These studies guides are designed for you to print and study at your leisure.  Learning about the special truths of God's word as they apply specifically to the widow will be an encouragement to your heart.  Please feel free to share them with others and maybe they will be a tool for you to use in small groups as well.  

    If you click on the topic you want from the index below it will take you directly to that section.

Study on the Role of Mother

We will concentrate on concepts from three main passages for this study

Let us recognize first and foremost that our husbands will be the ones accountable to God for the direction of our children by virtue of the position of authority God has placed on them.

God is concerned about the fatherless child.  Accountability and protection is the responsibility of the father.  For this reason the absence of a father must not go unmet and God Himself chooses to fill that missing role; this may also be linked to spiritual protection.

Read:

Proverbs 22:6 (notice the two parts to this verse)

1. Train up a child in the way he should go – our assignment   empowered by God. 

Train (2596) means narrow or to initiate so we are to begin this process of channeling the child, but it is the work of God that completes it.

2. When he is old he will not depart from it – God’s promise to us; one which involves His work in that child's heart.

Clearly Proverbs 22:6 is speaking of the spiritual nature, character, and training of the child.  Our role as mothers in influencing this area will have more to do with our relationship with our husband, God, than anything we could say or teach with our mouth.  Again, the importance of our obedience to 1 Peter 3:1-6 is dominant. 

What is our focus then and how do we pray?

          FOCUS:

Examples of godly mothers:

Training process as outlined in Deuteronomy 6:4-25

Verse 4-5

  We have looked at this carefully already

Verse 6

Matthew 12:34-35

Verse 7

   The Word of God should be so filled in your heart that it saturates your daily conversation – don’t preach or quote Scripture – God will put the words on your tongue spontaneously as you pray for Him to speak through you.

Verse 8

   When your children see you making daily decisions based on your trust in God they see His influence bound as a sign upon your hand.  They see that your vision for the future is through the eyes of God as directed by His Word.  They see your peace and dependency on the Lord and how you pray over every decision.  They learn how you wait for the Lord’s answers to the difficult issues you face as a family.  The trust you have in the Lord is a powerful tower before them.  They see the invisible through His visible provisions as you give Him acknowledgment for them.  That which is your anchor in the Lord will become theirs.

Verse 9

   The very way we decorate our home is a command from the Lord.  Is your home splashed with Biblical truth?  How can we do this?

Verse 10-12

   The difference between our homes and the world that our children must live in should be a striking difference!!

Verse 13

Verse 14

   Some of the gods of our children’s world today include pornography, drugs, sexual lust, alcoholism, love of money that directs their life choices, and eating disorders.

Verse

   Have you shared the testimony of how you came to trust the Lord with your life with your children?  Remember, they cannot ride on your shirttails but must at some point choose to embrace this faith on their own.  Don’t let Satan bring fear to your heart over this.  God is faithful! 

The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)

   Really take your time as you examine this passage.  Cross-reference as you feel led and consider these thoughts as you read:

·        Look at the father’s response to the younger son’s decision to step out.  We do not know how old this son was, but there is no evidenced of anger or arguing over the request.  It appears that the father’s response was immediate even though as we know from the end of the story that this action was not the father’s desire for his son.

·        Verse 14 (possibly God’s intervention through natural events; these are the consequences of poor choices made).

·        Look at verse 18-19/ reveals what a great humility on the son’s part and amazingly without hesitation over what the father’s reaction might be – no doubt due to the manner in which the father handled the son’s poor decision to begin with.  This kept pride out of the formula concerning the son’s decision to return.

·        Verse 20 tells us that forgiveness was unconditional and even before the confession of the son in verse 21.

·        Verse 30-31 indicates that even though a great celebration was entertained, the father made no attempt to restore what was lost by the son when the son squandered his wealth.

This father was at peace over these life events.  He set no expectations or goals for his sons.  He was able to trust God with their lives and his responses were evidence of that.  How often do our expectations and ungodly goals get in the way of our responses to our older teen/adult children?  Have we given them up to God or not?  Can our peace be obtained from a different source than how they are living their lives or is our mother role and life so intertwined with theirs that our self-worth and sense of accomplishment is determined by their actions? We cannot afford to believe that God will in some way evaluate us based on their behavior.