The Joy and Pain of Motherhood (Sample Sermon)
Description: One ministry of Pray through it is that we help pastors and teachers in churches to consider how they might incorporate listening and inner-healing prayer into their teaching times in order to help shepherd their hearers to submit themselves to the Lord’s application of scripture to their lives. In this episode, Don demonstrates how to integrate listening in prayer into a main Sunday sermon- inviting God into the conversation so that He might help those listening to apply His word on an individualized basis.Â
This sermon examines the life of Mary as the mother of Jesus, demonstrating that motherhood is a challenge for everyone – especially as we see our children pushing away from us or when we experience prolonged singleness, miscarriage, barrens, or loss of a child. In the process, Don acknowledges common struggles many who dream of motherhood face as they look toward the reality of motherhood. And spends time praying through these issues which are often experienced, but seldom addressed from the pulpit.
Note: Prayers are located at: 00:02:45; 00:15:53; and 00:23:34.Â
Attend a Pray Through It Event
Show Notes:
[00:00:00] Don Love: Mothers tend to cover things pretty well. They can put on their Sunday dress and bring their family to church and you don’t necessarily know the burdens that the mothers are carrying. You don’t know the reason why they’re so over-protective or overbearing or easily frustrated is because of the things that they’re trying to protect you from that they went through in their own childhood. And they just haven’t quite processed how do they protect you whenever they feel like no one else sees danger. So this Mothers Day, let’s prayerfully take a posture of rejoicing for those who rejoice, but also mourning for those who mourn.
[00:00:38]
[00:00:59] Jennifer Love: Last episode, we gave you a sample sermon modeling, the kind of lesson that our team has taught to conservative, biblically centered congregations, to help them to better understand the role of the Holy Spirit and the biblical foundation for conversational prayer (that’s both speaking and listening in prayer). And we modeled what it looks like to lead a whole church to listen in prayer for the first time!
[00:01:19] And this episode will model how to incorporate listening in prayer during your Sunday sermon, helping your church family to apply the sermon on the spot, through listening and prayer. This sermon is one that Don just delivered in order to help prepare our church to better serve one another. And the unseen struggles that often surface during Mothers Day. I was encouraged that he addressed some of the hidden hurts that aren’t often mentioned in a church service.
[00:01:40] And to hear feedback of mothers who were unexpectedly moved to have some healing conversations with their kids. Conversations, they didn’t realize needed to happen, but that the Lord brought up to them in prayer. So whether you’re listening as a mother, a son or daughter, or a pastor, and it’s our hope that this sermon will help you not only reconsider how you approach Mothers Day, but also the role that listening in prayer could play in your church service, helping your church family to apply the message through prayer in a very personal way as we pray expectedly for the Lord to enter into the conversation.
[00:02:16] Don Love: Next week, if you haven’t put it on your calendar, it’s Mothers Day. Whether we be a mother or not, it might be helpful for us to look at one of the most famous mothers of all time, Mary, the mother of Jesus, and look at some of the interactions between Mary and Jesus throughout scripture. And I’m hoping that as we look through what it was like to raise Jesus, that it will refocus a bit the way we think about the sacrifice of mothers. And then also the way that we celebrate Mothers Day, just next week. So let’s begin and let’s pray. Lord we ask, would you guide us today, as we consider what it was like to be the mother of Jesus? We ask, would you have mercy on mothers and aspiring mothers as we face the joys and struggles of motherhood, today? Amen. If you guys have your Bibles, you might want to pop up these passages to look at the greater context we’re going to have about five passages that we look at today. The first one is Luke 2:35 and the quote is “your soul will be pierced with a sword also.” So this is from Jesus’s baby dedication, essentially. Simeon is going to take Jesus in his arms. And he’s going to praise God saying “sovereign Lord, as you’ve promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace for my eyes, have seen your salvation, which you prepared in the sight of all nations, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory of your people, Israel, this is a pretty amazing baby dedication.
