818, in the Pigeon Creek, Indiana community, having struggled for days with what was then known as ‘milk sickness’ Abe’s mother Nancy called her children to her bedside. She “told them to be good and kind to their father—to one another and to the world”; then she expired. Her husband Thomas buried her on a knoll about a quarter of a mile from the cabin. Abraham was motherless at 9 ½ years.
Several months later Abraham’s father, Thomas, knew the family could not continue with the empty void. He returned to Kentucky, found Sarah Bush Johnston, the widow of the Hardin County jailer, paid her debts, married her, and brought her and her three children to the Indiana home. She “brought life and excitement to the depressed Lincoln family.” Loving and wise, she manifested an ability to blend the families in harmony, treating the Lincoln children as her own. Abraham, starved for affection, reciprocated her with his love and respect.
Many years later, after he had been elected President, he recalled the wonderful encouragement his step mother gave him as a boy. “She had been his best friend in this world,” a relative reported him saying, “and . . . no man could love a mother more than he loved her.”
How interesting would be the study of persons who wielded influence for good and right who had mothers of deep faith and integrity. In God’s family design, mothers give birth and in the early period of life nurture, care, and sustain with the uniqueness of feminine love. Who instituted this arrangement?
How incredibly valuable the mothers who understand God’s ways as expressed in the Scriptures and who instill those values that promote soundness of biblical understanding! What value can be ascribed to mothers that lead the young ones, based on the biblical understanding, into devoted relationship with the Creator-Redeemer? What is the effect on families, communities, churches, societies, civilizations, and the world of mothers who
- know their Maker-Redeemer
- meditate on the Holy Scriptures with the purpose of knowing Him more deeply
- value Scripture’s stories, principles, truths, beliefs, morals, character-building tenets to be lovingly instilled into their children
- listen to the faithful voice—the prompts, the guidance, the checks—of the Holy Spirit as He makes real the Word, points to the right, and confirms the beauty, truth, and grace of the redeeming Christ
- teach, enjoy, listen, guide, play, discipline, embrace
- wisely point the way opposite pitfalls on the life trail
- love the wholesome, the good, the true, the right
- understand the balance between life’s serious and fun
- dream possibilities–what the Master may want to do through these young ones? !
- embrace the Creator’s shalom
“The hand that rocks the cradle . . .”
Blessings on the hand of women!
Angels guard its strength and grace,
In the palace, cottage, hovel,
Oh, no matter where the place;
Would that never storms assailed it,
Rainbows ever gently curled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Infancy’s the tender fountain,
Power may with beauty flow,
Mother’s first to guide the streamlets,
From them souls unresting grow—
Grow on for the good or evil,
Sunshine streamed or evil hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Woman, how divine your mission
Here upon our natal sod!
Keep, oh, keep the young heart open
Always to the breath of God!
All true trophies of the ages
Are from mother-love imperiled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Blessings on the hand of women!
Fathers, sons, and daughters cry,
And the sacred song is mingled
With the worship in the sky—
Mingles where no tempest darkens,
Rainbows evermore are hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.[2]
–William Ross Wallace
Fathers, of course, bear tremendous responsibility too! It is by no means all to be placed on the mothers. The challenge is mutual. (The ladies want to see the blogs and books for fathers! Father’s Day is coming! 🙂 ). But unquestionably mothers are significant shapers of lives, of hearts, of homes, of societies, and yes, of the world.
I give thanks for a mother who loved the Master and His Word. Devout grandmothers on both sides of our family also were in their families and communities loving ‘shapers’. I contemplate the incredible children nurtured in our home. To my wife goes a loving salute! I’m watching some wonderful formation in the homes of our daughter and our daughter-in-law.
To these and all of their type we offer up loving tribute!
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[1] This look at Lincoln and his mother, including the quotations, is taken from David Herbert Donald, Lincoln (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), pp. 21-32. See also this site, accessed 13 May 2017: https://www.nps.gov/libo/learn/historyculture/nancy-hanks-lincoln.htm.
[2] William Ross Wallace was a lawyer and poet. See these sites accessed 13 May 2017: https://hymnary.org/text/blessings_on_the_hand_of_woman; http://emp.byui.edu/satterfieldb/quotes/Hand%20that%20rocks%20the%20cradle.html.
