Introduction:
It’s not easy to be a mom. Motherhood involves a lot of grit & grime. Moms learned from daily experiences dealing with their children. Here’s a short list.

1. The glass in your living room window will not stop a baseball your child threw at the ceiling fan.
2. When you hear the toilet flush and the words uh oh, it’s already too late…. And now for math
3. Brake fluid + bleach = smoke; the average arrival time of your local fire dept is 5 minutes.
4. Play-dough and microwaves should not be used in the same sentence and never in the same room,
5. Garbage bags will not make a good parachute jumping from a bedroom window.
6. VCR’s do not eject PB&J sandwiches even though they do on TV sitcoms.
7. Always look in the oven before turning it on; GI Joes & plastic toys don’t like ovens

Yes, Motherhood can involve a lot of grit & grime but there is no greater place of influence then Mom. Mother’s Day was inspired by Mrs. Anna Reeves Jarvis…105 years ago President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day. He established the day for “public expression of our love and reverence for our mothers.” It’s certainly true that no nation is ever greater than its mothers, for they are the makers of the next generation.

While we certainly want to magnify motherhood today, I recognize that this is also a very tough day for some of you… Maybe you had a mother who did not know how to love or care for you. Don’t dread Mother’s Day. Instead of focusing on your situation (maybe you’ve lost a child, or cannot conceive), think of Mother’s Day as a time to reflect on, serve, and honor your other mothers. Stop concentrating on your own broken dreams. Find ways to help other mothers who, like yours, need some parenting skills.

Hannah was one of the most noble and influential mothers who ever lived. Her contributions are three- fold. First, she influenced the life of a child for God. Second, she influenced the priest hood and thirdly, she influenced a nation for God.
Background
1. Hannah time was perhaps the parallel of our time. The priesthood that was supposed to lead the people of God had become totally corrupted. There were vile and sinful men in the priesthood. Even in the temple itself there were moral scandals. It was a wretched time: a time of gross evil when not only was the leadership corrupt but the priesthood had abandoned its calling. The nation was weak. The nation was in trouble. It was a time of a tremendous backsliding from the divine standard. And so it was a time when God needed a special man and in order to make a special man you need a special woman and Hannah was that woman. She raised godly Samuel the final Judge of Israel and a great prophet. She had some real problems.

I Hannah Had a Passion to be a Mom vv. 8-10
1. Hannah wanted a child for two reasons. First, she wanted to please her husband, yet she was barren. It’s likely that Elkanah had married Hannah first and then, because she was not able to have children, he decided to marry Penninah. Though the Bible records the polygamous relationships of some of the patriarchs, it never endorses it. Second, Peninnah, the other wife taunted her and made fun of her daily… It drove Hannah to tears. It bothered Hannah so much that she would weep and not be able to eat. She mourned deeply with so much grief that she lost her appetite. Some of you are in the middle of this kind of anguish right now….

2. I learned this week that one out of six women who want to have a baby cannot conceive. God answered Hannah’s prayer but not just so she could have a baby. God needed a special prophet He could work through. He allowed a time of barrenness in Hannah’s life to bring a greater blessing than she could ever imagine. Her passion was a desire to be a Mother and with desire comes emotion. She hope, and hope…
Pro 13:12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but [when] the desire cometh, [it is] a tree of life.

3. Women of faith do exhibit real problems (1:1-8). It’s easy to think that the heroes in the Bible were somehow different than we are. We might think that it’s tough to relate to them because their lives were so perfect and their culture was so different than ours. Actually, the Bible is filled with real people with real problems, who face them with real faith.

4. These two wives did not get along the most difficult thing that Hannah faced is the phrase that is repeated twice, once at the end of verse 5 and again at the beginning of verse 6: “And the Lord had closed her womb.” This is one of the hardest lessons we will ever learn. Our problems are allowed by the Lord Himself. It is God who is behind the circumstances of our life. – Romans 8:28

Application:
Sometimes there are outward reasons that make us pray more fervently than ever before.
Remember when you come to prayer, it is not how much time you spend praying, it is how effective you are in attitude and desire. Hannah’s passion turned to agonizing prayer…

