Rethinking Mother's Day

Mother's Day is Sunday and I have to confess that in recent years I have made the day all about me.  With undefined expectations, but expectations nonetheless, I have often ended the day disappointed.  What I am realizing this year is how wrong and selfish that is!  My focus on Mother's Day should be on my mother, my mother-in-law, and other women who have "mothered" me along the way.  It is a great day to honor them and give them thanks for all they have done to help me be the very best me I can be, not to mention the very best mother I can be.  Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, it should be a day to thank God for providing such women for me throughout my life.**

La Madre by Joaquin Sorolla

I love this opening line on the Wikipedia page about Mother's Day:

Mother's Day is a modern celebration honoring one's own mother, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society.

Later the page says that the holiday was started and championed in the early 1900s by a woman whose mother had died and she wanted a day to honor her memory and honor every mother, "the person who has more for you than anyone in the world."

As I think about these things, I do hope that some day my children will "rise and call me blessed,"  I mean, who doesn't want their kids to recognize all she's done for them over the years?!  But I also think about the way society has been built up and civilized by countless mothers wiping noses and bottoms, teaching and reteaching lessons, disciplining and disciple-ing, cooking and washing, loving and loving and loving through laughter, tears, and sleepless nights.

Then, I think about the One who put the family together with such purpose and grace ....

Do you have a mother, memories of a mother, or a woman who is like a mother to you?  Give thanks!  God has used those women in our lives to mold and shape us, to give us hope and to point us to Him.

On Sunday, I don't want to be on the look-out for praise, accolades, or a plaque hung in my honor! This Mother's Day I want to fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith. I want to spend the day meditating on His everlasting love for me and His goodness in providing my mother, mother-in-law, and many spiritual mothers along the way.  Finally, I want to ask the Lord to help me become one who reflects His tender, nurturing, merciful nature in the world as an image-bearer of the Living God.  Then, I'm pretty sure I can have a wonderful Mother's Day - plaque or no plaque.

I invite you to join me in looking to the Lord this Mother's Day.  The Scriptures say this:

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;

but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Proverbs 31:30

Let's be God-fearers so we can be life-givers in a world that is full of life-takers.  Mothers or not, as women we bear God's image in the world in a unique way.  Let's do it well to the glory of God!




**For those longing to someday be mothers or who have recently lost a mother or a child, my heart breaks for you.  In the midst of your grief, know that the Lord is near.  The Scriptures even speak of Him loving us tenderly like a mother her child.  Isn't that beautiful?  May He comfort you according to your needs as you struggle through this Mother's Day.  You are loved.

the painting