Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A minister was speaking to a little boy, “So your mother says your prayers with you each night. What does she say?” The youngster replied, “Thank God he’s in bed.”

What weary mother hasn’t felt that way! Someone has described motherhood this way, “If it was going to be easy, it never would have started with something called labor.” Many a mother has labored in prayer for her children too.

I once read that at the historic Pacific Garden Mission, a storefront church in Chicago, people entering would see an eighteen-foot neon sign bearing the name of the church. And under the church name was a reminder, “Mother’s Prayers Have Followed You.”

The author, Rev. Lee Thomas, goes on to say, “Only eternity will reveal the incredible number of souls that have been saved through the tears and prayers of a mother’s love.”

Abraham Lincoln once said, “I remember my mother’s prayers and they have followed me. They have clung to me all my life.” He also observed, “No one is poor who had a godly mother.”

George Washington paid tribute to his mother, “All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her.”

Billy Sunday, the well-known American evangelist, has stated, “I don’t believe there are devils enough in hell to pull a boy out of the arms of a godly mother.” According to 19th century minister Charles Spurgeon, “Never could it be possible for any man to estimate what he owes to a godly mother.”

The greatest gift a mother can give her child is the gift of her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Author and minister Charles Stanley once said, “Children who grow up hearing of God’s faithfulness learn at an early age how to face life’s ups and downs with a sense of peace and security. Even if a child strays from the truth of God’s Word, the testimony of a godly mother will remain hidden in his heart.”

In his letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul wrote to his young friend, “I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well” (2 Timothy 1:5 NAS). I am grateful for the sincere faith of my grandmothers, Bernice and Myrtle, and my mother, Carol. They gave me a legacy as an example to follow in their footsteps.

John Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist Church, made this statement, “I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians in England.” Susanna Wesley has been called a mother who made a difference. She lived long enough to see her son, John, preach a series of revival messages in their hometown of Epworth, England to the biggest crowds that area had ever seen.

The value of a godly mother can be measured when “her children rise up and call her blessed” (Proverbs 31:28).

— Jan White has compiled a collection of her columns in her book, “Everyday Faith for Daily Life.”