Proverbs 31:25, says, "She is clothed with strength and dignity. She can laugh at the days to come. She speaks with wisdom and faithful instruction is on her tongue.  She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.  Her children arise and call her blessed; Her husband also and he praises her: Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all."  Verse 30, "Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."  Verse 31, the thesis of the whole morning, right?  "Honor her for all that her hands had done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate."  You know, from all the children in the room. Let me just say Mama's we thank you guys. In fact, can we all just stand in a moment and tell all of our mothers a big old thank you this morning for all that they have done? Amen. Amen.  Amen. Amen. 

Yeah, it was, almost like you didn't know what to do, because she wasn't telling you what to do. Right then just for a moment. But you know, part of Jesus's rhythm in life and part of his rhythm of who he was, is that when he stepped into situations, He spoke to that situation.  When there was a national movement, when there was a time that needed to be spoken of whether He was walking through a grain field and talked about the grain or in the synagogue and talked about the evil religious people, or in the crowd, talking to the crowds, the religious leader, the things of Caesar versus the things of Him, He spoke into these moments that they were walking through in that day. And it's a rhythm that I believe that He's given us as a church to be able to speak into these rhythms to speak into these days, whether they be holidays, or moments that God has given us. And so that's what we're going to do. This morning, we're going to speak into the life of mothers this morning. Now, I do that, because I realized really quickly today, and actually through this week that we really all of us in attendance today or that are still at home, we really don't have that many things in common. When you start looking around you and start thinking about the people around you, you don't look like them, you don't smell like them. You don't have the same culture as them. You don't have the same family background as them. You don't have the same ideals or a lot of the same family upbringing. But there's one thing that every single one of us in this room has, and that's a mother. It's a mother. Now I get it. Some of our mothers are not with us anymore. Some of our mothers are on the other side of eternity, and they're waiting on us. Some of our mothers are with us today. And some of us have had incredible relationships with our mothers and some of us haven't. But here's what I want to do today, I want to spend a little bit of time talking into moms because here's the thing, a lot of you are moms.  A lot of you are married to a mom, a lot of you want to be a mom one day, and a lot of you want to marry somebody that can be a mom one day. So, look, we're all in this together. So, dudes don't you check out on me today. Don't because she'll elbow you. Because some things that are going to be said today, we need to listen to. So, I want to spend some time today challenging moms, encouraging moms, encouraging families, encouraging all of those that are connected to moms, but I do know this, and I want to be sensitive to this. I know for some of you Mother's Day is really, really, really joyous. But I know for some of you it's hard. It's a hard holiday. It really is.  A couple of reasons for that. I mean, number one for some of you, you lost a mother this year. And this is a tough day for you. It really is.  Some of you, you last one a long time ago and it still stings.  That shows how important they were in your life. For some of you, you didn't have a great relationship with your mom, and you see other people and you yearn to have that.  For some of you, you've wanted to be a mom for a long time, and it just hasn't seemed to be God's timing yet for you. But I just want to say to all of us today as we come to this conversation that we're about to have, I want to encourage you to come to open arms and hearts. Because I think there's some things that all of us can learn from it. In fact, let me just pray before we jump into this.  Lord Jesus today, God, I know that there is a; God there's a struggle in the room. There is a joy in the room, there's a question. There's a wondering of when and how in the room. And God, I just pray today as we walk through some of these truths that are going to be exposed today, that you show us your faithfulness. You show us your design, for being your children, and you give us a model of how we can walk out our faith as mothers, as people with mothers, and as people that want to be mothers. It's in your name, King Jesus that we pray.  Amen, and Amen.

