by Sheila South
The Kids & Me Contributor
Wanted to do something for Mom for Mother’s Day and the verse that says “her children arise and call her blessed” came to mind. I wanted to make something centered around this verse and so I went to get some more information about that word “blessed”. Boy was I surprised with what I found!
That phrase “arise and call her blessed” comes from Proverbs 31:28:
Her children arise and call her blessed.
Perhaps we are familiar with Proverbs 31 as a whole, or the “Proverbs 31 woman”? There are so many Bible studies about this passage and entire ministries formed around it. It is the quintessential description the Bible gives for a godly woman. There’s certainly talk about her character, her nobility, and her wisdom, but there’s a lot of earthy talk in this passage as well.
Proverbs 31 describes that this mother works with her hands to make things, that she’s up while others are asleep so that she will have time to tend to the needs of her family, and that she engages in tasks that help support her family. These descriptions manifest her work ethic. I think this is always what comes to my mind first when I think of my mom. She just doesn’t stop. Even through long-term illness, she is constantly cooking, cleaning, doing hard work (like in the yard. arrrgh. hate yard work), serving, and ministering to others. I remember a realization I had one day as a young college student home from school on break. I was rolling out of bed about…hmm…11:30am to plod downstairs only to find my mother ironing my clothes. Never mind that my clothes never got ironed when I was in school with me responsible to do it, but there she was - ironing my clothes. Mind you, she worked a full-time job, cooked us a homemade dinner every night (RARELY did we go out to eat), maintained all the house work, yard work, and shopping. I don’t think I ever got out of bed to find her still asleep – even once. I grew up a little bit in that particular moment watching her iron my clothes and acknowledging my own slothfulness and her diligence.
So this, of course, was my first thought about how I would call her “blessed”: to honor her because of her great servanthood. But when I went to find out about that word “blessed”, a whole new understanding opened. This is one of the articles I read: https://www.gotquestions.org/mean-to-be-blessed.html You should read it, too. That’s where I found out that when I rise up and call my mother “blessed”, I am not acknowledging her godly character or her wisdom or even her work ethic; I am acknowledging that because she is a godly woman, she knows God. And that is what makes her “blessed”:
She is favored.
She is in a spiritual state of well-being and prosperity—a deep, joy-filled contentment that cannot be shaken by poverty, grief, famine, persecution, war, or any other trial or tragedy we face in life.
She has a fully satisfied soul (Psalm 63:1–5; John 4:14).
She has true fulfillment which can only be found in a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1–2).
She experiences the full impact of God’s presence in her life now and for all eternity.
She is being made holy.
And that’s why I rise up now and I say, my mother is blessed.
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