A Mother’s Prayers Are Never In Vain

Mothers, do you ever wonder if your earnest prayers offered Heavenward on behalf of your children are all in vain? Do every wonder if your godly instruction can possibly have any formative spiritual influence upon them? If so, the following will strongly encourage you to quietly commit the soul of your beloved to the LORD, believing that He will hear your supplications and receive your prayers.

Elizabeth Scatliff was born around 1705 in Middlesex, England. Though little is known of her early life, she did receive a good education and was raised in a home where the teachings of Jesus were central. Elizabeth grew to have a genuine faith and deep love for her Savior. She married John Newton, a sea captain, who in their years of marriage, sailed the Mediterranean Sea, taking him away from home for months at a time.

John Newton, their only child, was born when Elizabeth was just 20 years old. Because of his mother’s warm faith and his father’s long absences, John grew to be very close to his mother. However, Elizabeth suffered from tuberculosis, a common condition of the time. Daily she experienced chronic fatigue, which often confined her to bed.

Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Though Elizabeth was limited physically, she did not squander her days. Knowing that time with her son might be short, she wisely determined to make the most of the time and every opportunity. Elizabeth adopted the role of teacher and spent hours instructing John each day. This proved to be fruitful for Elizabeth was a good instructor and John, just a little boy, an enthusiastic student.

By the time John was just four years old, he could read as well as any adult. He could recite all the answers to Westminster Shorter Catechism, quote a number of other smaller catechisms and sing a long list of children’s hymns. Elizabeth truly made it her goal and chief pleasure to train up her son in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Due to John’s quick mind and easy grasp of theology, Elizabeth prayer and hoped that God would call him early in life to ministry. John said of his mother, “My mother observed my early progress with peculiar pleasure, and intended from the first to bring me up with a view to the ministry, if the Lord should so incline my heart.” *

Sadly, Elizabeth would not live to see her prayers answered. By early 1732, when she was 27 years old, her disease, so advanced, took her life.  John was just a tender age of seven. His boyhood and adult years without his mother as a strong support and guide were turbulent to say the very least. Yet the investment she had made was not in vain.

When John Newton reflected over his life as an old man, he was quick to give credit to his mother. He knew his eventual salvation was inseparable from the childhood training he had received by her side and from the multitude of prayers she had prayed on his behalf. John stated that “she had filled my memory with many valuable pieces, chapters and portions of scripture, catechisms, hymns and poems.” * Such an investment was instrumental in persuading John to come to faith in Christ Jesus.

Though Elizabeth was gravely ill, she used what strength she had to express the deepest kind of love for her son. She taught him to know God’s existence, God’s holiness, and God’s demands upon his life. What could be more important than this?

1 Corinthians 1:27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.

God delights to use the weakest people to preach the greatest news. A mother of feeble physique can still be formidable in faith. Elizabeth never allowed her besetting illness to hinder the work God had given her to do. In fact, her sickness made her more urgent to lay a godly foundation in John’s life, for she knew her time on earth was short. Like Elizabeth, we ought to make the most of every opportunity for we do not know how many years we have left to teach and train our children.

When we are in the throngs of raising small children, we often think that what we do doesn’t matter much. But because of Christ’s deep love for us, we can know that those early lessons are not easily forgotten by our children, that this bedrock foundation is not quickly destroyed and that our labor in motherhood is never in vain. This story demonstrates that children are taking in what we teach them, even the small ways we point them to Christ and that we never know how or when the Holy Spirit will use what we teach them from God’s Word.

Further Reflection

Elizabeth taught John spiritual truths and doctrine way beyond his years. She did not hold him back simply because he was young. How often do you refrain from teaching more rather than less to your children simply because you assume they are too little?

Elizabeth was active in teaching John Biblical foundations. How active are you in doing this as their parent, or do you leave instruction up to the Sunday School teachers?

Do you regularly ask God to give the insight to teach your children His Word? Do you ask Him to store these truths in their heart and use them as a foundation to know Christ?

May God increase our spiritual burden for our children so that we would be the godly example and prayerful mothers that He desires us to be.

* Devoted – Great Men and Their Godly Moms Tim Challies (Cruciform Press, Minnesota, 2018)