You know, in 25 years of ministry, I've learned something.  I've learned that, speaking into situations, sometimes you need to call in the pros.  You need to call in those that know what they're doing, and you need to call in those that can represent what you're really trying to say in an insider's voice, because I fully realize that I'm a dude. And that really all I know about mothering is a lot of times to stay out of the way.   That is about what I've learned. So today, I've invited a couple of Burnt Hickory moms here that represent some different seasons of life, represents some different experiences of life. And God has in each one of their lives, done some different things that show them how He is faithful and also give us a path of maybe where you're at right now in your family that can maybe reset some trajectory for you. And give you just some wisdom today. You know, I read something this week that as I was getting ready for this morning, and then I'm going to introduce these guys that I thought was just incredibly profound. This author Jon Acuff says this, and he's speaking kind of off the cuff, he says, "I'm totally crushing motherhood. I can't believe I ever stressed about taking care of one of these little humans that demand all my care and attention. I have so much time to invest in myself. I think I'll spend the weekend learning how to play the harp. Being a mom feels like being on vacation on a tropical island where the sand is made of gemstones and the water tastes like coconut Lacroix.  Said no mom ever."  You know, I've never met a mom who just sits around and thinks about how good of a mom she is. I really haven't. Because I realized that one of Satan's attacks, one of his major attacks on this planet, ladies, is to make you feel like you're not worthy, is to make you feel like you're not worth it, and to make you feel like you're not good enough. And so, this morning, as we walk through this conversation together, I fully realized that you are superheroes, you are Iron Chefs, you are counselors, you are Uber drivers, you are our counselors, you are our teachers, and you are the judge, jury and the executioner in most of the places in the house, in most of the homes in this community. But we want you to know today that we love you. And we want you to know that we see the struggle that's in your heart. So, I just want to bring you some encouragement today. I want to bring you some biblical truths that these ladies can bring us today from His word and let me introduce your panel. First off, we've got Christie Laughlin. Christie, this is her first Mother's Day. How awesome is that? She is married to Eli Loughlin which is a whole nother struggle on a panel one day, he is our high school pastor here.  She has baby Palmer, seven months old baby Palmer just dedicated her today. So, it's a big day for Christie, today, so she's going to be with us.  

Next to her is Miss Sue Clark. If you know Sue, you love her. I've said it all morning. She's kind of like the Yoda of moms, here in this church. She's married to John. She has two kids, six grandkids and one great grandkid on the way. So how awesome is that? 

Right next to her is Miss Denise Keesler She is married to Clint. They're both avid Georgia fans and serve in the student ministry here and have two just about grown actually, they're grown kids, Jamison and Jonathan and they're ready to launch them. Not like figuratively, like really. Not like some of you are, like yeah mine's four I'm ready to launch them. No, like they're in college right out, ready to step into the next life and she's going to speak towards what that looks like, of launching our kids into the next category. 

And right next to her is Miss Kayla Knicely married to one of our deacons here in this church David Knicely. They have two incredible kids, two and four years old who are Austin and Charlotte. And one of the crazy parts about her life is that David gets deployed a lot. And so, while she's not single, she does kind of have that role a lot of time in her life. So, these ladies are going to bring some things to the table today. And give us just some ways that God has stepped into their story. That I hope that we can all listen to right here and maybe gain some wisdom for.  

But I want to start with Kayla on the end down here. And Kayla, here's a question that I've had for you, this week.  "Being in a kind of military family that you are and, in a situation, where you're definitely not a single mom, but you do find yourself solo parenting a lot. And there's a lot of that happening, whether it's travel, or whether it's divorce, whether it's not being married, it's a lot of that, that's happening. Tell us a little bit about your mom's story and then give us a little bit of wisdom as to how God has shown you some ways of dealing with this idea that you've got to have a community around you. And where have you guys found that.

