THE ORDINATION OF MOTHERHOOD
Part 3

THIRD WATCH

“Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching . . .
And if he shall come in the SECOND WATCH, or come in the THIRD WATCH,
and find them so, blessed are those servants”
(Luke 12:37, 38).

THIRD WATCH

You’ve got teenagers. Wow! This is an exciting and challenging time of motherhood. Your children want to flex their muscles. They have moments of maturity, but still lots of immaturity. It’s a time to inspire maturity, responsibility, and earnestness as they prepare more diligently for life.

It’s certainly not a time to vacate mothering. We need to be on hand for our teens as much as for our little ones. This is one of the great blessings of parents who are open to the blessing of children. They don’t stop at two children (unless that’s where God stops). What a blessing for older children to have younger brothers and sisters and hopefully a baby in the family. They learn firsthand the art of parenting and the blessing of children. They are prepared for the great task of establishing their own family unit. Their hearts, which are sometimes lured to rebellion, are kept soft and tender with little toddlers and babies around them.

I think about the family God chose for His Only Son, Jesus Christ. Folk in our society would think He needed a two-child family where He could have his own bedroom and everything He could ever need. But no, God chose a poor family. Matthew 13:55, 56 tells us about his four brothers (that’s five boys in the family) and “his sisters, are they not ALL with us?” “Sisters” is in plural, which means there were at least two. However, in the context it looks as though there could have been more. What if there were four or five sisters? Jesus lived in a poor family of at least seven children, but perhaps ten or more.

It is also such a blessing for the mother. It is a temptation when there are only two or three older young people in the home (and they all grow up) to wonder what to do with your life. But a baby keeps you in the home and it keeps you there for your older children. This is such a powerful blessing. Teenagers need a mother in the home to watch over their lives. We no longer need to care for their physical bodies (except cooking for them!), but they need powerful spiritual watching with our “beady” natural eyes and our “acute” spiritual prayerful eyes.

It is a time to carefully guard their friendships. One of the greatest influences on teens is their peers. Their friends determine their lifestyle. When mother is in the home, she has opportunity to invite godly friends to come for dinner or a party with her teens. She can guide her children to good friendships who will have a godly influence on their lives. We brought up our teens on Proverbs 13:20: “He that walks with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of food shall be destroyed.” Sadly, many wonderful Christian parents watch their young people get into drugs and a sinful lifestyle. Invariably, it is because of the friends they have made. And usually in the public school!

Jeremiah 51:12 says: “Make the watch strong.” I believe we must make our watch stronger on this watch than any other time in our mothering. When our children were little we gave ourselves physically to care for them night and day. Now, we give ourselves in prayer. You can’t effectively mother your children through the third watch unless you are a praying mother. Ask your husband to pray with you each day for your children. There is power in AGREEING prayer. “If TWO OF YOU shall AGREE on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:19).

What did Jesus say to His disciples? “Could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation” (Matthew 26:40).

Habakkuk 2:1 (NET): “I will stand at my watch post; I will remain stationed on the city wall.” (Or personally, I will remain stationed at the post of my home).

Luke 12:39: “And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.”

Embrace your THIRD WATCH.

Be blessed, Nancy Campbell

PRAYER:

“Dear Father God, I thank You for reminding me of what powerful mothering is needed in this third watch. Help me to be disciplined in prayer. Help me to take up my powerful mantle of mothering in this vulnerable time of my children’s lives. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

My teens cannot get away from my watchful eyes or my daily passionate prayers.