Two Mothers

In my sermon this past Sunday I shared the following story:  There once was a man who had two mothers.  Both mothers loved him and were good to him.  They both did what they thought was best for his upbringing.  One of those mothers adopted him and gave him a palace in which to live.  She had the finest teachers in the land brought in to teach him.  He had every toy a child could ever want.  He had servants, the best food, and clothes.  Nothing was spared. His other mother, the one who gave him up for adoption, was a slave.  His people had been slaves for 9 generations. She wanted a better life for him.   She could give him few material things, but she gave him what she had -- her time, her love, her faith, and her prayers.  And when Moses became a man he had to choose between those two mothers – a choice that was made more difficult because he loved them both.  The Bible reveals his choice:  “Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather his slave mother.”  (Hebrews 11:24)  You see the slave mother gave him what matters most, her love, time, and a deep faith in God.  What are we giving our children?  What will our children take with them into life?  Our society convinces us that the only list that counts includes -- music and dancing lessons, sports, name brand clothes, pool memberships, and the like – none of which is wrong.  But if that’s all there is, what will sustain them when the storms of life come?