“King Rehoboam established his royal power in Jerusalem. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put his name. Rehoboam’s mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. Rehoboam did what was evil because he did not determine in his heart to seek the LORD.” (2 Chronicles 12:13–14)
One reason Rehoboam did evil was that he had a bad mother; observe how it is written, just before the summary of his life, his “mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite,” one of Solomon’s numerous wives, one whom he favored most of all; but she was an idolatrous woman.
See how a woman’s life projects itself and either casts a ray of brightness over her children’s characters or a cloud of shame over their entire being.
What some of us owe to our mothers, we shall never be able to tell. If we had to write down the choicest mercies that God has bestowed upon us, we should have to mention first the mother who prayed for us and taught us to trust in Jesus, by the Holy Spirit’s blessing upon the sweet way in which she spoke to us about the Saviour. But a mother, trained in the school of Satan, and who has become a mistress in the art of sin, is a terrible source of evil to her children. May God have mercy upon any of you mothers who have sons growing up to follow the evil example that you are setting them!
Mothers, by the love you bear your children—and there is no stronger love, I think, on earth—if you will not think of your own soul’s best interests, I do pray you, for your children’s sake, consider your ways, and seek the Lord with the purpose in your heart that your children may, if possible, live in the presence of God.
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