MCC Podcasts
What Moms Teach Us About God
Let's pray as we prepare to come to the Word, and then we are celebrating Mother's Day today, and so we're gonna do that in the Word as well. But let's put our hands out like this, as a symbol of our receptivity before the Lord. This is just a great posture of being ready to hear from God. Father, our hands are out and our palms are up as our declaration that we wanna receive from you. Whatever you have for us this morning, God, as we open your Word, we don't wanna miss it. We believe that this Holy Spirit who inspired this Word and shepherded it and protected it through the ages so that we have your Word to us today in this book, in English, we believe that Holy Spirit has something to say to us when we open it and study it. And so we do not wanna miss it today. So pour out God from heaven, all that you have for me. Pour into my open hands, heart, mind, the encouragement, the challenge that whatever you have, don't let me leave here the same as I came. And so if this is your prayer, say amen. Carl just came up and put his arm around me and said, "It looks like you're gonna preach on Mother's Day sermon." That's awesome 'cause we hardly ever preach a Mother's Day sermon because we're always in the middle of some other series, and so it doesn't quite fit in, you know, we're in the middle of Ephesians and there's nothing about moms and Ephesians so we don't preach it. Well, we're in the middle of, in between series, so we get to talk about Mother's, I'm super excited about that. And did anybody bring their mom to church today? Were you able to bring your mom to church today? Mom's from out of town, really? Is that a hand that's up, stand up? I wanna see who that is over there. We wanna meet this mom, who's the mom? Did somebody's mom get brought to church? You brought your mom to church. That's so exciting. Was it hard to get her out of bed? No. Tell us about your mom, tell us her name. Best out of mom? And tell us her age, no, I'm just kidding, don't do that. And your mom, I'm sure this week, did something special for you. Can you think of one thing that you're grateful for for your mom, what she did this week? That's right, and mom's gonna tell you if you're not sure. Are these your other kids over here? How many of these are your kids? And what's your name? Leila. Leila, and if you were to answer that question, how would you answer it? My mom, like, drives me around everywhere, so that's pretty cool. She's like a taxi driver, isn't she? And does she ever whine about that? No. Are you lying to us right now? Probably. All right, son, you're gonna rescue this because you're gonna be in trouble when you get home that you couldn't think anything nice to say about your mom and she's gonna ground you. So no video games for a week if you can't come up with something great that your mom did this week, here we go. Well, she watched my baseball game. She watched your baseball game, that is awesome. And your baseball uniform got dirty, I'm sure, and who is it that washed it? Dad, way to go, all right, let's give those guys a hand. Nicely done. Dad washed his baseball uniform. You're the kind of mom that when he slid into second base, you're like, no, oh gee, there's another little laundry. No, all right. Anybody else get to bring their mom to church today? Any moms that are visiting, you got the, there's a mom, who brought a mom right here? Oh, I wanna meet one more mom, let's do that. Who's that, whose mom is here? Look at him, you're here every time. Okay, all right, tell us your name. - Candrian. - Candrian, it's great when you come, we loved having you here. Did you bring your mom today, did she wanna stay home and breakfast in bed, was that her idea? - No, it was her idea to come here. - And do you ever tell us one thing you just love about your mom that you appreciate about your mom? - She's always there for me. - Yeah, and tell us one way she's been there for you. Like give us a, like, you know, here's the deal, here's a little story, I wouldn't, I won't press the little ones, but, you know, you've been around with Candrian. - Uh, I don't have anything in mind particularly, but just any time I'm having any kind of trouble, whether it's with friends or school or anything, she's one call away. - Yeah, that's awesome, bless you. And thanks for coming along, okay, dad. Little golf applause for that sweet little moment there about mom, that's very nice. (audience applauds) - Do you, raise your hand if you have a mom, go ahead and raise your hand. Jim, did you have a mom? But she's in heaven? Yeah, yeah, yeah, in fact, raise your hand if your mom's gone ahead of us already, and yeah. And how many, and raise your hand if your moms are still around and with us? Yeah, about half and a half, yeah. But bless you, bless you in your memories of your mom. May God bless your memories of your mom. This is a sweet day. I think Mother's Day is a very sweet day for us to enjoy God's presence, but also reflect on moms. And to think about what it is, you know, just what we got from our moms. I mean, when we reflect on moms and dads, the problem is that we remember some of the wounds because we're human and they're human and wounds hurt. Man, God uses all those relationships to give us gifts, too, and so it's great to remember the gifts that our moms gave us. What were the gifts that your mom gave you? I was hoping my mom was gonna be able to be here this morning. Here's the gift my mom gave me. My mom gave me this gift. When I was sixth grade and I ran for student body president of my elementary school, I came home and I said, I won! And she said, of course you did, you're wonderful. That was my mom's reaction when I was 12. Like 25 years later, I came home one day and I said, I got invited to speak for the first