Danny Fourie

The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down.  Proverbs 14:1

Here house means family. Not the home. There are mothers who build the house that they have bought. A big bond has to be paid off. They work hard to get the debt out of the way. It can happen that the building of a house like this can be at the expense of building the family. This is a disaster. To build a beautiful house, if possible, is wonderful. To build a family is far more important.

For this reason, Solomon says a wise mother builds her family. She is an evangelist in the family. She talks to her children about the things of God. She prays and lays the names of her children in the hands of the Lord. In this way she lays the foundation of the spiritual house of her children.

In the Bible we find many mothers like this. Think of Hanna, the mother of Samuel, who received her son by praying to God and gave him back to God. Eunice, the mother of Timothy was a wise mother: she handed her faith that she received from her mother Lois, down to her son.

Even in church history we find mothers who had an influence on the events in the church history. The mother of St Augustine, who constantly prayed for her children. Bishop Ambrose said a child of so much prayer cannot be lost. St Augustine was converted and became a great leader of the church in his day. The mother of the English preacher, John Wesley, had eighteen children. She taught her children Greek and Latin, but more important is the fact that every evening she put aside an hour to talk to her children about God. John’s turn was on a Thursday evening. Later he would write in his diary: “I wish I could only have one more Thursday evening to talk to my mother about the things of God.”

Prayer: Lord, we pray that you will bless all mothers with wisdom, love and tact. Also the mothers and fathers who have to stand in as widows or widowers or divorcees. Teach them how to pray when they cannot go further. Amen.