A daily, Bible-based perspective of hope, encouragement and exhortation. <Previous Message · Archives ·  Archive/print edition Listen to us share this message on your audio player."Foundational Honor" "Honor your father and your mother" (Exodus 20:12). "Her children arise and call her blessed" (Proverbs 31:28). "Mother's Day" will be celebrated here in the United States on Sunday. This is a day when our country acknowledges the sacrificial contributions mothers make in the lives of their children. The theme of honoring our mothers also resonates in the pulpits across our land on Sunday. I am not aware if other countries have such a day designated but wherever you live, today's message is pertinent. I hope each mother reading this will be honored by the expression of the daily verses; her children rise up and call her "blessed." My Mom was gloriously promoted to heaven in November 2005 and Brooksyne's in October 2002, so we both write from that perspective. Today in this message we want to rise up and call our mothers "blessed." The command to honor our father and mother is a timeless one. I believe it is applicable all through childhood. We quoted Ephesians 6:1 often during Ester's childhood years: "Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." But honor toward our parents is applicable after we reach adulthood and the attitude of this command still pertains even though our parents may now be deceased. Today I urge each reader to rise up and call your mother blessed and to express honor toward her in your words and in your actions. For most of our readers this comes very naturally out of your gratitude for a loving and caring mother. But some of you have great pain from your upbringing and your relationship is far less than God's ideal. Perhaps even now there is an underlying heartache in your present relationship with your mother. But God's command to honor our father and mother has no exclusionary clause. I'm confident that He will give you the necessary grace to convey that honor, starting with the very fact that God breathed life into you as He knit you together in your mother's womb. If your parents are living be sure to express your love and appreciation to them. Honor expressed toward them serves as a solid foundational base for all human honor. Be encouraged today, Stephen & Brooksyne Weber Daily prayer: Father, each spring as we see tiny featherless fledglings pressed against their mothers in the hollow of their family nest, we're reminded of the human love children experience from their parents' safekeeping. We thank You for the love and care You extend to us through the preordained parents who've cared for us from birth to independence. Thank You for their model of love, sacrifice, duty, protection, and many other virtuous qualities needed to properly raise their families. Their example greatly influenced the way we raise our own children. We also pray for those whose relationship with their parent is a role reversal where they must act as the parent when their own parent behaves as a needy or defiant child. May Your multiplied mercies sustain these caregivers in their ongoing difficult role so that, above all, You are honored and they find deep peace in the midst of the turmoil. Thank You, Father, for our human family, our spiritual family, and for our heavenly family that awaits our arrival. In the name of Christ Jesus Your Son we pray, amen. Brooksyne's Note: Thank you so much for your thoughts, well wishes, and prayers for a speedy recovery from my broken ankle. It certainly has changed my independence to go and do as I normally would. Being in the bedroom at night seems quite normal; spending the entire day recovering in the bed is another matter. Of course, these physical trials serve many purposes in our lives. I am reminded through this Daily Encouragement ministry that there are many who are bedridden month after month, year after year. We've heard from a number of our readers who endure my temporal physical lifestyle in a permanent way. My heart is touched in a deeper sense when I feel, in part, some of the limitations and frustrations they must deal with day after day after day. Stephen is certainly being stretched as he is now preparing my meals (cereal, grapes, juice, bananas, peanut butter & jelly – that's about the extent of his "culinary" skills.) But he does it in love and thus far no complaints, so I'm very grateful for his attentiveness. Ester has helped filled the ice bags many times and is doing her part as well. Again, I thank you for your concerns on my behalf. I regularly make this appeal and suggestion: Write your parents a written tribute of your love and appreciation for them! Heres a page I have prepared.  Yesterday my brother Pat and his wife Laverne stopped for some peach pie Brooksyne prepared hours before her fall on Wed. They were on their way home from a minister's conference in Delaware. Pat and Laverne live in the Lehigh Valley about 100 miles from us. He is excited about an old riding mower I gave him that he plans to fix up so he stopped to pick it up.  We visited Jeanette Steudler on Tuesday and featured her azaleas and rhododenrons that lined her back yard. In this photo she is pictured in front of a very large oak tree that she planted as a tiny sapling over 60 years ago. What a lovely, smiling mother she is to four sons (her youngest went to be with the Lord right after he graduated from high school. He battled cancer from his childhood years until the Lord called him home.)  This was arved into the mantle above a huge fireplace at Jeanette's home. Many of our readers correctly responded when I placed this up Wednesday as a quiz! 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Administration Information  Stephen and Brooksyne Weber  Each weekday morning Brooksyne and I prepare these messages and distribute them at no cost to you and many others all over the world. Would you please consider a financial offering to support us in this encouragement ministry? Donations are tax deductible and will be receipted directly by my chaplaincy endorsing ministry. Thanks! See here for details.(2008 YTD financial offerings through 5/8/2008 $8,520.00)  Join: To receive these free "Daily Encouragement" devotionals each Monday-Friday through email see this page to subscribe. You can also subscribe to the rss feed. Cancel: To remove your address from this mailing list merely use the link automatically placed by the mailing list software at the very bottom of each message. Weekly Version: The weekly version is designed for those who do not check their email regularly. It is merely the Friday message with a link to previous messages. To receive the free weekly version, send a blank email to this address. (To change addresses cancel your old address and then join again using your new address.) Please feel free to pass this message on!  Daily Encouragement Net Reader SurveyWe want to thank all of you who have taken a few minutes to fill in our online survey. Here's a brief summary of the results including some comments and tips regarding technical problems several mentioned having. If you haven't taken the survey yet and would like to do so click here. I will continue to monitor the results. "A Daily Prayer" - The daily prayer from each daily encouragement message. "A Little Foolishness" - A collection of humorous and satirical stories drawn mostly from our years of ministry, as well as my sometimes fertile imagination. "Clear Minded" - Longer, periodic articles on specific issues impacting the church.  Daily Encouragement Net is an affiliate of Christianbook.com Any orders placed to Christian Book Distributers using this link or any specific product link to a recommended resource in a daily encouragement message will help our Daily Encouragement ministry through a small commission on the sale. Thank you for using these links when purchasing online through CBD!Personal Mission Statement "I am created by God to bring Him glory. Through God's Son Jesus Christ I have been redeemed and I make it my life's goal to please the Lord. My mission in life is to honor God through my faith and obedience and to prepare myself and all whom I may influence for eternity."  How to become a child of God Scripture references are from The Holy Bible: New International Version. © 1984 by International Bible Society; NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission; and the King James Version. © Copyright 2008 Stephen C. Weber - All Rights Reserved Daily Encouragement Net Stephen & Brooksyne Weber 495 Kraybill Church Road - Mount Joy, PA 17552 Contact us  "Living securely today anchored in God's solid foundation" |