time at a national level conference. Like, I got recognized, you know what I mean? Like, wow, and on the phone, my mom said, of course you did, you're awesome, yeah. That was what my mom gave me. Does that surprise any of you at all seeing me? Love the gifts our moms give us. The biggest gift that our moms gives us, if we come back to this idea and we all had a mom, so we all have the opportunity to reflect on this, the biggest gift that our mom gives us, and when we come to God's Word and think about this idea of what the scriptures might teach, this is my sermon, What Mom's Teach Us About God and about the things of God. What mom's teach us about God and the things of God. So this sermon isn't really about moms, it's about what the idea of mother and the concept of mothering, what it teaches us about God. I mean, don't you agree that there's some characteristics about our moms that are like God and some characteristics about God that are like mom and some characteristics about mothering that help inform how it is that we walk with God. And so this sermon isn't really about moms, all the moms I hope you're gonna feel a real special pat on the back. This sermon is about what motherhood can teach us about God himself and about serving God. Our images of God in the scriptures are mostly masculine, aren't they? Heavenly Father. And we know there's no gender, God is not a sexual being, gender is about sexuality. And God has no gender, but the references about God are mostly a masculine gender. And friends, there's some reasons for that. I mean, one of the reasons for that is that there had to be some gender assigned God to communicate to us and for us to be able to relate to a very personal God. 'Cause that's what God is, right? Amen to that. And so in our concept, our personalities, we are people and male and female. And so there was this sense that to be able to communicate something about a very personal God, there had to be a gender assigned. That's one of the reasons why we have this gender assigned to God. Parenthetically, you know, you look back in Genesis and you know that when it said that God created the human race in his image, it makes the point to say male and female in the image of God, both male and female comprising the full image of God. But there's this gender language, of course, that goes along with it. And one of the reasons is because there had to be some gender associated with this referring to a personal God. There's also the societal reality, right? The Bible was a society and a culture that was primarily male centered. The family structure was patriarchal. That was very true throughout the culture then. And by the way, part of that then as well was that the early writers about who God was and as God was revealing himself, there had to be this intentionality to steer away and be separate from the fertility goddesses that permeated the world religions at the time because this is our creator God and they all had fertility images around that. And there was this longing to distinguish the one true creator God from those religions. There's all kinds of reasons. And I think there's another reason. I think there is something about the image of father that is inherent in how God wanted to communicate about himself. That's five weeks from today, June 16th, where my sermon will be what dads teach us about God and the things of God. So June 16th, so I think that's true too. But at the same time, there's figurative language that's employed about mothers in the scriptures around God and the things of God to help us understand him more. And that's very cool. And I wanna look at some of that stuff. Mothers are a picture of a couple of things and we'll do this in our time remaining. We'll go through these three things. Mothers are a picture of these things. Number one, intimacy, attachment, and heart connection with God. Mothers are a picture of this. See the Israelites had this incredibly high regard for motherhood and that is illustrated. It's super clear in the scriptures because they utilize the concept and the word of mother to express the idea of God's incredibly deep and intimate attachment and connection to us. When the writers of the word wanted to communicate, when the prophets wanted to speak of God's heart and attachment and compassion and compassion and intimacy with God that we can have and that God has for us, they used mother language. See, this is a picture. Mothers become a picture of God for us so that we can understand how does God feel toward me? How does God treat me? What's God's heart for me? What's God compassion on me? What's God's care for me? We get a picture of mother. Look at some of these scriptures that we see. This is Isaiah 66, this is what the Lord says. "I will extend peace to her like a river." Now wait, stop, by the way. This is perfectly parenthetical. God extends to her, meaning Israel, meaning God's people. God extends to us peace like a river. Do you love that phrase, by the way? I don't want to miss that. I got stuck in that phrase study in this text. God in his heart for us extends peace like a river that flows 24, seven, the volume, the cubic, whatever. They measure river flow in. Just, that's the peace that God gives us. Do you receive God's peace that he has for you? That's a word, that's a side thing. That was a word for me this week. I will extend peace to her like a river and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream, all of the bounty of what God has for us, come overflowing the banks and flourishing. And you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. You ever used the word dandled? I don't, I don't look it up. It means bounce underneath. This motion of, where the moms do this thing, and some of you moms, even when you don't hold your babies, you're in