If God Had Asked These Mothers...

Rebecca would have wanted Jacob to become a prince and a patriarch...but not to be cheated at Laban's house and to walk with a life-long limp after being crippled by an angel...

Rachel would have wanted Joseph to become Prime Minister...but not to be sold into slavery and be falsely imprisoned...

Jochebed would have wanted Moses to become the deliverer...but not to be raised by pagan Egyptians and spend forty years on the backside of the desert...

Hannah would have wanted Samuel to become a prophet...but not to be exposed to backslidden priests at a tender young age...

Eunice would have wanted Timothy to become the Apostle Paul's protoge...but not to be circumcised as a grown man and be criticized for his youth...

Mary would have wanted Jesus to become the Messiah...but not to have gone through Gethsemane and the cross...

Mothers cannot protect their children from all pain or hold on to them forever. Jochebed "...hid Moses as long as she could...(Exodus 2:3)," then put him in a basket and released him into his destiny.

Every mother must do the same...!

(from Teresa's Mother's Day sermon)