So, our story of coming to Burnt Hickory is proof positive that the Lord goes before you. Because when we came here, we had no idea how crazy life was going to get with trainings and deployments and everything with David's job, which I'm incredibly grateful for, but it does come at a cost. And we came, we were desperate for people in our season of life, people who loved Jesus, just people to kind of do life with we needed some good friends. And the first day we visited we visited the Godfrey life group and knew those were our people. And we have not looked back. And it's been such a blessing, because shortly after that was when things kind of ramped up with David's job and he was gone a lot and then I got pregnant again. And, I truly could not have done it without those people coming alongside me to either just say, Hey, I get this, like, I've been there. I hear your kids screaming at you, my kids screaming at me too. It's okay, we're going to make it. Or you know, there was a period where he was gone for a while and it just felt like forever. I was at my wit's end. And the girls in our life group had planned an impromptu night out. I wanted to go but couldn't find a sitter last minute and a friend just showed up to pick me up and I just broke down in my driveway. I was like, I'm so lonely. I couldn't find a sitter and so she just loved on me. She stood there in my front yard with me and loved on me. So, it really, we are not supposed to do this parenting thing by ourselves. You know, in Ecclesiastes, the Bible tells us that 'whoa, to a man who is alone,' we are supposed to have a community.  We're supposed to have people to come along and be with us in the hard times and celebrate with us in the good times. So, I would just encourage all the moms out there, whatever season of life you're in, it's so important to have a community of people to do this thing with.

So good because the reality is, there's a lot of times that you feel alone, and that's where Satan wants to take, he wants to pull you from the herd, rather than finding that community here. And that is not a shameless ploy for life groups. That is a big ploy to jump into a group here at this church. Denise, your story is a little bit different. Being an almost empty nester, you and Clint have seen what it's like to kind of walk through the early years and now walking through the parenting adult years. Give us a little bit of the background of your story of two kids polar opposite and what are some truths that God just poured into both of you guys.

So, when I became a parent, I was 30 years old, and I've been a teacher for seven years. And so, I had a degree in child development, early childhood education, I thought I knew what to do with children. And Clint and I were actually taking a parenting class at our church and then eventually taught the class. And our first child, we, we did all the little things that we learned from our class. And we thought, you know, if you do a plus b, you get C, you know, it's like a little formula. And, you know, we were going to have some perfect kids and the first child followed along and played along with us and did all the things we asked him to do.  He was really good baby and toddler and then 19 months later, our children are 19 months apart. So, a little while later, we had our second child and none of the stuff that we did with our first one worked. And so, then we started to realize maybe we shouldn't be teaching this class, because we don't know what we're doing. But the Lord, I knew the verse, Proverbs 22:6 that says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. And I know that that's a proverb, not a promise, but we wanted to be really intentional about training our kids to follow Christ and to know Him and all of that. But somebody said that verse a little bit differently to me, "Train up a child in the way he should go. And, when he is old, he will not depart from it. And that really spoke to me because my children were so different. I had to parent them differently. And you know, God's given them different strengths, different weaknesses, different gifts. And it was just so important, I started to realize that I needed to watch them and listen to what they thought was important and what they enjoyed. And also, to pray that God would reveal those things to me as a mom, so that I could see how to parent each one of them so differently. And, you know, kids are not cookie dough, we can't expect that formula to work the same for every child. They're human beings with a freewill. And they are going to do things differently than what we had thought.  And then, as a working mom, I was very overwhelmed, some days very exhausted. And a lot of times my anxiety kicked in, and I realized I needed to bring that to the Lord. And let him help me through those that just like we are saying earlier, He's there, He wants to be there in the good times and the bad times, helping us through living that out with us in the coming and the going. You know, we're so busy sometimes running from one thing to the next. But He wants to be there through all of those things. And so, because I wanted to be intentional, I decided I got together with a couple of my friends who worked and we kind of formed a little playgroup, so we could encourage each other. And then I also hosted a prayer time or prayer group in my house, for moms, so that we could pray over our children. And we could hold each other accountable. And we could just remind ourselves and encourage each other what's important.  And then, as they grew older, it kind of switched over, you know, in the early years, it's more focused on discipline and training and all that, but you still have that little bit of a relationship that you need to be forming. But as they get older, it switches over more from discipline to more of that relationship. And you still have to remember that they're very different. They communicate differently, they respond to you differently, and everything, but it actually happened a little earlier than what we were thinking, we thought, you know, when they're 18, and they leave for college, or they, you know, go off to do whatever career they're going to do, then our relationships going to change. But it actually started a little earlier than that, because when they were 16, and they started to drive, we lost our captive audience in the car. It was nice for us that it took that off our plate. But at the same time, it was like, Oh, wow, I missed that time in the car when I could talk to them. And we could have that relationship building time.  And now we are in more of a role of advice giving because they're adults. And I know one of the things that the Lord gave me early on that I still hold on to, as their adults making decision is Philippians 4:6, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. And that's something that I still hold on to.