line at the grocery store, and you're doing this instinctively. That's dandled, I didn't know that. It's kind of comforting. I'm sort of enjoying it right now. But now you start to see the image here. You will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees as a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you and you will be comforted over Jerusalem as a mother comforts her child. I will comfort you. Another place in Isaiah, the prophet. But Zion said, "The Lord has forsaken me. "The Lord has forgotten me, "but can a mother forget the baby at her breast "and have no compassion on the child she has born?" Can a mother do that? And then this phrase, of course, because it's about God says, "Though she may forget, "I will not forget you." In other words, can a mother do that? No, worst case scenario, one in a bazillion, a mother would forsake her child and forget her child, but this mom who's attached and nourishing and life-giving to her baby, that's the image of God for us. And he said, "A mother would never forget her child. "They're so attached, that's me for you," God says. We think of God way up there, way beyond our known atmosphere and solar system and galaxy and universe and beyond that into infinity into the heavens. He's way up there and we think really, when we stop and think about it, we go at that angle, I'm invisible to him. Mom's teach us friends. God would never forget us like a mother whose baby is attached to her. That's the kind of stuff that we see in the scriptures. And then in the New Testament, Jesus, as he approached the end of his ministry, going to the fulfillment of what he came to do, which was to die for the sin of the world, coming for the people, coming with hope that they had lived with, longing for a savior. Jesus looked over Jerusalem and he said, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets "and stone those sent to you, how often, "how often I have longed to gather your children together "as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings "and you were not willing." You hear the grief? There's this picture in scripture of the grieving mom who does lose her child, whose child has passed away. And there's Jesus saying, you hear the grief in it. I'm like a hen who is wanted. How often I've longed to gather you is a very strong, passionate word. I've longed for you to gather you. Your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. And then even later, as he approached Jerusalem again and his very last entry into the city, the triumphal entry, he saw the city and he wept over it. And he said, "If you, even you had only known on this day "what would bring you peace but is now hidden from your eyes. "The longing of Jesus to gather his people "like a hen gathering the chicks." That great picture, that's God. How God's speaking to us friends. David, how long to gather you with me and bring you under my protection and bring you with all your brothers and sisters and provide for you the safety and the life that I have for you and the protection for you. And I want to parent you and care for you. That's God's heart for us. That's mother language. And we tend to think that we're so far out on the boonies from God. We're so far out distant from him where he looks at us somehow collectively in some generic sense that we need this reminder the way the mother feels about her individual children. That's God, that's Jesus for us. Isn't that a sweet picture? Mothers teach us about intimacy and attachment and heart connection. That's an image of God, it's his care, it's his compassion, it's his attachment. I love the word attachment. It looks more, the scriptures say like a mother than a father when we look at it from this perspective. There's a momness to it because there's an unreasonable grace to it. It's unreasonable. Moms have unreasonable grace for their children. Much more than fathers do, I think sometimes. Moms look at their kids and they just go, "You're driving me nuts, but I have everything for you." I think about my kids. That video, if you missed the walk-in song, there was a little video and a Taylor Swift song that Anna sang and somebody put a video together of the little girl in her relationship with her mom growing up so sweet. But I can picture my kids scrambling up into their mother's lap with the skin knees, running right past daddy to get to momma's lap. And we will kiss her knees, and I think, "You shouldn't have been running so fast. "You fall down like that every time." (audience laughing) The mom, there's no conversation about that. The mom gathers her up, wipes away her tears, kisses her tears, kisses her little scrubbed knees. This unreasonable grace is a mom thing that's God for us. It is the worst thing in the world to go to my son's baseball games with my wife. (audience laughing) As you know, and it's a rather proverbial, the best baseball players fail seven out of 10 times, right? You can go to the Hall of Fame for batting 300, which means you made seven outs out of 10 tries. It's so true, but it's so painful when it's your baby out there. Two on, two outs, we're down one run, you come up the bat and you strike out. My wife dies a thousand deaths, and I'm like, "Keep your head down!" You know that kind of stuff. "Stay back on the ball!" She's just like, "I can't, it's two studs, oh, and two!" She's like, "This in the stands, it's oh, and two!" "Doh!" She leaves the game early, goes home, makes his favorite dinner. (audience laughing) I'm like, "You know what? "You shouldn't have taken that first pitch. "You know that guy was throwing strikes the whole time." You got down, you got in the hole right away, what'd you expect? That's how that bat was gonna go. That's the dad, the mom goes, "Oh my gosh, "my grief with you over this moment in your life, "even