II Hannah’s agonized with God in Prayer. Vv. 11-20

1. She says in verse 11, “If You’ll just look on my affliction and remember me and not forget me,” and all of that means…give me a child, give me a child, give me a child. That’s why she wept she had a passion to bear a child. Hannah had some problems but she didn’t shut down or lash out at those around her. Her weeping led to worship as her tears mingled with her prayers. The kind of prayer that arises from the bitterness of the soul is far different than the dry prayers Sometimes God uses our problems to get our attention and to teach us accordingly.
Psalm 119:71 -It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

2. She promised to give that child to the Lord. And by the way, Numbers 30: 6-7 says that any time a woman vowed, the husband had to consent with it, so Elkanah must have agreed in the prayer too. Look at the result in verse 19, it was beautiful…

3. They worshipped together; they took their petitions to God. They came home and trusted God. “And the Lord…what?… remembered her. Wherefore it came to pass when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived that she bore a son and called his name Samuel.” You know what Samuel means? Heard by God. “Saying, because I have asked him of the Lord.” Her prayer was answered. She wanted God’s best. She prayed for it. She offered that life back to God. She lived in purity. God answered her prayer. Psalms 50:15 And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
A godly Mom prays for the child in the womb and out of the womb. Prayer changes lives, never give up on prayer. Thank God for praying mothers. Prayer opens doors.

III Hannah was a dedicated Mother 21-23

1. When Elkanah went to worship Hannah did not go up.” She didn’t go anymore. “For she said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child is weaned and then I will bring him that he may appear before the Lord and there abide forever.” She kept her vow, I’ll give that child to the Lord as soon as he’s weaned, for a Hebrew mother that was between two and three years of age, but she said I’m not going up there until this child can feed himself.

2. Verse 23, “Elkanah, her husband,” who must have been a very understanding man, “said unto her, Do what seemeth to thee good, tarry until thou hast weaned him; only the Lord established his word; so the woman abode and nursed her son till she weaned him.”

3. She was dedicated to the child. That’s the right home relationship. Mothers, invest your life in those children. Believe me, it didn’t stop there. She was not only dedicated to the child but note verse 24, ” She dedicated the child to the Lord.

IV Hannah dedicated her Child to the Lord vv. 24- 28

1. Hannah had promised God she would lend the child to the Lord’s service all the days of his life and she kept her promise. It’s a fabulous thing to think about. A woman gave her child to the Lord keeping a promise and a vow she had made to God.
That wasn’t the end of the story. The Lord never takes without giving. And so in verse 21, “The Lord visited Hannah and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters.” Five kids.. That’s the way it is with God. Remember you can’t out-give God. ”

2. But Samuel grew and ministered to the Lord. There’s no price high enough to value the virtue of a godly mother. She has a right relationship to her husband, to God and to the home.

Illustration page…
Susanna bore nineteen children; ten survived. She was the mother of John and Charles Wesley, the founders of worldwide Methodism. The frequent absences of her husband on church business left the management of the household in her hands. Through it all she remained a steadfast Christian who taught not only through the Scriptures, but through her own example of daily trust in God. She once wrote: We must know God experientially for unless the heart perceive and know Him to be to be the supreme good, her only happiness, unless the soul feel and acknowledge that she can have no repose, no peace, no joy, but in loving and being loved by Him.

The children were raised strictly. They were taught to cry softly, to eat what was put before them, and not to raise their voices or play noisily. Physical punishment was used, but confession of faults could avoid it. All but one of the children learned to read from the age of five, including the girls. (Susanna made it a rule for herself to spend an hour a day with each of the children over the period of a week.) After the fire of 1709 family discipline broke down, but Susanna managed to restore it later. She paid special attention to John, who was almost lost in the fire. He referred to himself as “a brand plucked from the burning fire,” and his mother said that she intended to be more particularly careful of the soul of this child that Thou hast so mercifully provided for, than ever I have been, that I may do my endeavors to instill into his mind the disciplines of Thy true religion and virtue. Her sons won tens of thousands of souls to Christ. She would not have wished for more.

Conclusion:
Women, you are of great worth in God’s sight whether or not you have a child. Lift up your head and realize that God loves you for who you are, not for what you do. He understands your sorrow and your pain and He’ll meet you right where you are.
Mothers, make it your mission to give your children to the Lord for a lifetime of dedicated service. There’s no greater purpose, and no higher honor, than to have your children give their lives in surrendered service to the Lord of Hosts.”