Amen. Now Christy, you're at the beginning of this race. And you know, your life looks a little bit different now you just had a baby. So, for especially the young moms Christy that are so often scrolling social media, watching other people's highlight reels, perfect camera angles, great lighting. There's such a danger of falling into the comparison world to other moms. Can you tell us kind of your mom's story a little bit because one of the things I've value about you and Eli is a lot of times you just don't care what other people think?  How do you deal with the trap that Satan wants to drag you into of not feeling like you're good enough, not feeling like I'm living up to the expectations or not feeling like you're that perfect instant-mom that's out there? How do you guys do it? Because I think you do a great job.

Thank you. We try. Yeah, so first off, you keep calling us pros up here and I just want to say I'm not a pro. My kid’s pacifier just goes rolling across the stage during dedication, and I just popped it back in her mouth. So, I know someone thought we were gross. But that's okay. So yeah, no matter what stage of life you're in, whether you are in high school, college, getting married, having a baby, you're obviously with friends who are in that same stage of life, and that is posted on Instagram, and that's our highlight reel of our generation, but that's also the breeding ground for comparison. And so, when we first had Palmer, I found myself really having a hard time just comparing myself to everyone else and what they were putting on Instagram. And so, every generation of mom knows in here, there's always a golden book that you have when you first start parenting and so for us, it was moms on call. And we tried really hard to do it. And I saw, that's what everyone was doing in our stage of life on Instagram and their babies were thriving on it. And they were sleeping through the night. And Palmer was not having fun with that. So, moms on call didn't work for us. And I think what Denise said was amazing that not everything works for the same kid, you know, things are different, and you have to do what works for your kid. And so, we just took that step back and stopped doing that book and did what worked for us. And then things got better. And it was a lot easier for us. But then, even now, I mean, she's only seven months old. So, I'm not too far into this, but I still struggle with looking at Instagram and seeing that, you know, this baby is already sitting up. And she's Palmer's age. And Palmer can't do that yet. Or this baby's younger than her and weighs more than her like, what are we doing wrong? And she's not eating enough. Or, you know, this mom has an outfit for every holiday and Palmer doesn't. So, whoops, you know, like, am I not doing the right thing?  And so, you just really, I at least have to take a step back and realize that Instagram is not the real world. And this is only the highlights of your life and realize that is Palmer happy? Yes. Is she healthy? Yes. Is she had a home that loves Jesus? Yes. And there's only things that matter. And so, that's what works best. 

Amen.  You got some applause on that. Yeah.  My kid didn't make the team or 1900 on the SAT. Yeah, we're going to quit.  I didn't either, so.  

So well, you know, Sue, man, you're such a hero to so many people in this church. And there's a backstory to that. That is part of where God is brought to you from? Can you give us just a little bit of a glimpse into what a lot of people don't know about the early years of Sue? And what was it that got you to that point that you now mentor other mothers regularly? Tell us a little bit about those early years and how God directed you through them?

Well, these girls did a wonderful job telling what it was like to be a Christian mother. But I'll have to say that I didn't start out as a Christian mother. So, I'm speaking to some of you who may not have stepped across that line in faith yet. When John and I married in 64, that's 1964 not 1864.  Was it the summer of 64?  No, it was actually Christmas. I was very naive and optimistic that we were going to be the ideal husband and wife. Well, that didn't happen. And I went into motherhood in the same way. I thought I've got this, but it didn't work out that way either. I was in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to be with my husband, but he couldn't be with me because he was going through AIT and OCS at that time. And so, they arranged for me to live with two other women, wives, and have a place for them to come home, if they could get off on the weekend. And it was there that I had our first child. And it was difficult because I was not living with John. I was not with my family. And I did not have that older, wiser woman to encourage me or to give me advice. So that was pretty difficult. But if I thought that was difficult, just listen to this one. John was sent to Germany and Mallory and I followed him about two months later. And when we got there, we had no place to live. We stayed in the top floor of the officers’ quarters in a 12 by 12 room and no elevator. After about six weeks, we finally found an apartment we were so eager to find a place we had to go out on the economy and live with the German family and upstairs. And when we looked at the apartment, it had no heating and no air conditioning. It had no bath, no shower, no tub. It had no hot water, we had running water, but not hot running water. There were no appliances and there was no furniture, and we took it.  That was the hardest time of my life. I really thought I was going to lose it. And I realized, I am not that ideal wife or mother that I thought I was going to be.

