Sermon for Mother’s Day, May 13, 2018. Susanna Wesley is one of the figures included in the Church of Resurrection’s, Leawood, KS, stained glass window which has loosely tied the sermons together for the past several months.
Just imagine where The Church would be without mothers. Mothers have raised children perpetuating their culture’s faith foundation even before Jesus was born. Looking at the COR window, the images include other mothers, too, but Susanna Wesley cannot be ignored within our tradition.
John Wesley learned his faith and developed his methods from his mother’s teaching. He along with his nine other brothers and sisters including Charles, were raised in a devout Church of England family. Their father was Samuel Wesley, a priest in the Church of England, who even left the family for a year simply over a political argument with Susanna.
The article from historyswomen.com quickly introduces Susanna Wesley as the Mother of Methodism:
As a wife and mother in a small 18th century English parish Susanna Wesley herself received little recognition for how she managed her household, raised and educated more than a dozen children and coped with a sometimes impecunious, idealistic and occasionally difficult clergyman husband. Yet from her personal influence and loving home came a son who would experience a spiritual awakening and use that inspiration to begin a ministry that would fill a void in the national spiritual life and also develop into a world wide church. Indeed, it might be said that the movement called Methodism had its foundations in the home of Susanna Wesley. [Accessed on May 10, 2018.]
I have no idea if Mom and Dad connected my name with Susanna Wesley, but I do know that Mom certainly referred to Susanna after I had my two kids. Susanna had ten children who survived beyond infancy, but I clearly remember one of Mom’s pieces of advice that I am sure is familiar to many: “You need to give each one an hour. Susanna Wesley had ten kids and she devoted one hour to each one.”
Now, I am not certain if that is completely accurate, but I did find a similar statement in historyswomen.com biography: She gave each child individual attention by purposely setting aside a regular time for each of them. [Ibid.] A second website, christianitytoday.com, added this statement: Susanna made it a rule for herself to spend an hour a day with each of the children over the period of a week.
One thing I do know is that Mom greatly respected Susanna Wesley and so did her own son. My mom also told me how the family’s home burned and John almost died. The biography on christianitytoday.com also affirmed Mom’s references:
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. [Accessed on May 10, 2018.]
Today we honor our mothers, true; but consider where today’s church would be without Wesley’s mother. She was the daughter of a priest, she married a priest, and she mothered a priest (remember John Wesley was ordained in the Church of England as a priest). Her personal upbringing greatly influenced her mothering. One can only speculate how the scriptures prepared her for that role.
Looking at the Old Testament, the wisdom of King Solomon is found in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon/Songs. Surely Susanna knew these words well:
Scripture: Proverbs 22:17-21
17 Listen to the words of the wise;
apply your heart to my instruction.
18 For it is good to keep these sayings in your heart
and always ready on your lips.
19 I am teaching you today—yes, you—
so you will trust in the Lord.
20 I have written thirty sayings for you,
filled with advice and knowledge.
21 In this way, you may know the truth
and take an accurate report to those who sent.
Proverbs are“short, concise sentences that convey moral truths,” as explained in the Life Application Study Notes. These statements cover
“a range of topics, including youth and discipline, family life, self-control and resisting temptation, business matters, words and the tongue, knowing God, marriage, seeking the truth, wealth and poverty, immorality, and, of course, wisdom [defined as applying knowledge/facts to life]. [p. 1306]
As Susanna was raised in a religious home, she must have known these proverbs well. In an UMC.org feature by Joe Lovino, a letter she wrote to John outlines her mothering tips. The tips are outlined in these categories:
- Religious education
- Education
- Order and Discipline
- Sleep
- Meals and Dining
- Manners
Reading through Proverbs 10-24, which is titled “Wisdom for All People,” many of Susanna’s tips seem to echo several proverbs.
Additionally, Susanna practiced self-discipline, too. In fact, her prayer life was extremely important, and I stumbled into one blog that discussed her use of a “prayer apron”:
When Susanna was young, she promised the Lord that for every hour she spent in entertainment, she would give to Him in prayer and in the Word. Taking care of the house and raising so many kids made this commitment nearly impossible to fulfill. She had no time for entertainment or long hours in prayer! She worked the gardens, milked the cow, schooled the children and managed the entire house herself. So, she decided to instead give the Lord two hours a day in prayer!
She struggled to find a secret place to get away with Him. So she advised her children that when they saw her with her apron over her head, that meant she was in prayer and couldn’t be disturbed. She was devoted to her walk with Christ, praying for her children and knowledge in the Word no matter how hard life was. [Accessed on May 10, 2018 at http://sharonglasgow.com%5D
Certainly today’s mothers know the difficulty of finding quiet prayer time; therefore, let us quiet our own lives, consider throwing an apron over our heads, too, and spend some time in prayer: (The practice in our church family is to join in a time of prayer during our worship, concluding with the Lord’s Prayer.)
