“The Lord came and stood and called as before: ‘Samuel, Samuel!’
And Samuel said: ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening!'” – 1 Samuel 3:10.
When I think of the relationship between mother and son, there is no other relationship that stands out to me as much as the story of Hanna and Samuel.
I have a little girl, and am firmly convinced that boys are a completely different species of human being to raise.
The other day I heard from one of my friends that she had to cook 18 eggs for her three sons one Sunday morning before church. I’m sure little sister and daddy ate together too. But earth, 18 eggs! And after church they were apparently hungry again!
But nevertheless. Besides all the eating, I can only think, I can only dream about a boy in my house.
Between our three sisters, we only have little girls in the family – we are still waiting for a boy to whom we can give my father’s name. A boy who can proudly carry his late grandfather’s name. The late grandfather who saved my mother from the sea and gave his life so that my mother could live.
Brave man he was, brave boy he was. Because he was obedient to what the Lord told him to do. Even if it cost him his life. My grandmother Joe raised my father bravely.
When I think about the relationship between mother and son, and dream about what such a relationship will look like one day in my life, I see myself dancing with my son on his wedding day. I see how I hold his little children and I see how I dedicate him to the Lord every day.
Just like what Hanna did with Samuel.
Samuel who was so faithful to the Lord, every day. Who as a little boy was already given to the Lord by his mother.
I sometimes wonder if she wanted to keep him just a little bit more for herself, but she was faithful to God and by giving Sameul to the Lord she played an enormous role in our lives as Christians today.
If every mother totally surrenders her son to do God’s work so that he can anoint the kings, so that he can give advice and live as the Lord our Father intends for him.
Son, you are the brave one who takes up this calling from your mother’s womb and who asks aloud again, just as Sameul did: “Here I am, you called me”. You are brave to ask this question in a world that sometimes becomes silent from God, that turns away from God.
When you stand obediently, stand boldly before God, nothing can break you. When you stand bravely before God and say to him: “Here I am, use me”, He will use you for good. You yourself, together with God, can move mountains. Just be bold in your calling.
I have the privilege of being able to see in front of me every day what a man of God looks like. When I look at my husband, I see how the Lord flows through him and makes him a better person, father, brother, son and husband every day. My mother-in-law, like Hanna, dedicated him and his brother to the Lord. In her own way, she placed them at the Lord’s feet, because she could not do everything alone. Her trust in God was great, her hope was great and so was her expectation.
This dedication to God has made my husband a strong man who can now raise strong children.
If one thinks about how important the Afrikaner man’s role is in a family, one realizes that it already begins in his mother’s womb. There where he receives his calling, where he is placed by the Lord.
One also looks over our country and realizes that the future for the Afrikaner man no longer looks as bright as it did in the past – there are hurdles to jump over and obstacles that are set up by the government and parties that do not want the Afrikanerman must be successful in our beautiful country. But our men were brought up differently, they were brought up bravely – the cornerstone of a healthy family.
It is therefore very important that we as mothers not only have a good and healthy relationship with our sons, but that we also raise our daughters in such a way that one day they will honor their husband and allow him to take the lead. And then also support him so that he can once again be the brave hero for his children.
There rests a Hanna in every mother, there hides a Ruth in every daughter-in-law, there lives a David in the heart of every young man and there reigns a God who is merciful and good over all of our lives. That is precisely why we will not lie down, that is why we will stand bravely in our calling as mother and as son.
The FroueVonds of Solidarity Helping Hand visited Sol-Tech to talk to young men about their relationship with their mothers. It is special to be able to see and hear how much these men love their mothers and how big a role a healthy relationship between mother and son plays in society.
The FroueFonds wants to intervene here to fill this gap(s), build the bridge to a better life, break the chains of poverty that threaten to destroy, so that women who are stopped by these things, in the end as healthy women can function in society. Healthy women lead to healthy families and healthy communities.
* Die FroueVonds is misspelled on purpose to match our motto, “because everything doesn’t always go right”.
To find out more about what we do at Solidarity Helping Hand se FroueVonds, please visit www.frouevonds.co.za.
