Don’t Be A Sorrow to Your Mother

“¹The proverbs of Solomon.

A wise son makes a glad father,

but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.”

— Proverbs 10:1 (ESV)

I know that I have disappointed my mother on a number of occasions. The thing is, that in the moment, I was only thinking of myself and did not notice until some time later when I looked back. What a difficult time those were for me. There is nothing like having your mother look at you with eyes of disappointment. I had been selfish and did not think before acting. I had overlooked the impact of my actions on others.

I want to be clear, this is not about being shamed into feeling bad about the decisions made that better your family. Like deciding to move 1500 miles from my mother with my family for a career promotion. My mother was not excited about that one, but it was not a foolish move so there was no shame in it. Even Jesus had a moment that brought fear to His mother when she could not find Him as He was teaching in the temple as a child.

It is about making decisions with thought and understanding. Not making them based on emotion and chasing unrealistic fantasy. Oh sure, we should be encouraged to dream, but sinking all of your life into the fantasy of being “king of the realm” is not a realistic dream. It is there that the sorrow felt by a mother is realized.

Mothers love their sons and daughters. They may not show it in the way that we want sometimes. They may not show it at all and frankly it may have wavered and disappeared entirely, but at some point, the love was there.

By and large, mothers want to see us as successful. That success is seen from their perspective and when they do not see it, they feel sorrow. It is not up to us to do things for our mothers, but it is up to us to help them see things from our side so that they will be able to turn those frowns upside down and feel joy once again.

Our move 1500 miles away, led to an opportunity for my mother to experience something that she really only dreamed of before. And, we did move back closer and are now only about 200 miles away, close enough for a day trip. All in all the move that was disappointing turned to be a move that drove joy. And, remember the fear Jesus’ mother experienced when she could not find Him, imagine the joy in her heart when she did and realized that He was fulfilling His call.

We are charged to do the work of Christ, wherever that work may take us. And when we are focused there, we will bring the joy to our mother. When we are doing the foolish thing, that will bring the sorrow.

What are you out there doing that your mother is watching? Are you doing the foolish thing that brings sorrow to her heart? What if you did what is right by God and guided your mother’s understanding of it to bring joy to her heart?