Intro: Mother's Day was started by a lady named "Anna M. Jarvis," a pastor's daughter, from Grafton, W. Virginia. She lived from 1864 to 1948. She got the idea for mother's day when her own mother died in 1907. At a community wide memorial service for her mother on May 10, 1908, she gave a carnation (her mother's favorite flower) to each person who attended. Within the next few years, the idea of a day to honor mothers gained popularity across the country. On May 9, 1914, by an act of Congress, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day.
There are good mothers, and there are not-so-good mothers. But everyone has a mother, and everyone needs a mother. There are three reasons you need a mother:

I. You need a mother to bring you into the world--to give you life.
A. A man and a woman are both necessary to create a new child, but it is the
mother who carries that baby for 9 months in her own body, near her heart.
B. Sometimes bad children don't appreciate the gift of life. They may cry out:
"I didn't ask to be born, you know!" (so get off my case!).
C. Life is a precious gift from God that needs to be treasured and appreciated!
1. You should value your own life.
2. You should value the lives of others.
D. Christians are stewards, not just of their possessions, but of their lives.
What are you doing with your life? What impact for Christ are you having?
Why are you alive? Think about it!

II. You need a mother to teach you how to live.
A. Most animals are born with instincts about how to live. Bees and ants come
right out of the egg and start working. Baby crocodiles head for the river
and start looking for tasty fish to eat. Snakes know how to slither. Colts
know how to run, as soon as they get strong enough for it.
B. Not so humans. We need to be taught most everything. We especially need
to be taught how to live in a mental, social and spiritual way. We need to
listen and learn from our mothers. (Proverbs 1:8-9).
C. In Proverbs 31, King Lemuel, and Solomon, recorded the chapter about the
virtuous woman. How did they know? (See Prov. 31:1).
D. Some teenagers are unwilling to listen and learn from their parents. They
think times have changed. They think they know more than their parents.
Times have not changed in essentials, only in particulars. Whatever problems
young people have now, their parents had the same kinds of problems. Drugs,
sex, violence, teasing, feeling left out, cliques, etc. As Solomon said, "There
is nothing new under the sun."

III. To model womanhood.
A. Sons and daughters learn what a woman is from observing mother.
There was an old song, I found it on the internet yesterday:
"I want a girl just like the girl that mar-ried dear old Dad. She was a pearl, and the on-ly girl that Dad-dy ev-er had. A good old-fash-ion-ed girl with heart so true, One who loves no-bod-y else but you. I want a girl just like the girl That mar-ried dear old Dad."
1. Your son learns what to look for in his future wife.
2. Your daughter learns how to be a future wife, and woman in all regards.
B. Some testimonials: Andrew Jackson, "The memory of my mother and
her teachings were the only capital I had to start life with, and on that
capital I have made my way."
D. L. Moody, "My mother! All that is good in my life, I think has come
from her!"
Churchill: "If we want to change our nation, begin by enlisting
the mothers."
George Washington: "The greates teacher I ever had was my mother."
Abraham Lincoln: "All that I am and all that I ever hope to be, I owe to
my mother...No man is poor when he has a godly mother."
Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Men are what their mothers make them."

CONCLUSION: We need our mothers. They have given us life. They have been our teachers. They have been and are our role-models. We must appreciate our mothers. Let me conclude with this little letter to "Dear Abby," Don't Wait 'Til Too Late! If your mother is still living, let her know how much you love her. If your mother has passed away, honor her memory by living by her best teachings, and thank God for all the good she brought into your life.