[00:03:48] There’s prophets and prophetesses coming up prophesying over this little baby. Mary’s already had an angel come to her and explain a little bit about who Jesus was going to be. And she said, “do it unto me Lord.” And she accepted this, even though there was some confusing things from the very beginning, how is this going to be?
[00:04:04] Mothers Day this going to happen? And now here we are, the baby’s been born. He’s been dead. I think this is normally eight days after birth. And so at this point He’s being dedicated. This will be pretty encouraging. Like, this is a confirmation of what the Lord has said and the child’s father and mother and marveled at what was said.
[00:04:26] This is a great and amazing thing. What an amazing day! They’re just soaking it all in. And then Simeon continues. And he doesn’t say it to both parents, he turns to Mary- for some reason, not Mary and Joseph- but he turns to Mary and he says, this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed and a sword will Pierce your soul too.
[00:04:51] And so there’s a shift here. Again, this is amazing stuff. But why do you got to add that on? Why do you got to go there? We’re trying to dedicate our baby. It’s a great day. We appreciate everything you’re saying so far, but then you add that little thing. That’s kind of a piercing of the heart, right?
[00:05:05] They’re like, oh, what is this? And so at this point, then this sets us up for this Mary and Jesus relationship throughout the rest of scripture. So, this is one that you’re familiar with, you know, the story Jesus gets lost, or so his parents think the caravan has moved on and some ways this isn’t the best parenting.
[00:05:26] Anytime you move on and you didn’t know your kids were with you, it’s kind of the parents’ fault at this point. Right? But anyways, they find him. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said, son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you. So Joseph’s still here. “Why are you searching for me? Did you not know that had to be in my father’s house, but they didn’t understand what he was saying to them. And he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them and his mother treasured, all of these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and favor with man.” So there’s this, this thing that’s going on. So Jesus is sort of in trouble here, but you know, scripture tells us that he was sinless. So this must not have been sin for him to do. We have times like this, where we rebuke our kids, and then we kind of realized like, oh, they’re actually kind of right. And part of this is Mary beginning to understand a little bit about what Jesus’ calling is and at age 12, or I understand they say in Jewish culture, 13, you become a man, but you know, in one sense, yes. In another sense no. But there’s kind of a pushback here, sort of like if I’m going to choose between following my mom and dad or following my heavenly father, I’m going to follow my heavenly father. And so, Mary, again, there’s this what’s neat about scripture here is it gives us a lot of Mary’s thoughts, just small snippets. We don’t get hardly any of Joseph’s thoughts. We just get that dream really. But here with Mary, we start to see her treasuring, these things in her heart. And so there is this processing of this conversation with their child back and forth. The next one here is “who are my mother and my brothers?”. So this story you’ll remember Jesus is teaching. They just accused him of casting out demons because he’s a son of Satan. That’s what they’re saying. And so he’s in the midst of this big debate here. This is a pretty big deal. If you get accused of being the son of Satan by the highest religious authorities of your nation, you’re probably in some serious trouble here. And so Jesus’ brothers and his mother show up. And the implication seems to be in the Greek. I’m told that they’re kind of thinking Jesus is crazy. You know, sort of like Jesus, you’ve gone too far here. I understand there’s this Messiah stuff that you’re supposed to be doing here, but you’ve gotten yourself in some serious trouble. And so what he’s going to do is actually renounce his family here at this point.
[00:07:55] John 2:4 there’s one more time where Jesus is at the wedding feast and he’s going to his mother comes up to him and she says something to the effect. They’re out of wine and the mother seems like she’s really, for some reason, really invested in the situation as though she knows the people who are involved here and she’s trying to save them in some way. And so I don’t know if this is a close friend or a relative to some degree. As controversial as this sound, I sometimes picture like, what if this was like, Jesus, sister? Scripture, doesn’t say he had sisters, but it said he had. What if you had sisters here as well? But whoever it is, it’s something where Mary is a bit out of sorts at this point. And I’ve heard people try to interpret this “woman” as being a, a term of the time. It’s not disrespectful. It’s not pushing back in any way. And the conversation and the back and forth seems to be the Jesus is kind of pushing back like “”woman. My time has not yet come” and some will say, well, this is the first miracle Jesus performed. So he must not have done a miracle before. Keep in mind in the gospel of John, John is not necessarily claiming that this is the first miracle that he ever did. This is the first sign that he did. That’s the signs are a bit different than miracles because signs are pointing towards something else in John’s economy. So Jesus, might’ve done something miraculous before or not. We don’t know. But the point here today is the conversation between the mother and the son. The mother is asking them to do something. And Jesus at first is essentially saying, “no, I’m not going to do that.” And no matter how I try over and over and to try to read different tones into this. So maybe Jesus is being playful.
