Listening to Your Mom Could Make You Famous!

Day 3 –  Listening to Your Mom Could Make You Famous!

Intelligent children listen to their parents; foolish children do their own thing.

Proverbs 13:1, Message

The Bible tells one of the secrets to gain intelligence is simple; it's by listening to your parents! In recent research, I discovered just how influential the mother's voice in the lives of some famous people. For example… George Washington, our first American President said that the greatest teacher he ever had was his mother. Abraham Lincoln said…" All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." Sir Winston Churchill said, "If we want to change our nation, begin by enlisting the mothers.

Additionally, many are familiar with Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, if not the greatest player of all time. Few people know that his rookie year, he wanted to get into advertising and approached the shoe companies Converse, Adidas, to see if he could work a deal with them. They turned him down. He was a rookie and hadn't proven himself, and besides, they had other major players wearing their brands.  A small new start-up shoe company, by the name of Nike had recently come with some new technology with air soles and approached Michael Jordan. He wasn't interested. They weren't a big successful company, and Michael didn't want any part of it. Little did he know, his mom found out and told Michael he'd better go and meet with them, it might be a really good deal for him. Michael reluctantly went to meet the Nike team. Michael's agent loved the new air technology, and the two struck a deal. Michael would get his own brand and line of shoes, and they would call it Air Jordan's! The Nike team loved it. They designed a plan and hoped to make three million within the first four years, little did they know once Air Jordans hit the shelves, sales would be over 125 million in the first year!!!

Even Jesus, as a young adult, listened to his mother! In John 2:1-11, we see that Jesus was invited to a wedding, with many family and friends. Weddings in this time, lasted seven days, and hosts invited as many people as possible, especially distinguished guests like prominent teachers, Jesus was a gifted teacher with a growing reputation! What we don't know is if he brought with him far too many friends to this wedding. What we do know, is that the wedding party runs out of wine early on. And according to historians to run out of wine at a wedding was a social faux pas, a great embarrassment, that would become the talk of the town for years; the host was responsible to provide his guests with adequate wine for seven days. In hoping to spare the family from embarrassment, Jesus reports the problem. "They have no wine" as to express a major problem! Jesus responds with, "Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come."

His response wasn't disrespectful, but it showed distancing. His woman statement would be like when we say in today's culture, "ma'am." It's a formal response to woman, why Jesus used this with his own mother, is likely because, he's creating some distance, in that he's not simply her son, he's the savior of the world, and as soon as he starts doing miracles, his journey to the cross will begin.

We don't know exactly how much time Jesus was waiting on, but the next thing we find in the story is that Jesus' mother, Mary, wastes no time. She orders the servants to do whatever Jesus says to do. Implying he's going to do a miracle... and it's going to happen quickly! Jesus complies and tells the servants what to do, and tells them to take the new wine to master of the feast, this is the official host of the party, to deliver a glass of water instead of wine would create the largest public embarrassment possible in this situation. Jesus has done a miracle, he transformed water into wine. Not just any wine, but the best-tasting wine they had ever had. It's likely the kind of wine we will have in heaven!

What happened? Jesus listened to his mother. He likely waited a minute, thought about her request, consulted with His Heavenly Father, and then decided his time had come. The result was spectacular.

The family was spared embarrassment, this wonderful wedding continued in their celebration of marriage, and it went down in history as "the first" of his signs, and it manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. 

The moral of the story is to listen to your parents. Call and get their advice, even if they aren't the wisest or kindest people. They likely know you very well and they are worth listening too. You don't have to agree with what they say, but you can say, "You've brought some interesting points, definitely something to think about. Thank you!" If Jesus, as an adult, listened to his mother, shouldn't we?