And Sue, let me pause because you actually had a baby in that season, right there, by yourself without John, with no family, with no one that spoke English.

Yeah, there you go. Yes. So, it was tough. And, but we made it through that and came back to the states, settled down and had a home.  We began to go to church regularly, it was easy not to go to church where we were moving around all the time. But we got back, we went to church, they begin teaching the gospel or preaching the gospel. And I finally at a revival, I heard, but God just opened my eyes and my ears. And I heard for the first time, the truth about Jesus Christ. And it just melted my heart. And I gave my life to Christ that night. And it wasn't long before. I just wanted to know more about Him, more about God's word. And I had a neighbor knock on my door, and say, "Hey, would you like to go with me to a Bible study?" And I said, "Sure." And she said, "Uh, well, it's on the other side of Atlanta. And we will be there, and it will take an hour to get there and an hour to get back. And we'll be there about three hours.  Do you still want to go?" I said, "Yeah." And she said, "Well, it's Kay Arthur, and she's going to teach precepts and I don't know what it really is. But it's her first class in precept." And so, we did this for three and a half years. And God was so good to just feed my soul.  I learned a lot of things, in fact, I became radically different, after that, as a wife, and a mother.  I saw my children differently. Before that, I had seen them as an extension of me. And I tried to mold them into what I thought would be best for them. But as I got into God's word, I realized instead that He had given me our children as a gift. And then I was to take care of them and unfold them to be what God had already planned and made them to be. And that took such a pressure off of me, I was just, I could love them, and encourage them, knowing that God had them. And that I was only responsible to, just let them be who God had made them to be. Now, I also learned that what God gave me that it went hand in hand, with my ability to forgive other people. And God began to take away that unforgiveness that I had and bitterness that I had in growing up, and replace it with just a peace, and hope and joy. I was able to go to my children, after God impressed me to do this, I would never have thought of it. But to go to my children and ask them to forgive me. Now, they were very young, probably around seven or eight. And you may wonder why I did that?  But God told me and that's why I did it. But later, as I thought about it, I realized that that probably took away Satan's hook in them, to remind them when they got to be about 11 or 12 of all those things that I did wrong and unpleasant memories. And so, I tell you, whatever God tells you to do, do it.  Ephesians 4:32 has become very important to me and very important today, and that is, "Be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ Jesus has forgiven you." So, if you've been forgiven by God, He will give you the power to forgive others.

Amen. Amen. Man will you guys do me a huge, huge favor and just thank them just for giving us some wisdom this morning.

