Truth/Context:

Many young women are craving answers to the question, "What makes for a godly mother?" Let’s look at some of the qualities God wants:

1. God Wants to See Humility: "Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain." (v. 30a).
   1. Charm is deceitful!
      1. Charm: "a trait that fascinates, allures or delights…a physical grace or attraction compelling attractiveness."
      2. Deceitful: "to trick … not honest … deceptive, misleading … not trustworthy."
   2. Beauty is vain!
      1. Beauty: "the quality or qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses ."
      2. Vain: "having no real value… marked by futility…foolish or silly…undue or excessive pride in one’s appearance of achievements"
      3. "Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments" (1 Tim. 2:9).
2. God Wants to See a Fear of the Lord: "a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised." (v. 31:30a).
   1. Do not fear the threats of Satan: "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matt. 10:28).
   2. Rather reverence God: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Prov. 1:7).
3. God Wants to See Good Fruit: "Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates" (v. 31).
   1. The fruit of her hands: Her God-given creative talents.
   2. The fruit of her life: Her God-given procreative nature.
   3. "but rather by means of good works, as befits women making a claim to godliness" (1 Tim. 2:10).

Application/Challenge: Not all women are called of God to be mothers, but those who are called as mothers are watched closely by God.

"Satisfaction comes from having a lasting, positive impact on the lives of others. No one on earth … comes close to a mother for having …that kind of influence." (Focus on the Family Magazine (May, 1988).