Several weeks ago, in preparation for Mother’s Day, I did some research on mothers in the Bible to share with my congregations. The following is an excerpt from the sermon I gave on Mother’s Day.

The first mother recorded in the Bible is Eve. She and Adam had two oldest sons, Cain and Abel. Even though there were no PS2 game stations to hog, and no boxes of Li’l Debbie Snack Cakes with just one nutty bar left in them, Cain and Abel fought all the time. They clearly couldn’t work well together, so Abel went into sheep farming and Cain worked the land. Keeping out of each other’s way improved their relationship, and probably their mom’s nerves, but when it was time to bring their offerings to God, God preferred Abel’s meat to Cain’s vegetables. Which most of us can probably understand. But Cain was mad, and he got so jealous of Abel that he killed him.

“Where’s your brother?” God asked Cain after Abel was dead.

“Yahweh, am I supposed to keep an eye on that little twerp all the time?”

It’s hard for us to imagine the pain Eve must have felt. It was certainly not a very good beginning for the first mother.

A whole lot of begats later, we meet another mother named Rebekkah. She had two sons, Jacob and Essau. Rebekkah preferred one of her children over the other. Her youngest son Jacob liked to talk to her, and he kept her company in the tent. He was a charmer, a smooth man with smooth skin and smooth words. He was his mama’s boy. Rebekkah’s husband Isaac liked their oldest son Essau better. Essau was a man’s man, and he and his dad went hunting together all the time. Jacob was smarter than Essau was, and Jacob stole both Essau’s birthright and (with his mom’s help) his blessing. When Essau found out that his brother had taken everything of value from him, Essau tried to kill Jacob. Unlike Eve, Rebekkah was able to help her youngest son escape from his older brother. Did she sleep well at night, I wonder, after helping her younger son defraud her older one?

Have you ever looked at your kids and thought — or maybe even said — one of these days, you’re going to have children of your own, and then you’ll understand..? Jacob, who had stolen his brother’s birthright and blessing, later married a nice woman named Rachel. They had a son named Joseph. Jacob had nine other sons before Joseph was born.

Older brothers and sisters always claim that their younger siblings have it easier than they did. Joseph certainly did. When his father gave Joseph a beautiful new coat, he ran around showing it off to his brothers, who were mad because it was nicer than anything their parents had ever given them. Then Joseph had two dreams that his brothers all bowed down to him — which he unwisely told them about.

In the fratricidal tradition of older brothers in the Bible, Joseph’s brothers decided to kill him. Reuben, who was the oldest, got cold feet. He convinced them to merely throw Joseph down into a large pit for a while. So they threw him down into the pit, and for several hours amused themselves watching him try to climb out. This was good entertainment before television or professional wrestling. Later, when Reuben (the group’s conscience) left to go run an errand, a group of slave traders happened to pass by on their way to Egypt. The other brothers decided to sell Joseph to them. “Sorry dad,” they told their father. “I guess a wild animal ate him.” Thankfully, by the time the whole story came out Rachel was dead. She never had to wonder what she had done wrong…

From Genesis until now, motherhood has been demanding. Parents have made mistakes. The unfolding story of the Bible describes what happens when God’s love meets imperfect human families. Just a quick look at just the first book of the Bible is enough for all of us to see that the people in it are not saintly people who have made good decisions and who have reflected God’s wisdom to others in their daily lives. The Bible is about a group of people who have one thing in common, and one thing alone. God is with them. Motherhood may not have been easy-it never is, and fatherhood isn’t either — but God helped them. And God took their sometimes clumsy efforts and used these women, and others like them, to bear fruit for the world.

Mothers can get discouraged, and sometimes grandmothers and even great-grandmothers dwell on past mistakes and sad memories. May we be reminded that just as with the mothers in the Bible, God abides in us, and we abide in God, and that single fact is the most important thing that we can both remember and teach to our children.

Tammy Dahlvang is the reverend for Round Prairie and Lunder Parish of Glenville and Twin Lakes.