Proverbs 31:28

Her children arise up, and call her blessed.

The children’s praise

This is part of the just debt owing to the virtuous woman. It is enough to make virtuous people happy that they are blessed of God. Yet this is thrown in as the reward of virtue, that among men also ordinarily it hath its praise. The praise that attends the virtuous woman comes from her own children.

1. It is a great comfort to those who are good themselves to see their children rising up. Here rising up means, stir up themselves to pursue the same course as their good mother.

2. The children of the virtuous woman call her blessed. It is her honour that she shall be praised by them that are best acquainted with her and most indebted to her.

I. The character of those parents to whom honour is due from their children.

1. Those that are truly wise deserve praise.

2. Those that are truly kind.

3. Those that are industrious and careful.

4. Those that are charitable.

5. Those that are virtuous; that is, sober and temperate, just and righteous in their conversation, exemplary in integrity and uprightness.

6. Those that are pious and religious towards God.

II. The duty of children in discharging their debt to their parents.

1. Maintain a grateful remembrance, and, on occasion, make honourable mention of our godly parents.

2. Give thanks to God for them.

3. We ought to be very sensible of our loss when such parents are removed from us. (Philip Henry, M.A.)

The blessing of the pious mother

The family is the profoundest and most sacred of all our social relationships. It is a type of spiritual relationships, and a means of realising them. In this delineation of the excellent woman the influence of the mother is more especially recognised. The distinctive honour of the pious mother is that she receives the benediction of her own children. They do her honour, speak of her with reverence and love and blessing. What must a mother be in order to inherit such benediction of her children? Notice her prudent regulation of the affairs of her household; her kindness, gentleness, and benignity; her piety. The religiousness that influences a child is the religiousness of common life, the religiousness that is the life that imbues all things with its feeling and sanctifies all things with its presence. Urge upon young women the present cultivation of such a character as will make them wise and holy mothers. (Henry Allon, D.D.)

Gratitude for a good mother

Mrs. Susannah Wesley was a model mother. The wife of a country curate, she brought up her large family so well that all Christendom has cause to bless her name. At her death her children gathered around her bed and sang a hymn of praise in gratitude to God for such a mother. She is called the “Mother of Methodism,” so much did her famous sons John and Charles Wesley owe to her influence and training. General Garfield said that his was a model mother. When young and headstrong he obtained work on a canal boat against her wishes. One dark night, when alone on the boat, he fell overboard. It was in a lock, where the water was deepest. He could not swim, and was sinking when his hand touched a rope hanging over the side, apparently by accident. He climbed on deck and found that the rope was only held by the slightest twist round a block. He felt it was God’s hand which had saved him, and resolved to start for home at once. He found his mother and described his miraculous escape. “What hour was it?” she asked. He told her, and she said, “At that very moment I was praying for you, my son, that God would protect and bless you.” And in after-life Garfield used to say, “I owe everything to my mother.”

Her husband also, and he praiseth her.

Gratitude for a good wife

The Earl of Beaconsfield said, “Every step in my life to honour and success I owe to my good and faithful wife.” President Lincoln, on receiving a presentation, said, “I will hand this to the lady who, by her counsel and help, has made it possible in anywise for me to serve my country.” A working man at a great meeting said recently, “My wife was a good woman before her conversion, but now she is worth her weight in diamonds.” When Jonathan Edwards was discharged from his appointment he came home in despair. But his wife smiled bravely and said, “My dear, you have often longed for leisure to write your book, and now it has come. I have lighted a fire in your room, and set the table with pens and paper.” He was so cheered that he set to work at once, and wrote the book that made him famous. (S. M. Evans.)

A wife praised by her husband

The late Robert Moffat had a wife of rare excellence. For more than fifty years she shared his toils in South Africa. The Secretary of the London Missionary Society says, “After their return from Africa, while talking over their labours at the Mission House, Mrs. Moffat said, ‘Robert affirms that I do not hinder him in his work.’ ‘No, indeed,’ replied Dr. Moffat, ‘but I can affirm that she has often sent me out to missionary work for months together, and in my absence has managed the station better than I could have done myself.’ Her husband’s first exclamation on finding her gone was, ‘For forty-three years I have had her to pray for me.’”