Author Archives: pastorjeremyhelmuth

One of the Hardest Acts of Motherhood

Here are some fun facts about moms:

· There are 2 billion mothers in the world (82.5 million in U.S.).
· The average age of a new mom is 25 (versus 21 in 1970).
· Modern moms average 2 kids (1950s: 3.5 kids; 1700s: 7-10 kids).
· Moms change 7,300 diapers by a baby’s 2nd birthday.
· Moms take 2 minutes, 5 seconds to change a diaper
       (three 40-hr work weeks per year).
· Dads take only 1 minute, 36 seconds to change a diaper.
· Preschoolers require their mom’s attention once every 4 minutes
      or 210 times a day.
· Moms average 330 loads of laundry (5,300 clothes) each year.
· Who had the most children?   Mrs. Vassilyev of Russia gave
      birth to 69 children between 1725 and 1765. She had 16 sets
      of twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 4 sets of quads!
· Who was the oldest mom? Omkari Panwar, a 70 year old
      grandma from India gave birth to twins after an IVF treatment.
· Who was the heaviest newborn?  Signora Carmelina Fedele
      gave birth to a 22 lb. 8 oz. boy in Italy in 1955.
· What is the one of the hardest acts of motherhood?  Release.    
 
In Exodus 2:1-3, we read a story about Moses’ and his mom’s decision to release him.  Pharaoh had made a decree: “Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live” (1:22).  Because of the decree of Pharaoh, Moses’ mother had to conceal him for 3 months until finally the pressure became too great, and she could no longer hide him.
 
The child Moses is described as a “fine child.”  In the New American Standard Version of the Bible, Moses is described as beautiful.  I have never met a mother who does not think her little baby is beautiful.  No matter how homely he or she might be, the baby is still the pride and joy of her life.  I am not implying that baby Moses was ugly—I’m sure he was a beautiful little baby.  Why would the author decide to include that detail?  What does that detail bring to the story?  I think this is what he was trying to teach us about the situation.  The hardest act of motherhood is to release your beautiful baby.  No matter how old your baby is, he or she will always be your baby.  It is never easy for a mother to give up her child.  Because her child is her most prized possession.   
 
When the time came to release her son, she was willing to.  I want you to think about the tremendous amount of faith it takes to release your child to God and allow Him to take care of your child.  She was willing to take a 3 month old baby and put him in a basket and place him in a river that is full of crocodiles and trust that the right person at the right time would come and then take him and care of him.  I have no doubt that this was a heart-wrenching moment for this mother. 
 
Release is needed in many different areas of our lives.  In many ways, life is all about release.  When we are able to release what God is asking us to release, we show a life that is obedient.  Moses’ mom had to release him at 3 months.  We, for the most part, get 18 years to do it.  Our oldest daughter is almost 8 years old.  She is at a perfect age because she can take care of herself and doesn’t really have a care in the world.  So, what if I was able to keep my daughter at age 8 and didn’t allow her to grow physically?  For the first few years, that might be okay, but after a while, it would be wrong.  Think about all the things that she would miss out on because I was not able to release her in certain areas of her life.  Many parents have a hard time releasing their children into the next phase of their life.  When you don’t, it is as if you are stunting their growth as a maturing human being.  Early in my pastorate, I met a man who was 37 years old who was still living with his mother.  He never dated, he just stayed home with his mom.  Now, there is something nice about a son taking care of his mom, but when I would go over and visit with them, after listening to the mom talk about her little boy, I thought that she was talking about her 8 year old son, when in fact he was 37.  She had never released him. And he was paying the price. 
 
One of the worst things you can do as a mother is to hold on too long.  Just think about what would have happened if Moses’ mom would have held onto her newborn and not released him to God?  He would have surely been killed by being thrown out into the Nile and eaten by the crocs.  After having a couple babies in our home, I can’t believe they kept Moses a secret for three months.  How did they cover up his crying?  My guess is that they muffled his voice or they tried to meet his need immediately.  But as a baby gets older, they get louder voices and that was probably their main concern.  They knew that if they didn’t act, they would be putting their son’s life in jeopardy.     
 
A mother either has the ability of making her children ready for the world around them, or scared of the world.  It is a beautiful sight to witness mothers who diligently make sure their son or daughter gets to their full potential and will do everything to make that possible.  A mom can help prepare her children to move on in life by teaching them certain life lessons.  Here are a few of them.
 
