Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!--especially to my own mother, but also to all mothers and those who stand in for a mother figure and nurture others. I read one time that the defination of a mother was having your heart removed from your body, and forever walking around separate from you. I have often thought that this is the most accurate defination of a mother I have ever heard. It does not matter how old your child may be, or where life may take them--they will always be your child, and you as a mother will always love and pray for them. It does not matter if the trouble they are in is their own fault, or you told them not to do something a million times. They are your child, and that is enough of a reason for you to love them.

I don't think becoming a mother is ever easy. I know it wasn't for me. My first child was born premature, and we wondered if he would even live to make it out of the hospital. At one point, a nurse from the NICU called us and told us to come to the hospital as soon as we could, because she doubted our son would survive the day. Later, after three weeks in intensive care, he finally did come home--on a heart monitor, because his heart would stop beating. By the time he was eight months old, we were past the hospital stay but he wasn't meeting milestones. An MRI was ordered, and showed that he had experienced a stroke in utero, and therefore had cerebral palsy. His childhood consisted of appointments with doctors, and therapy appointments for P.T., O.T., and Speech. Was he worth it? Absolutely!

Mothering is both the best thing in your life, and the hardest thing in your life--all at the same time. It is not always made up of the things the pretty Mother's Day cards describe. Do you ever see a card that says "Thank you, Mom, for cleaning up after me when I was throwing up in the middle of the night."?

Jesus knows. He knows when you are too worried about your child to sleep. He knows when you are caring for them in the middle of the night, when you yourself are so tired you aren't sure you even remember your own name anymore. Let Him support you in this, the most important job in the world.


"Jesus knows the burden of every mother's heart. He who had a mother that struggled with poverty and privation sympathizes with every mother in her labors. He who made a long journey in order to relive the anxious heart of a Canaanite woman will do as much for the mothers of today. He who gave back to the widow of Nain her only son, and who in His agony upon the cross remembered His own mother, is touched today by the mother's sorrow. In every grief and every need He will give comfort and help." Desire of Ages p. 512