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Fearing Momma, Fearing God

© Richard Maffeo

When I was five, my dad left mom for another woman. His departure forced my happy-to-be-at-home mother to become provider, nurturer, friend and disciplinarian.

In the early '50s, Welfare, as it is known today, did not exist. Nevertheless, Mom made certain my younger sister and I always had food - even if it meant spaghetti with ketchup, or boiled potatoes and butter. And we always had clean clothing - even though we used cardboard to patch the holes on our shoe bottoms, and our pants-cuffs rose above our ankles. But most important, I especially remember how she always snuggled us into bed at night - before she left us with a baby-sitter and hurried off to her second job.

I have always been grateful for her protection, her guidance, her comfort. Only now, as an adult, have I learned to appreciate her discipline. If I broke a rule, I could expect a good spanking, restriction to my room or loss of privileges. Her relentless campaign against our periodic childhood disobedience lasted well into my teen years. Even when I outweighed her by 50 pounds and towered over her head - if Mom said "be in the house by 11:00," I was in by 10:45.

I don't doubt that her love, along with her swift and sometimes painful methods of correction, helped shape me into a responsible husband, father and citizen. Kindness, respect for authority and a healthy fear of her discipline turned our home into a haven from the heartbreaks and disappointments around us. And because of her discipline, I am better able to understand why the Parent of parents uses a measure of fear in the nurture of His children. It helps us obey. Without a healthy fear of God, we risk inventing in our minds an impotent and overindulgent Santa Claus in Heaven, instead of the Biblical image of a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29).

Some modern Bible translators render the Hebrew and Greek words for fear as reverence. Perhaps past generations understood reverence carried a sense of wonder and fear of the Holy One, but do we in the 1990s interpret it the same way? Webster defines reverence as an attitude of "deep respect, love, awe and affection." Fear is not part of his definition.

Scripture, however, is unambiguous in its meaning of the word. "God has come in order to test you," Moses said to the people at the foot of Mt. Sinai, "that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin" (Exodus 20:20*). King Solomon wrote: "By the fear of the Lord, one keeps away from evil" (Proverbs 16:6). The New Testament writers also repeatedly urged their readers to fear God (see Acts 2:43, Acts 19:17; 2 Cor 7:1; Ephesians 5:21).

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