though it's seven out of 10?" That's our God for us. And I picture my wife sitting through the drama of high school with four kids. One after another, sitting, listening, and crying, and saying, "Yeah, I don't know what tomorrow's gonna hold. "I don't know if your friends will be there for you again tomorrow." No honey, you are beautiful. The grace that flows, the messages of attachment and intimacy and beauty, that's God and you. In the dark of the night when we middle-aged men have to get up and use the bathroom, but when we then lay awake, but then when we lay awake and the worries of this world crowd in, it is our God who, like our mother, the mother, comes to us in that place and says, "Yeah, tomorrow's gonna be hard, man. "I'm gonna be with you in this. "You're my man, you're my warrior." Isn't that sweet to think of God and the gifts that he gives us in this image of being like a mother? Mothers are a picture of the intimacy and the attachment and the heart connection with God too. Mothers are a picture of the strength brought to the work of God. Now, we said in that our title was, that this, what a mother's teaches about God, but also about the things of God. So not only is this image of a mother tell us about who God is, but it teaches us about serving God, about living for God. And there's this idea in the scriptures that mothers actually are the image of strength. Now, we would think that's the sermon in June, on Father's Day, and it will be, but there's this strength that moms bring. Let's be honest, we get all stereotypical about men bringing the strength and mom bringing the heart, but we know the deal, we know how strong the women are, we know what that looks like, in particular how strong moms have to be, we get that, and that's actually in the scripture. Often in the stories and scriptures, moms were taking the initiative and dictating the direction and lining up with the will of God and sometimes getting in the way of stuff, but moms made it happen, and we've got the proverbial Jewish mom to thank that stereotype comes out of that reality. She's like, listen God, this is how it ought to go, you follow my lead, and she makes that happen. That's out of strength, and God honors that kind of strength and faith in these women in the Bible, but you see that kind of an idea. Now the moms took initiative in directing those affairs of the church, the dads were supposed to be the ones giving that kind of instruction and giving that kind of leadership, so it's actually pretty culturally radical that we have such strong women in the scriptures. For the time, culturally radical, that we have such strong women in the scriptures, and it's even more radical that we have women in leadership in the scriptures. I want you to look at this verse from judges, this is about Deborah, Deborah was one of the judges, she was a ruler in Israel. Look how she describes herself in what's called the song of Deborah and Barak in judges five. In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, and nobody names their kids Shamgar and Anath, I'm just saying, I think Yaudhu, it's a good biblical name, as you can see, and we'll see later on, Barak or Barak is in this text. Nobody names their kids Shamgar, but maybe one day we'll have a president named Shamgar. In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, and he was another judge, he defeated Philistines. In the days of jail, who's in this story that this song is celebrating, the highways were abandoned, and so travelers took the winding paths, what does that mean? In these days, when the enemies had overrun God's people, they couldn't even travel 'cause of the enemy garrisons. They had to take to the winding paths and be off the main roads, and they were completely overrun and overwhelmed by their enemies and completely defeated. Villagers in Israel would not fight. They held back until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel. Come on, can I get an amen? Is that, have you seen that in your Bible? That is an awesome thing. It was going awful until Mama Bear stepped up is what that was about. God's people were not able to live out their destiny. God's people were under the thumb and the hand and the iron fist, really, of their enemies. God's people were hiding and cowering and living without freedom until Mom showed up and said, this is not how it should be. I love this picture, it's strength. And her story in Judges 4, I gotta read part of it to you. Her story in Judges 4, the chapter before, is so great. Deborah, it's just great that we have a woman that's leading as a judge. You know when this time period is, is Moses, led them into the desert, right? Free them from Egypt, led them into the desert. Joshua then led them into the promised land and those days were over, then they had, God raised up rulers, they called them judges to help guide them under the lordship of God. God was the ruler of their, the king, was their king, but these judges ruled for God, helped them discern God's leadership and Deborah was one. She was a woman, totally radical. You got, let me just read parts of it. Again, the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, now that Ihud was dead, he was the judge before. So the Lord sold them into the hands of Jabin king of Canaan, so now they're under the hand of these Canaanites. And Jabin is the king who reigned in Hazar. Cicera, the commander of his army, he's now that he's the general of the Canaanite army, was based in Harsheth Hagoyim. Because he, verse three, because he had 900 chariots fitted with iron and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for 20 years, they cried to the Lord for help, I actually love that little verse, I think that's very funny. Because he had 900 chariots, in other words, because his firepower