In Exodus 2:4-10, we read about how Moses’ sister Miriam was left to care for him and watch him in the reeds after his mother left.  What looked like a potentially disastrous situation turned out, under the providence of God, to be the means by which God could prepare Moses for the great challenge which was ahead. 
 
The basket was spotted by the daughter of Pharaoh who had come down to the river along with the servant girls to wash herself.  When she opened it, she saw Moses, and had compassion on him.  She could have reacted like her father would have and thrown him into the Nile to die.  But her heart loved the child immediately.  No doubt God was working in her heart. 
 
We are told that he was crying when she found him.  We do not know how long this took—whether it was a few hours or a few days.  Either way, Miriam the sister and mom and dad were probably wondering what would happen to their little guy. 
 
Somehow Miriam got to the Pharaoh’s daughter and asked if she would need someone to nurse the child.  This would not have been an odd thing to ask because there were many Hebrew ladies who had milk, but had no babies to feed because they were all being slaughtered.  Pharaoh’s daughter liked the idea and had Miriam find someone.  And guess who she found?  Her mom.  Moses’ mom. 
 
Just listen to this phenomenal turn of events.  Moses gets to go back to mom, will be protected by Pharaoh’s daughter, and gets paid for doing it.  Not such a bad deal.  When Moses’ mom gave him up, she didn’t know if he would live or die.  She couldn’t count on getting him back.  But she did get him back and it was even better than before since she would no longer have to worry about his safety, because Pharaoh would protect this little baby boy now.  And the family would benefit from being paid for nursing.  This was incredible.  God provides when we release our children! 
 
We are told that after Moses grew, Miriam returned the baby to Pharaoh’s daughter.  This might mean that when he was weaned, which would be from 2-3 years of age.  But it could also mean as many as 12 years.  Either way, Moses’ mother got him back when she let him go.  After he was released back to Pharaoh’s daughter, he went into training which would prepare him to release his people from Egyptian slavery.
 
When you release your baby, you’ll receive something in return that’ll never happen if you hold on.  Moses’ mom not only got him back, but she also got to see him mature as a little boy. 
 
Notice too, that this was not a clear-cut release and then never see him again.  It was a constant release of the child over time.  That is what often times happens with mothers today.  And it is hard.  It is as simple as releasing your child to go to kindergarten.  That is hard on many mothers.  Another is when your child graduates and officially becomes an adult.  Or maybe even the hardest one is when they decide to move away.   All of these moments are there to help the mother make the right decision to release the child. 
 
And yet, when you allow him or her to grow up to be their own adult, you are rewarded in a way that could not have happened if you would have held on.  Just consider for a moment this last line of verse 10.  Moses’ mother had no idea of the significance of water in Moses’ life.  As he was drawn out of water, he would control water.  She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”
 
Years later as an adult he would part an entire Sea by the power of God.  Moses, which carries with it a water motif, is able to part the water.  He would be the savior of his people.  He would free one million slaves from Egypt and take them to the promised land.  And all of this was possible because of a mom who would let go and release him into God’s will for his life.  Would you like to be the kind of mom who lets go when she needs to?  If you have done a great job with them, you will be overjoyed at what you find out.  You will find that this little person you helped mold will make you very proud.  But you can’t be proud of them until you release them.  It really is one of the greatest gift you can give to your child. 
 
Some moms don’t want to release their children because they are afraid they’ll never come back.  But throw that myth out the door.  If this child felt any kind of love from you in their 18 years in your home, without a doubt, they will come back to you and show you love.  Lay that fear to rest.  Release them.  You will be so happy you did.
 
There are many rewards a mother will experience when she releases her child at the different stages of their lives, but maybe the greatest reward will be when she can sit back and realize the wonderful person her little one has become.  And guess what?  None of that would have happened without her releasing him or her to go out on their own. 
 
When an eagle first lays her egg, she sits on it and takes tender care of it.  Then the egg hatches and she takes care of the little eagle in her nest.  She gets food for it.  Meets the little eagle’s every need.  Until one day the eagle is ready for flight.  She pushes him out of the nest and he learns to fly quickly.  Unless she pushes him out of the nest, he will never learn to soar high up in the sky.  In the same way, until we as parents learn to release our children to do great things, we will never know what could be possible if we hold onto them too tightly. 
 

