Been looking forward to this, mom's happy Mother's Day. I've had somebody, yes, I had

somebody wish me a happy Mother's Day, to which I just responded, yeah, I had a mom,

I had to have a mom, and so did everybody here anyway.

So before we get started, we do want to take a moment to bless all the mothers on this Mother's Day.

And this last week I had really sought the Lord and sensed from the Lord that I was to do something a bit different.

Actually, I did this many years back in my church on Mother's Day on the mainland.

So I thought it would be fitting today to do it as well. And the reason is, is that the role a mother plays in the life of a child

can never be underestimated, can never be understated. And what's interesting is we're seeing

this on Thursday nights in our study through the Bible. We're in the Old Testament book of

Second Chronicles, almost done with Second Chronicles, but in

chapter 34 on Thursday night, we were reintroduced to King Josiah, one of the greatest kings in

the history of Israel, there in Judah. And what makes it so interesting about this particular

king is he had a really, really, really evil father.

But he had a really, really, really godly mother.

And the influence that his godly mother had on this, he began to reign as king.

Get this. You know, at what age? Eight. Eight. That's pretty young. And in his teens, at the age of 16, he reinstituted the worship there in the temple. At age 26, he completely renovated and

remodeled the temple and got rid of all of the idolatrous worship. I'm not trying to teach the

Thursday night Bible study again this morning, but it's so fascinating. And many Bible commentators attribute the godliness of this king

as a young man to the influence that his mother had on his life. Well, a number of years ago,

when our two sons were still very young, my wife and I would read them a book titled,

I'll Love You Forever by Robert Munch. And again, I thought it would be appropriate to share it with you today.

You might be interested to go online. You can purchase the book. Also, you might want to read about the powerful story

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