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The Mother’s Day of Peace May 9, 2012

Proverbs 31:9-11 “A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.” (NIV)

I am looking forward to next Sunday because it is Mother’s Day! This is a national holiday that first became recognized in the early 1900’s. However, I just learned this week that there was a celebration in the US many years before.

One of the earliest celebrations was called the “Mother’s Day of Peace” and it was held on June 2nd in 1872. It was the creation of the famous poet, abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Julia Ward Howe. Julia’s “Mother’s Day Proclamation” was a woman’s response to continuous war. She had seen many men that she loved suffer and die in war. Her most famous writing was the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” which proclaimed, “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord…” This writing became the anthem of the North in the Civil War. She was supportive of the Civil War because of the issue of one man owning another. However, the war industry never stopped. More wars began to slaughter the Native Americans and any other nation that stood in the way of progress. It was in this backdrop that the writer of the anthem for the North in the Civil War penned this:

“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears. Say firmly: ‘We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.’

We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.

From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, ‘Disarm, Disarm!’ The sword of murder is not the balance of justice! Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession, as men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war.

Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.”(Read more on this at: http://womenshistory.about.com/od/mothersday/a/jwh.htm)

I want to say that I am so grateful for the women in my life. You have been kind and supportive. You have also allowed God to speak through you when I was wrong. I honor you for this.

God bless you! Pastor Ken

Clayton’s Corner

The Month of May

This month brings a lot of changes with it. There are changes in weather, in schedule and in life. For some of our students, May is the beginning of a change that will leave their lives forever different. Some children prepare to go to school for the first time, others to junior high, and others to high school. For our high school seniors, May means the end of all of that, and a different kind of responsibility waits for them.

We have several students in our Youth Group that will be graduating this May. The students that are part of Calvary on Sunday mornings are: James Norlin, Dan Nulty, Judah Sistrunk, Brad Strickler and Lydia Strubhar. Graduation is on May 20th, and for these students this will be the beginning of an expectation from our culture to start 'growing up'.

As our students prepare to go to college, there will be temptations that they have never encountered. There will be expectations put on them for the first time as several of them move away from home. There will be an unspoken expectation for them to know what they want to 'be', what they want to 'do', and they may really struggle with answering those questions.

Please be intentional to encourage those students as you encounter them in the month of May. As their lives go through all of these changes pray for them to hold tightly to what they've learned and to the truth they've been taught. And pray for discernment, in choosing majors and schools and jobs that are within God's will for their lives.

The Baccalaureate service is at the Evangelical Methodist Church at 401 Walnut St., at 7 p.m. on the 16th. Several of our students will be involved in the service. Baccalaureate is student led by the senior class each year, and it is a capstone, a time of reflection and encouragement, of their time as Christian high school students. Consider yourself invited to come and encourage our seniors as they prepare to head forward into a different way of serving God. I hope to see you there!

In Christ,

Pastor Clayton