8 Carp and an 8 Year Old

carp8

Just the other day I was walking with my eight year old daughter through a rain drenched field and we came upon some carp that were trapped several hundred yards away from the river.  My daughter enjoyed looking at these fish closely.  Normally these fish are hiding in the muddy bottom of a river.  But today they were sunbathing in a field.  I know that these fish are only carp.  By most people’s standards, they are called “trash fish.”  Many lake associations will pay people a couple bucks for every carp he or she clears out of a lake.  It doesn’t matter if they catch the carp with a rod and reel or a spear.  The goal is to get the dirty carp out of the water where bass and bluegill can thrive.  While I agree that carp can cause many problems in any aquatic ecosystem, seeing those carp trapped and knowing that they will die soon did not excite me.  Looking at those carp dying raised up within me an emotion that realized how wrong creation has gone.  When God created the carp, He created it to be good.  God’s plan was not for the carp to rot out in the field on an 80 degree day. 
So, what is God’s plan when it comes to His creation?  How should we interact with God’s creation?  Most Christians don’t know how to respond to these questions.  There are probably several reasons why Christians don’t talk about the environment.  One reason might be the emphasis on end times theology.  Hey, if the world is going to burn up someday anyway, and Jesus is coming back soon to save us from this earth, then why take care of it?  Another reason is the fear that we will appear to be liberal politically and that only tree huggers care about the planet and to care about the planet means that you are a fanatic.  Or maybe it is just because people are indifferent and don’t really spend time thinking through the issues of the environment. 
How should a Christian interact with the environment?  In honor of the 8 carp who recently lost their lives, I want to give you 8 things to think about when it comes to the environment. 
1.      Enjoy all of the earth’s God given resources (Genesis 2:15; 9:1-16).  God makes it very clear here that He has given us both animals and vegetation for our purposes.  We are allowed to eat meat and vegetables.  God makes this clear.  Humans have also tried to use some of the things that God has given to us.  More than 40% of the medicines we use are derived from plants.  Amazingly, only about 2% of flowering plant species have so far been examined for possible medicinal uses.  This shows us the remarkable resources God has given to us.  We have been on this planet for thousands of years, and yet we are just beginning to scratch the surface of what God has placed into the creation.  God also tells us to enjoy these things that He has made.  These things are for us.  Just think about some of the things that God has given to us for a moment.  What is pleasing to your eyes?  What delights your senses?  Walking barefoot in lush, green grass?  Hearing the crashing of waves and the feel of salty air on your face?  Watching wind-driven snowflakes come to rest clinging to bare branches?  Or when you see the first robin of spring?  If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in nature and will realize that it is holy and sacred.  We will see God reaching out to us in every wind that blows, every sunrise and sunset, every cloud in the sky, every flower that blooms, every leaf that fades.  When is the last time you have been so overwhelmed by something in God’s world that you feel like worshipping God (Nehemiah 9:6)? 
2.      Do your part to conserve wildlife.  In Deuteronomy 22:6, we are told that it is okay to take eggs or the young birds for food, but that we shouldn’t take the mom also.  We should leave something behind so that we don’t use up everything.  There are two extremes when it comes to wildlife.  There are those who believe that animals should never be hunted or even killed for that matter because they put too much value on that life and there are those who kill just for the fun of it and do not take into consideration that they are taking away a life.  Neither category is biblical.  God has placed us on this planet to conserve life even when we take an animal’s life.  For example, every year over 130,000 whitetail deer are harvested by hunters in the state of Indiana.  What if whitetail deer were protected and were allowed to multiply uncontrolled?  Then we would have a serious problem on our hands.  Hunting deer is an act of conservation.  In fact, in some places in Wisconsin, if certain places were not hunted for just five years, entire farming communities would be wiped out from herds of deer eating and destroying all of their crops. 
3.      If you ever harvest an animal, treat it with utmost respect.  In public school, I was taught that “European white men” almost killed off the buffalo, while the “Native Americans” used every part of the buffalo for practical use.  Just recently, I found out that both groups of people were guilty of running buffalo off cliffs.  Hundreds of buffalo would die in a matter of seconds. Even the Native Americans would then pick and choose which buffalo they wanted to use.  If a certain buffalo was bruised up severely because of the fall, they would just leave it there.  Yes, once they decided on which buffalo they would use, that is when they would use all of it.  It must anger God that so many generations have been so careless with His animals.  I have gotten to the point in my hunting experience that when I place a scope on a deer and I get ready to pull the trigger, I remind myself that if I pull that trigger, I am ending this deer’s life.  I am in essence deciding that this deer will never see another sunrise.  It will never eat another meal.  It will never breathe another breath of air.  I will end its existence on this earth forever.  That is why there have been many times that I have looked at a deer through my scope and have decided to let it walk.  God wants us to respect wildlife to such an extent that hunters shouldn’t always have to shoot something to be successful in the field. 
