Hello everyone!
I saw a disturbing
picture a couple of days ago of a young girl of about seven (7) years of age wearing a
bum short and her mother proudly used the picture as her display picture
on Blackberry. Seriously, to me, it looked inappropriate. From time to time too, I see pictures
indicative of unnecessary exposure of these children to things that are not
exactly expedient. We have a role to help these young ones identify the right
path for their lives. A lot of the things
we see around today are attributable to homes, to families, upbringing and all ;
it is easy to know those who came out of good homes and those who didn't. I am
not going to go into all of that today but will like to just give a plea to
mothers from a story in the bible. May God help us all!
So today, I thought of sharing about a woman in the
bible whose action sort of, was and is castigated by many and seen as an
unhealthy ambition, but from whom I think we could take a cue with regards to
nurturing our children in the path they should follow. She is relatively
unknown in the scriptures, her name wasn't expressly mentioned( even though some associate her as the Salome mentioned in the bible) but her story was worth
mentioning in the Bible. I am talking
about no one than the Mother of the Zebedee brothers; James and John, also
known as the Zebedee brothers; two out of the twelve disciples of Jesus. This
is actually an excerpt of a project I am working on and in due time, the entire
material will be released.
Here is another example of a godly woman who had a
heart for God. Asides the fact that her children were part of the twelve (12)
revered Disciples of Christ; she was an ardent follower of the Lord too. She
supported her children in the work of the ministry and probably went everywhere
they went with the Saviour.
Mark 3:17
14Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and
that He might send them out to preach, 15and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons: 16Simon, to whom He gave the name Peter; 17James the son of Zebedee and John the
brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, “Sons of
Thunder”;
Jesus had only
twelve disciples/apostles and there were two brothers amongst them. What a
singular honour to a mother to have two of her sons as a part of the closest
twelve Jesus worked with? That is an eternal honour! Revelation chapter twenty
one and verse fourteen (21:14) says “Now the wall of the city had
twelve foundations, and on them were
the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. “ Two brothers from the same
mum were not only known men of their generation but eternally, their names
would be known. What great work their mother must have done! They ranked highly
amongst the apostles and Jesus was with them (and Peter) at specific times and
events more than He was with the other apostles.
James became the first Apostle to die a
martyr's death; the two,were part of the three that witnessed the transfiguration( Matthew 17:1) and these same three also witnessed the Agony of Jesus in
Gethesemane (Matthew 26:37). They apparently were closer to Jesus more than the
other apostles were. To cap it all, John was the closest disciple to Jesus and
he was seen as leaning on the breast of Jesus and referred to as the disciple
whom The Lord loved. We can see this in John chapter thirteen (13)
23Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom
Jesus loved. 24Simon Peter
therefore motioned to him to ask who it was of whom He spoke.25Then, leaning back on Jesus’ breast,
he said to Him, “Lord, who is it?”
This disciple that Jesus loved dearly was at the cross and
Jesus handed over his mother to him (John 19:26-27). After Jesus died, together
with Peter he took a prominent part in the
founding and guidance of the church. We can go on and on about these great sons
of Zebedee!
Let's take a look at a defining moment in their walk with God.
Matthew 20:20
20Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Him with her sons,
kneeling down and asking something from Him.21And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him,
“Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the
other on the left, in Your kingdom.”
22But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask.
Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be
baptized withthe baptism that I am baptized with?”
They said to Him, “We are able.”23So He said to them, “You will indeed drink My cup, and
be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My
right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for
whom it is prepared by My Father.”
So the mother comes around, asking that her sons be
seated at the highest place of honour in heaven....Hmmmn, what an ambition! In
all fairness, she wanted the best for
them, she wanted them never to leave the side of the Saviour whether in this
life or in the one to come. However, this was a desire probably not borne out
of good intentions; it may have been borne out of selfishness, but we see it
was wrong and Jesus corrected her on the spot. . Let us however not forget that
she gave them support in the work of the ministry. She had a good heart and continued to serve God. She didn't discourage them from following Christ. At least she spoke to Jesus
about her children! How many people talk to God about their children, about
their destinies nowadays? Yes we all want our children to look good, to be the best,
to go to the best schools but spiritually, we must also be on the lookout for
them as well!
What we can learn from this is to always pray
that the Holy Spirit would help us align our thoughts and plans for our
children with his and that we may be flexible enough to identify what God wants
for them and nothing out of our selfish desires. The Mark 10 version states
that the brothers came to meet Jesus to make that request by themselves.
Whichever way, godly mothers should seek to train their children in aligning
their desires with the will of God.
The Pen!
