Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. Proverbs 1:8
John Wesley the renowned English preacher during the 1700 era paid a worthy compliment to his mother by saying - I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians in England.
Of course this statement could be emphasizing the lack of quality in theological teaching in his day, but I believe the context was to do with the underestimated value of a mother’s spiritual lifelong influence.
How true it is that, being taught by people of renowned knowledge in spiritual matters is very different and pales in comparison to being taught and nurtured in spiritual matters by one’s mother.
Our mothers are those people in our lives - now or in the past, whom God has called to teach us. This is why the above text differentiates between instruction and teaching. Instruction speaks of the authority that a father should step up to. But teaching is the lifelong influence that a mother develops and nurtures her children with. I like how J MacArthur states in his book Successful Christian Parenting - Men may have the authority in the home, but the women have the influence. The mother, more than the father, is the one who moulds and shapes those little lives from day one.
Mothers can be a child’s most influential teacher for the glory of God. Lets honour them today for that!