Reading through Susanna’s letter to John, provides today’s mothers solid advice on raising their families. Even though few families have ten kids living in the one house, the wisdom of her motherly advice is worthy of review.
- Religious education:
Devotions: “The children of this family were taught, as soon as they could speak, the Lord’s prayer. . .
Worship and music: “. . . the day began with reading or singing a psalm, reading an Old Testament chapter, and saying private prayers—all before breakfast. At the end of the school day, they paired up to read a psalm and a New Testament chapter.”
Sabbath: . . .The children “were very early made to distinguish the Sabbath from other days. . .”
- Education
Focus: School was 9-12 noon, and 2-5 pm
No goofing off: “Rising out of their places or going out of the room, was not permitted unless for good cause. . .
Reading: Each child was taught to read at age five. . .
- Order and discipline
Routine: a tight schedule. . . [with] times assigned for naps, education, meals, and bedtime.
Self-regulation: Susana believed “self-will is the root of all sin and misery,” . . worked to help her children develop self-control.
Forgiveness . . . never be punished for the same offense twice.
Peace . . . household was not chaotic . . . much quietness as if there had not been a child among them. . .
- Sleep
Bedtime . . .all in bed by 8:00 pm whether they were ready for sleep or not.
Naps infants . . . napped on a schedule. . .to bring them to a regular course of sleeping
- Meals and dining
Dining Mealtime was family time.
No snacking
Choosing meals . . . expected to eat was served.
Medicine . no problem when “. . . used to eat and drink what was given them”
- Manners
Polite speech be polite. . . [if] wanted something they were to ask
No lying . . .if confess it and promise to amen, they would not be punished.
Respect for property . . . taught to keep their hands off of another’s stuff. . .
Mothers all know the struggles to raise children, and Susanna was like all mothers yet today. She knew how difficult managing a household can be much less homeschooling the ten children. And among those ten children were two sons John and Charles Wesley.
The Church grew as John adapted his own organizational methods to take God’s message to those beyond the doors of the Church of England and even across the Atlantic to the United States
John’s brother Charles worked side by side with John and is accredited with writing so many hymns that appealed to the populace:
[Charles]was said to have averaged 10 poetic lines a day for 50 years. He wrote 8,989 hymns, 10 times the volume composed by the only other candidate (Isaac Watts) who could conceivably claim to be the world’s greatest hymn writer. [Accessed on May 10, 2018 at Christianitytoday.com]
Susanna’s motherhood was not easy. Susan Glasgow’s blog summarizes Susanna’s motherhood:
A devastated home isn’t always apparent on first impression, is it? Susanna Wesley was married to a preacher. They had 10 children of which, two grew up to bring millions of souls to Christ. That would be John and Charles Wesley. It’s a powerful story if you stop there, isn’t it?
But, behind the door of her home, hopeless conditions were the norm. She married a man who couldn’t manage money. They disagreed on everything from money to politics. They had 19 children. All except ten died in infancy. Sam (her husband) left her to raise the children alone for long periods of time. This was sometimes over something as simple as an argument.
One of their children was crippled. Another couldn’t talk until he was nearly six years old. Susanna herself was desperately sick most of her life. There was no money for food or anything. Debt plagued them.
. . .One of her daughters got pregnant out of wedlock and the man never married her. She was devastated, but remained steadfast in prayer for her daughter.
The Church continues through the efforts of mothers everywhere. Susanna Wesley may be the mother of the Methodist denomination, but she is really the same as Christian mothers everywhere. Her model of mothering includes the self-discipline of works of piety her son outlines:
- Reading, meditating and studying scriptures
- Prayer
- Fasting
- Regularly attending worship
- Healthy living
- Sharing our faith with others
The model of Susanna Wesley reflects much of the wisdom shared in the book of Proverbs. As our opening scripture shares, we are . . .
17 Listen to the words of the wise;
apply your heart to my instruction.
18 For it is good to keep these sayings in your heart
and always ready on your lips.
19 I am teaching you today—yes, you—
so you will trust in the Lord.
Today, we can turn to Proverbs and share with others the wisdom, too. If Susanna can do so, so can we.
[Distribute at least 30 proverbs among those in attendance and have them read them aloud to the others.]
Thank you to Susanna Wesley for her mothering skills. Today, we can understand how challenging it is for mothers in our world by realizing that mothers have always managed life challenges. The key is to study scripture and to raise our children the best that we can, teaching them the wisdom found in scripture.
Closing prayer:
Dear loving God,
Thank you for providing words of wisdom
as we find in the scripture.
Thank you for Susanna Wesley
raising her children in faith.
Guide us to continue following leaders
who live faithful lives based on scripture.
Guide us to teach our children
to do all that they can for all they can.
May our efforts continue The Church’s work
carrying your story forward.
May our work demonstrate the true wisdom
in loving one another as we want to be loved.
Thank you for Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Thank you for Susanna, the mother of John.
Thank you for loving us, your children.
In your name,
In the name of Jesus Christ,
And through the Holy Spirit, amen.
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