[00:09:27] Woman, what does that have to do with me? Being kind of coy and maybe she’s kind of coy back, like, “ah, just do what he says.” I know he’ll do it and we can read it different ways, but I’ve seen stressed out people at weddings being coy and playful when someone else has stressed out, normally doesn’t play well.
[00:09:44] And so unless they had some sort of wink- wink kind of relationship here. This would be exasperating to Mary. It’s like, come on. Don’t don’t mess around right now. All right. You brought these burly guys up. They drunk all the wine. And so when we catalog all these things together, We start to see a little bit of an interplay back and forth. I picture Mary here a little bit at a time, having to give up a little bit when it comes to her son. From the very beginning, she is getting these warnings that bad things are going to happen, or at least painful things are going to happen to her. And what we see from this is that it’s really hard to be a mother. And essentially if we think about the challenge that it was for Mary raising the sinless son of God. You better believe that if you’re a mother, you’re going to experience some sort of soul piercing if you’re raising someone who’s not the sinless son of God, you’re going to hit these things as well. But mothers tend to cover these things pretty well. You know, they can put on their, their nice Sunday dress and bring their family to church on Mothers Day. And you don’t necessarily know the burdens that the mothers are carrying.
[00:10:50] You don’t know the reason why they’re so over-protective or overbearing or easily frustrated is because of the things that they’re trying to protect you from that they went through in their own childhood. And they just haven’t quite processed how do they protect you whenever they feel like no one else sees danger. No one else will stand up or believe that this person who seems to be so nice would actually be the abuser in the situation or they see other deaths and other circumstances and, and others don’t necessarily know why they’re doing what they’re doing. And it seems sometimes smothering. But Mary’s having to let Jesus go a little bit at a time having to let him walk out these things in her mind, maybe make some mistakes. I’m sure Jesus made mistakes. When he learned to walk and made mistakes all throughout his ministry, maybe, maybe he did? but at the same time, it was never sin and I don’t want you to get caught up in that theological point, but it talks about how he grew in stature, grew in knowledge, and favor with God and favor with man. There’s a growth process with Jesus here as well. And Mary and Joseph were a part of that growth process. But especially when our children come to those stages where they’re making these big life choices and that they’re theirs to make, we really are at that point in our relationship with them, that it’s their decision to make, and we’ve done what we can do. And Jesus is now in his thirties and he’s still having this interplay back and forth with his mother. And the mother is still trying to figure out how do I process what’s happening here with my son? So first, let me talk briefly to those mothers who have children, who are of age that are pushing back. I want you to take a little bit of comfort- Jesus did this too! So if Jesus did this and your children are doing this now, maybe this is okay? Maybe this is a natural part of this? Now I understand scripture talks about rebellion being like the sin of witchcraft. I don’t think Jesus was rebelling here because he wasn’t sinful. So he couldn’t be rebelling. So sometimes there needs to be a pushback. From the standpoint of stepping away from your family. Jesus talks about despising, your father and mother. If you do not hate your father and mother. The idea of you’re supposed to leave the father and mother now and follow him. You’re not worthy to be my disciple. I don’t think he’s talking about hate because he obviously talks about loving everybody and loving your father and mother. But the idea is this turning away from one to follow another. And hopefully if you’re a parent, that’s following Jesus too. It’s like the Exodus where you’re just still following this great Moses through the Exodus. And you’re all still there together. Just the eyes have shifted from you to Jesus. And hopefully it’s not that big of a shift if you’ve been leading well, up to this point. So I want you to imagine what it would be like if you had a son or daughter and they chose a homeless life, they have a place at home, but they go around telling everybody, the Son of Man has no place to lay his head. “Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” And you’re at home thinking, just come back to Nazareth, come back and live with us. If you live here, you don’t have a place you’re up around Galilee and Jerusalem. You’ll come with us. Imagine if he’s putting himself in dangerous situations and you don’t understand it, why does this have to happen this way? Imagine your child not responding as you asked for help in the way that you would like them. Jesus did all of these things without sin, but remember, even from age 12 forward, she’s treasuring these things in her heart. She’s processing this and she’s letting go little bit by little bit.
