Male 
bonding! That’s when a group of guys gets together to act silly. Maybe the bonding comes with a card game, deer hunting, or a father and his sons watching pro football on TV. Whatever the excuse, guys enjoy getting together to belch and tell stupid stories. If women would witness male bonding, they’d likely wish they hadn’t!
Female bonding can be quite different. This often takes place between a mother and her infant child. It’s hard to understand, but men can sense the intimate connection that a mother has with her unborn or infant baby. The best that most men can do is to be anxious spectators.
This bonding is a special gift God gave to mothers and their children. “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?” (Isaiah 49:15).
Motherly bonding becomes very obvious in the story of Jochebed, the mother of Moses, Miriam, and Aaron. Just before Moses was born, Pharaoh issued a decree that all male babies were to be fed to the alligators in the Nile River. No questions asked! Can you imagine the anguish that went through the minds of these mothers not knowing the sex of their soon to be born babies? And Jochebed’s worst fears came true when she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. What fear, terror, and sadness must have swept through her mind! It’s difficult for us to imagine the pain she experienced, knowing that her newborn baby boy was sentenced to die a cruel death.
Jochebed needed a way out, so she decided to place her baby boy into the Nile River, just as was commanded, but instead of leaving him to die, she built a homemade ark for him. The rest of the story is history. Moses’ ten-year-old sister, Miriam, stood watch over the basket and witnessed Pharaoh=s own daughter pulling the baby from the river.
As God would have it, Pharaoh’s daughter chose the baby’s very own mother to feed and raise the child during infancy. Now Jochebed had her baby back but only for a brief time. How would she raise him? What would be your plan, realizing your child was to be taken from you to live in a godless home? Along with baby’s milk, Jochebed fed her son a steady dose of God’s love and faithfulness. Moses was suckled on God’s Word morning, noon, and night. He was fed, burped, and rocked on a diet of the Lord because Jochebed knew in her heart that this baby was only a momentary gift from God. Her time with him was to be only for a short while, and she would have to make the best of it. If any baby received a cram course in law, gospel, love, and salvation, it was Moses. That explains well why, when Moses was older, he “refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt” (Hebrews 11:24-26).
Is parenting any different today? Parents may think they have a longer time to spend with training their children, but should that lessen the intensity of the training? Many parents who have lost a child to illness or accident will tell you how much they wished they would have better taught their youngsters. Our children need to be shown the way of the Lord from infancy. They need to learn the love of the Lord Jesus and his sacrifice for them. “From infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). Bonding between parents and children is a necessity that cannot be taken lightly or put off until later. Jochebed set a fine example!
Prayer thought: Thank the Lord for faithful parents.
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