Intense 6 of 9: Motherly affection

In 1 Thessalonians 2:1-4, Paul said that starting to love over and over again is a strain, but he goes on to give a model based on faith, hope and love.

1 Thessalonians 2: 5   You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed--God is our witness.6 We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else. As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you,   7 but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children.   8 We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.   9 Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. 10 You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. 11 For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, 12 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. 13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe. 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of God's churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches suffered from the Jews, 15 who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men 16 in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last.   NIV, Crosswalk.com

       The strong bonds that Paul forms in such a short time start with the gospel (faith), are strengthened through affection (love), and are not broken by suffering and opposition (hope).  I've had a two week holiday to think about starting over, about God's love for Spain and especially about the need for affection.
     Believe it or not, Paul describes his affection as being motherly.  What man would describe himself as motherly?  I don't even know any women who would describe themselves that way.  Mothering is out of fashion, thanks to psychology, which tells us that "mother" and "father" distort what we encounter later in life.  Paul, on the other hand, says that motherly affection and fatherly exhortation are the ideals of selfless behavior, free from greed or pride.  What exactly is it we are supposed to do?
     I certainly wouldn't describe myself as motherly.  But I'm a devout Christian, who does my utmost to apply what I read, so I will go back to my ladies' group armed with my 16 years of study to teach and exhort and mother people.  Just kidding.  That would actually be a very bad idea.
     For one thing, women don't want to be mothered, especially expat women.  Here we are, far from families, all independent by nature and calling. A Skype video call is as close as we want to be to our mothers.  In contrast, our hostess at our vacation guesthouse in Italy mentioned her ex-fiancée.  They had big plans to go to China, but she couldn't leave her family and in the end, he went alone.  Not everyone is cut out for international living.  Another thing about women in a study group is that when someone repeatedly tries to give you advice, you stop telling them what is going on in your life. They say, "What I did in that situation was..." and you think, "You don't know me or my situation."  Active mothering is offensive.  Ironically, the kind of mothering we want seems passive.  The magical motherly woman sits on the sofa like a sponge, soaking up whatever bad things are bothering me.  For example, nothing the kids are doing bothers her in the least:  climbing the walls, drenching each other with the hose, playing "mouse" with the cat with a real dead mouse.  On top of that, they fight all the while about the wall, the hose and the dead mouse.
     Back to Paul, he isn't a mother and he is anything but passive.  He does a lot of lecturing in his letters, yet he inspires a degree of affection that leads people to risk their lives.  How does he do that?  I think there are two different things going on.  One is the lectures and the other, that we have to infer, is the time he actually spends with individual people.  I imagine Paul giving a sermon and exhorting everyone in general and then accepting with joy and affection what small changes in young Androcles or Mama Phoebe.  A motherly person helps us know what to do and how to hold on to hope without telling us to our faces.

What motherly person do you know, and what makes her (or him) that way?  Please leave a comment.