4.      Take care of the land (Leviticus 25:1-12).  Eighteenth century French farming, the best in Europe at the time, produced about 345 pounds of wheat per acre.  Modern American farmers produce about 2,150 pounds of wheat per acre (6.2 times as much).  In 1949, we spent 22% of our income on food.  Today, it is only about 10% of our income.  This is a testament to how the farming and manufacturing companies have embraced new technologies so that we don’t need to spend almost 1/4 of our income on food anymore.  But we must make sure that we do not destroy the land in the name of advancement and a higher profit margin.  Agronomists estimate that two bushels of topsoil are lost for every bushel of corn produced a year.  The principles of crop rotation used by previous generations have been largely abandoned.  Earthworms are less abundant on farmland, and the bird population has been diminished by the removal of fencerows and hedgerows.  If the strip-miners would take bulldozers and push back the topsoil, then rip out the coal, put back the soil, and replace the topsoil, in ten years after the coal was removed there would be a green field, and in fifty years a forest.  But, as it stands, for an added profit above what is reasonable in regard to nature, man turns these areas into deserts—and then cries out that the topsoil is gone, grass will not grow, and there is no way to grow trees for hundreds of years!  Also, scientific experiments and industrial processes have produced approximately 70,000 different kinds of chemicals.  Some chemicals designed to destroy one form of life, such as herbicides and pesticides, may have unintended consequences in other parts of the environment.  “Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture?  Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet?  Is it not enough for you to drink clear water?  Must you also muddy the rest with your feet” (Ezekiel 34:18)?  Francis Schaeffer said that human sinfulness manifests itself in the environmental crisis in two ways: greed and haste.  Strive to take care of the land so that you leave it in a better state than when you got here. 
5.      Connect with a domesticated animal.  When my wife and I were first married, we decided to buy a little dog.  We fell in love with a miniature pincher we named Sammy.  She became an important part of our family.  We all loved her dearly.  She spent nine years with our family before her death.  As we were returning her to the ground, we all cried for her as we gathered around her little grave.  I cried a lot more than I thought I would.  In fact, for several weeks after her death I would think about her and how I missed her.  I still think about her from time to time and miss how she would snuggle up to me and show me love like only a dog can.  God tells us that a righteous person loves the animals under their care (Proverbs 12:10). 
6.      Use only as much of a resource as you need.   In Deuteronomy 20:19-20, we see this principle.  When our daughters learned to use the toilet, we would often see a trail of paper spread out throughout the bathroom and sometimes out the door.  We trained them to only use a certain amount, not too much and not too little.  Because too little would be dangerous also.  According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in 2008, the U.S. generated approximately 250 million tons of trash or about 4.6 pounds per person per day.  Do you need to scale back your lifestyle? Focus less on getting and more on giving, and consume less so you can serve more.   
7.      Properly dispose of your waste (Deuteronomy 23:13).  In high school, I remember riding along with a group of friends and we decided to order a pizza.  We all scarfed it down and as soon as the last piece was eaten, one of the guys rolled down the window and threw out the pizza box.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  There arose in me an anger at what he did, and yet I kept my mouth shut.  I should have said something to him.  I should have confronted him for his thoughtless behavior.  We are experiencing something on this planet that we have never before seen: global toxification.  What is this?  Let me give a couple examples.  Pesticides have been found in the fat of Antarctic animals.  Toxic wastes have leached into groundwater and caused certain diseases and sicknesses.  Pollutants can even be measured in the upper atmosphere.
8.      At least once a day, listen to the earth groaning (Romans 8:20-22).   Do you hear the earth groaning?  If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of the earth crying for redemption.  The carp were groaning.  They were dying.  This is the earth we live in now.  Spend time reminding yourself that the earth will someday pass away.  But when it does, God will make all things new!  And in this new world, this trash fish called the carp will be good again.  Until then, it will be my goal to leave this world a little better for my eight year old daughter.