So, so good. I feel like we should just pray and go, but we're not I’m not going to.  You know, the things that they said are just straight from Scripture, and straight from the heart of God. And there's actually a story tucked away in 1 Samuel chapter 1 that really mimics exactly what they're saying that gives us all of us whether a lady or man or high school or middle school or gives all of us just some elements of faith that we need to live in our family. And I just want to give you a really abridged, moment in the story. And I'm going to give you some homework this week to go back and read and study this story because it's incredible. 1 Samuel chapter 1 is about a lady named Hannah. She's at this place in her life where she's distraught, she's torn up, she doesn't have any children, but she wants children.  She's in the relationship, a polygamous relationship where she has a sister wife. But that's a whole other deal, in the Old Testament. We don't have time for, but they do. They have kids, but she has a husband that loves her.  That wants her to worship, that wants their family to seek after God. And Hannah, even in the midst of this moment of just deep distraught, gives us a couple of things that I want to just give you to set up this week you are reading this event again in Scripture, and she shows us some elements that we should all have in our faith. And number one is, that Hannah shows us and just like these ladies said that there has to be an element of soul level prayer. In every one of our lives, whether we are moms are not moms or dads are not dads or high schoolers or middle schoolers, there has to be this level that we come to God and absolutely pour a heart out for God.  1 Samuel chapter 1 is in a time where God is really not being worshipped much.  Where people are still going to worship Him at the temple, but not a whole lot and I want you to hear what Hannah says. She says, in 1 Samuel 1, "In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly."  Let me ask you something?  When is the last time that your prayers brought you to a place of brokenness and weeping over something? You know, a lot of times we complain about things, we post about things, we talk to others about things. But how much are we honestly allowing God into the anguish of our soul, first?  Hannah says, I know that I'm in trouble and I know that I'm hurting, but God, would you deliver me? Would you deliver me, but she doesn't stop there because she doesn't just pray, she shows us there's number two, this personal dedication to the Lord. There's this personal side. And I think you heard that in every one of these ladies up here that the Hannah was able to come before the Lord and pray in this deep anguish because she had an incredibly close relationship with the Lord. Look at verse 11. 1 Samuel 1:11, "And she made a vow, saying, Lord Almighty, if you will look on your servant’s misery, and remember me and not forget your servant, but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head."  What did she do when she came before the Lord? She called out the name of the Lord, to the Lord. What does that show us about Hannah right here?  That shows us that Hannah is not a person that just puts her faith on the background until there's something happening in her life. It shows us that Hannah's faith in this situation was something that was regular in her life. 

Look at the name that she uses for God. She uses the word Lord Almighty, it's a compound word for Lord, that the Lord stands for you are in control and I've submitted myself wholly to you. But it also means that you are Almighty, and you were above all else.  It shows her devotion to the Lord, her idea of knowing who God is in her life. Why? Because she even refers to herself as a what?  Two times in the NIV and some of the others is debatable if there's another one.  She refers to herself as a servant of the Lord. If you refer to yourself as a servant to someone that equates to the fact that that someone is greater than you, that you hold an admonition in your heart or a place in your heart that you've submitted yourself to that person. Hannah is showing us here that she's in deep, deep, deep anguish in prayer, but it's at this point that she knows that God is who He says He is and she's at the temple, worshiping. Listen, even when it wasn't convenient to her, and when it was shameful for her because she was not a mother. But there's number three, she shows us that there's in her model, there's an understanding in Hannah, that her kid should be God's kid first. Should be God's kid first. Now, this is a big one, right here, West Cobb, Paulding counties. Hannah shows us right here that when God gives us a kid, our kid is God's first, and ours second.  What does she say in verse 11? She says, "I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head."  What is she saying to us right here?  She's saying that our kids, when God gives them to us are God's first and ours second. Therefore, our prayer should always be not as what my will for my kids are, you just heard that right? But what is God's will for my kids? What is God's design for my kids? How can I ensure that God is showing me how can my kids flourish? And that doesn't mean living out your old dreams?