was so unbelievably great and because he had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for 20 years, they decided maybe now is the time we should ask the Lord for some help, 20 years later. Now, Deborah, a prophetess, she was a prophet, married. She was leading Israel at the time. And she held court under the palm of Deborah between Rama and Bethel and the hill country V-frame and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. She sent for Barak, her Barak, son of Abinom from Kedish and Naftali, and she said to him, so she sends for her general, her warrior as the leader, and she sends for him and says, "All right, basically, it's time." "The Lord, the God of Israel, command you. You go, you take 10,000 men of Naftali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor, and I'm gonna lead Cicera, the commander of Jabin's army with his chariots and his troops to the Kishan River and give him into your hands." The Lord says, "It is time." Deborah says, "It is time." She goes, "Hey, general, get it together. You go, we got some things to do for God. We're gonna free God's people to weigh it all to be." It says, "Mama, bear." And Barak says, "Bursate, if you go with me, I'm gonna go." (congregation laughs) "But if you don't go with me, I'm not going." (congregation laughs) By the way, in Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, where it talks about all these giants of the faith, it talks about Barak being a great warrior and successful battler. He got all the glory in Hebrews, but he's like, "Yeah, I'm not going unless you go with me. Mama." Certainly I'll go with you, said Deborah, "But because of the course you are taking, the honor will not be yours for the Lord will deliver Cicera into the hands of a woman." (congregation laughs) You had a chance to step up, man. This is, I'm falling into my sermon for June 16th. You had a chance, Barak, to step up and do what God called you to do. And he said he was gonna go and hand you over. It wasn't even gonna be your strength. Your strength was to get in line with what God was gonna do. You had a chance and you went out and made mommy go with you. Well, mommy's strong enough to go, "All right, let's do it. But just 'cause of that, the Lord's gonna give the glory to a woman." And the story goes on, it wasn't her that got the glory. The story goes on, he did, in fact, go and he did pursue the armies and he did have a great victory and that's why he's honored. He did go do it, but she had to go with him. And then in the end, Jael, who was mentioned in other passages, a woman who invited the general of their army who had escaped the battle into her tent and said, "Come on, I'll feed you and you can rest in my tent. Nobody will look for you 'cause it's inappropriate for you to be in a woman's tent." So come on in and then she drove a tent peg through his temple into the ground. She came out and said, "I got 'em, we're all good." So this story is about two women who stepped up and Deborah was a mother in Israel. They were broken and lost and defeated and were not God's people until a mother arose in Israel. Friends, mothers are a picture of strength brought to the work of God. This is all of us, this isn't moms, this isn't women, this is every one of us get this picture about serving God. This is what moms teach us. There's strength to be brought to the table, to be God's person when the time is right because we go after what is true and right and noble and pure and lovely and we fight for those things with all of our strength. Is that not what moms do? Par excellence and that's what we're called to do. I love that, we're all called to end up in that place. We need to be the ones who step up with a mother's spirit of strength. I love that. Get the strength of a mom and you rich? Step up, you're a mother. Inimacy and attachment, their picture of that are God's heart for us. Moms are a picture of strength brought to the work of God. And third, moms are a picture of strategic investment into the future and the building of the church. Moms are a picture of strategic investment into the future and the growth of God's kingdom and the faith being passed along and moving forward. That's clear in the scriptures. Instruction of the children including matters of faith was primarily a father's chore but it is noteworthy that over and over again in the scriptures, you see that mothers had tremendous influence. Again, it's this little twist on culture that says, yeah, dads, bring it. That's what you're supposed to do. But in God's kingdom, everybody's got their part and moms bring something incredibly unique and they pass along this faith. And that was that picture of Pastor Timothy and we studied the book of Timothy and he's Paul's disciple. Look at this passage in Timothy. Paul is writing to his disciple. He says, I'm reminded of your sincere faith which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and I'm persuaded now lives in you also. Timothy was being discipled by Paul and he was having a powerful ministry in Ephesus where he was the pastor. And Paul had a tremendous impact on him but Paul was humble enough to recognize that he's not even about me. That is about your grandma and that is about your mom and they passed the faith on to you. That is noteworthy friends in this idea. There's something special this picture is that moms come along while dads instruct and give principle. Moms come along with a heart of faith that has unbelievable impact on their kids. We come along and have this heart of faith and strategic investment in the legacy of faith and the growth of the church and the building of the kingdom. We all do that and people around sniff out that faith and we become like mothers in the faith to them. Male or female. All of us, whether we have children or don't