Introduction
“My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother” (Proverbs 1:8, KJV).
What prompts the poem below are two sayings: “’Tis education forms the common mind, just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined’ (Alexander Pope), and “Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man” (Jesuit maxim).
And, I confess, from my human nature side, there is another prompt due to comments snaking the ‘Net not appropriate to include here, from an alleged Christian pastor who often describes a woman according to the sum of her reproductive parts in perhaps the most vile, insulting, nearly-obscene non-Christian manner possible (IMHO). I offer no citation lest he gets any more exposure, as it were, that the world doesn’t need, both inside and outside the Church. But somehow he has a big following and you know who I mean if you have been, ah, exposed. My personal advice would be to run.
But back to the poem itself.
Although great male thinkers like Pope and the Jesuits might believe their methods are sure-fire, and the “pastor” believes we need to heed his gross opinions on women, consider: God got there first, you might say, when He designed a woman’s place in the grand scheme, when He designed her—and all her parts–in His perfect plan.
In the context of this poem, consider a woman’s role as mother of sons, specifically, before the weaning years in God’s fulness of time and perspective, whether three months like Jochebed, mother of Moses, or, in another sense, thirty years like Mary, mother of Jesus.
A far more potent period of growth than what man can devise (revise, or despise) for his own schemes.
And with all due respect, (and not a little irony) may I offer one more perspective regarding those who forbid women to teach men (the age of boys-to-men varying per group, as it seems, and even aside from what we know about the importance of early learning): a lot of powerful seed gets planted in the formative years.
Before the Weaning
Mothers, there will be
A lifetime later
For your sons to learn
The disciplines of
Slaying dragons,
Conquering crowns,
Protecting and providing
To the death—
Loving as Christ–
A father’s place.
You, however, mothers, are designed
For seasons from long before,
From the first months
You swaddle his form
In the warm, soft shelter of your womb,
Providing food and first impressions,
As flesh and blood are knit together there
By the hand of God.
And once your sons enter
The world of the air
You help them take not only first literal steps
But also spiritual.
For to you are also assigned the early lessons
Not only in little feet padding from here to there
But also, later on, in scaling an enemy’s walls
By self-control,
Breaking bones
With soft answers, and
Understanding that sometimes
We must wait forty months or years
In a desert
To acquire a skill or
To enter into God’s promises.
Mothers, you have been given
This precious time
To teach your sons
The ways of both cunning serpents and
Harmless doves, that
Sometimes, a man’s brawn
Notwithstanding,
It is the strength of a soft answer
That turns away wrath.
You, mothers, have been entrusted
To teach and preach to your sons
In the earliest years
The first lessons in
The way, truth, and life
In such a time as yours
In such a way as yours.
You are assigned
To teach them the foundations
To build upon at the city gates and
To guide them elsewhere,
As God leads,
As you show and tell them
How to listen
For trumpet sounds
And the still small
Voice of God.
For it is on your knee they begin
The journey to the cross.
In this way, too,
You are God’s helpers, meet,
In His plan.
Conclusion
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6, KJV).
Leave a comment