Or go into that place that will fulfill you? What did Hannah say? He said, God, if you give me this kid, he is yours first and I'm a temporary stand in for you, God. And my job is to lift him up. So, the question that I've got is are we submitting our kids to our culture or are we submitting our kids to the will of God for our lives? And sometimes those things don't match? Sometimes we have to pick one of those things. Hannah said I'm going to give him over to the Nazarite vow. That's this extra vow. That's not just like a normal Christian. That's like a normal Christian that looks weird, that eats weird, that drinks weird, and it never cuts his hair and wears weird clothes.  You say Matt, Why? So that he stands out in the presence of people and they know that they are the Lord's? Let me ask you something. Is that the prayer that we have for our kids? Or is our prayer God just make them look like you and smell like you enough? But not blow it? She doesn't stop there. Hannah has this radical commitment to her kid living out his faith. Of course, she does. What did she do? She offered her kid to the Lord. She prayed in front of Eli, the priest. She got on her face in front of him. She's prayed he accuses her of being drunk. I'm telling you, you got to read this story later on. But then he finds out what's going on in her and Eli blesses Hannah, gives her the ability to move on. She goes home with her husband a little bit PG 13 and in the Bible and she gets pregnant. She has a child. God gives her a child and I want you to skip down to verse 24. I want you to see what it says right here. It says, "After she weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull and ephah of flour and a skin of wine and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. When the bullet been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli," that's the priest, "and she said to him, 'Pardon me, my Lord.  I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him."   Look at this, I love it. "I prayed for this child and the Lord; God has granted me what I asked of Him." Verse 28, here it is, you may want to underline this. "So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life, he will be given over to the Lord, and He worship there." You know, up until this point, it's been a whole lot of talk, right? 

But at this point number five Hannah shows us that that part of our lives is a fateful follow through of living out the promises that we have made to God. She shows it to us right here. She shows us that we can talk all we want to but when the time came for her to wean this child that means that she's no longer feeding him and providing him at two years old to somewhere to five years old, she walks this kid up to the priest, and she says, Hey, listen, I promised that this kid is the Lord’s, and I am following through with that promise. And here he is, do you have this kid, it's the prophet Samuel. The prophet Samuel that walked and reshaped Israel is the prophet Samuel that anointed King Saul as King and anointed king David as King. It's the prophet Samuel that stood in the gap and reshaped the people of God, which brought number six in Hannah's life and enduring joy. And enduring joy. I think you solid into these ladies that are launching kids. Chapter Two. It's one of the most honest and joyful prayers in the whole Bible. Got to go and study and don't have time for it. But here's what happens when we get on our face and pray, when we realize that our dedication to the Lord matters when we lift up our kids and realize that they're Gods, and that we are Gods, and His will matters when we follow through in the promises that we have made to Him. And when we walk in, we offer ourselves, our families and others up to God, and we walk with Him, the promise is, that's when joy happens. Because God steps in, He steps in. Like, I realize this is a tough day for a lot of you. It really is. But here's what I know. We serve a God that steps into the tough situations. And all he asks of us, is for us to say, God, here it is. I told you, I was going to give it to you. And here it is, parents, your kids are the Lord's first. Give them to Him.  Do you know what that does? It releases you from a lot of responsibility. That's God's. But it also points them in a direction that God can only provide you parents that are struggling in the room. Hey, submit yourself before the Lord, the results are up to Him. You can't control another human being. You just can't. For those of you that want to be parents, just at a soul level want to be parents. Maybe it's just not God's time yet. But he's still faithful. He's still faithful. Let me ask you something. are we offering ourselves and our families honestly before the Lord, let me pray for us as we get ready to walk in this, be dismissed this morning?  Lord Jesus, I know that God normally at times like this, we have this moment of prayer and worship and dedication. But God this morning with You just in our hearts, continually solidify God who You are and what You can do. God, we love You. Today we ask You today to move in us.   There are people in this room that just as Sue said earlier, don't have a relationship with you. 

But they want to talk about what does that look like? How does that work God? I just ask as soon as the service is over God that they would find myself or another representative of this church and they would just look at us and go, Hey, I think I need Jesus or maybe God, they just reach out on our next steps text or next steps button on the app and just say, Hey, I need somebody to pray with me. I need Jesus. 

God, there may be families here that just want somebody to reach out and to pray with them, Lord, God today, would they just find a way? Whether it be on the app or whether it be just finding one of us today? Just to reach out and go, Hey, listen, I just need somebody to pray over me that our faith may stand in a gap for Jesus for our family. Lord, we love You today. We thank You for worship today. We thank You for moments like this, that we can celebrate who You are, Lord Jesus. And it's in your Holy, Holy, Holy Name that we have gathered. Amen and Amen. 

You guys have a fabulous morning. If we can serve you in any way this week. Just reach out. We love you and Happy Mother's Day.