have children. Look at the other verse that a couple of chapters later, Paul says, "As for you continue in what you have learned." Look at what's happened to his, he's referring to Timothy's faith. Continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of because you know those from whom you have learned it because you what? Know those from whom you've learned it. You've seen them and it's been real and it's been authentic and it hasn't been duplicitous. You see your mom's faith in your grandma's faith and it's rocked your planet 'cause you go, that's real and he became convinced of it. And how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures? Moms, dads responsible for the instruction. Moms coming along, ringing, singing God's word, whispering God's word, reading God's word, practicing God's word with the kids so that from infancy they grow up convinced of the truth. Can you translate that to you? Rick as a man, not a mom, not a woman? Can you translate that? Those of you who don't have children into our investment, into the legacy of what is true about God and our world. That we whisper and sing and speak and give off the fragrance of the truth of God's word and so we build the faith of everybody that comes into contact with us. That's a picture of what moms do and that's what we get to do. That's what moms teach us, what's true? Don't let anybody forget, bring it, sing it, invest in it and people will become convinced that it's true. I wanna have that impact. I wanna have the impact that I have the opportunity and a microphone strapped to myself and I can stand up here and I can give all the details, I can give all the knowledge, I can give all the encouragement and challenge, I can give all of the facts, I can give all of the precepts friends but I want the legacy of my life to be that because you had the opportunity to be near me, you became more and more and more convinced that this is true. That's what I wanna, that's my heart 'cause that's the thing that lasts. You'll forget the junk I say to you but that you'll be convinced of the reality of God for the rest of your life. That's a mom's teacher, that's what moms teach me, that's what we get to do. Moms, women of faith, they're a picture of our call to strategically invest, multiply ourselves, protect the faith, keep the legacy and they did this, I think you guys, they did this by being able to multitask. How's that for stereotype? Because in all of the difficulties of life and all the messages to the contrary and all of the details from finding water to going and getting the crop, to going and dealing with the animals, to dealing with sickness and death and health and with all of that the moms were able to hold all that together and say to their families and to their children, but let's not forget the biggest picture. Moms were able to hold on to that and dads can forget that and spin wild with the details. This is all metaphorical, the image of the moms go, yeah, yeah, but our God will bring our crops, our God will take care of us, our God will bring the rain, our God will be true, our God will come back for us. This is what moms do, friends, we all need to be have that spirit of moms and speak into the world and speak into our church and speak into our friends and speak into our community, our God will come, our God is real. We cannot forget that. I did a little study of the moms and their whole, I thought maybe and Steve you can help me, we have a neurobiologist in our church, but neuroscientists, but I wondered if the brain was actually different so that moms could multitask and the research shows all kinds of different stuff. Sometimes men are better than others, especially when reading maps and trying to do something else. And sometimes women are better than others and it falls along stereotypical roles. It's really funny, go Google it, it's really fun. But one of the things that somebody said in this whole deal is they said, but it seems that while there were no significant differences in the genders, 70% of the women outshown the men and trying to do a simple task of finding a lost key while they were doing other things. Hello, where's my wallet? And is there, anybody, is that right? And the reason the scientist thinks that might be the case is not that their brains were wired differently, but that they actually because of other things, maybe how they're wired, they had a much better plan and strategy for finding the key. And this is what the researcher said. The men tend to jump into it and be far less organized and thorough. It's as if they don't stop to reflect and to plan the best way to solve the problem. Men bring their strength to the world. And we need that warrior power and energy and strength, but the women stopped and said, in my ability to look at the whole picture, I got this going on and this going on and this going on, but let us not forget the fundamental truths of this world we live in. God is, and we are His. And He has made these promises. And all messages to the contrary, I will stand on that. And everybody around that gets that and is influenced by it. That's not a mom, that's not women. That is all of our call. This is what mothers teach us about the things of God. Well, friends, I hope you got my point. I hope you felt celebrated as a mom because you're awesome, but every one of us, every one of us learns from this picture and says, God, you're a mother to me, an intimacy. I'm gonna live in that. Every one of us says, I'm bringing my strength like mama bear to the tasks at hand when things are not as they should be. And I'm gonna strategically invest in the legacy and the fragrance of the faith so that people around know it's true. That's what we learn from moms in the scriptures. I hope we go live as mothers this week. this week.