[00:14:10] And some of you have been doing that. And so they leave home, they go to the next stage, you’ve been processing this. You’ve been helping them step out. Others of you haven’t. And so when that time comes, when they’re leaving home and maybe that, especially that last child, leaves home and you’re in that empty nest-almost stage. Then people start grasping. And it becomes really hard. You start trying to make jobs for them. You start buying land so they can build a house on the land that you bought for them. And you start trying to do these other things. And if you’re not careful, they’ll start thinking that you’re manipulating them. They might start thinking they’re still trying to have control over my life and they pushed back. So I believe that Mary started to understand a little bit about what the Lord’s calling was for Jesus. Little bit by little bit. It was a mystery, but little bit by little bit, she understood, this is the hand of the Lord. I have to let go in this way. And it’s really amazing if you can have your children and have those real conversations, just to say, look, I don’t get this, but I need you to tell me why you think the Lord is leading you in this way.
[00:15:13] And it’s far different when they explain it in that way. When they’re going to say, well, This happened. I interpret this in this way. This is what’s leading me and they might not even know. And you might need to say, well, just could you pray about it and just say, Lord, would you show me why is it that I sense that I’m supposed to do this?
[00:15:28] Would you give me that sense? And it’s amazing how you can then if you understand, okay, this is where the Lord’s calling them. I don’t want to get in the way of the Lord that you can actually let go and let them follow the Lord at that point. So don’t hold on too tightly. Don’t get in the way of the Lord’s calling for them them, for your family. It will not work out well for anybody. If you’re the one trying to stand in that gap.
[00:15:53] So I want to just take a moment and pray for those in our body that are in this situation. I know some of you you’re struggling with this early, your kids pushing back, terrible twos. I’ve heard of that. Haven’t experienced it, but three was bad for both my kids sort of like they have their third birthday. I’m like, oh my goodness, what just happened? We need some new rules. We need something here! And I’m not talking completely about that stage, but still there’s still that progressive letting go and giving them freedom, trying to say yes, as much as you possibly can, rather than saying no. And having them live in a world of “no,” let’s pray for those that are in this situation. Lord God, we pray for those who are struggling to hold onto their children. Would you give them clarity now on how to be the parent you’re calling them to be? Would you search through them? Would you show them, is there any area that they need to give their child more freedom to make their own choices? So just let your heart come to rest your mind to peace.
[00:16:55] Lord, would you show them, is there any place they need to give their child more freedom to make their own choices? Whether they be young or old, would you bring that area to their minds and would you show them? Lord, are there any areas they need to set up boundaries? Or explain to their children why their parenting, the way they are? Would you bring these children, these situations to their mind now?
[00:17:23] You give him a sense of that? Lord, we pray over each parent and we asked, would you help them to surrender their struggles with their children, to you? That they might enjoy parenting, like never before? Would you guide the hearts of the children to the parents and the parents hearts to their children? Amen.
[00:17:50] And that prayer will continue to ripple out. If you let the Lord bring that to your heart. Surely not enough time to process what you need to process on that, but it’s a start. So to the children, young and old say, learn to follow the Holy Spirit like Jesus did. And at the same time, realize that both the Old and the New Testament talk about how we’re supposed to as children obey our parents. But everyone as offspring, we’re supposed to honor our father and mother. There’s no expiration on date on that one, the obedience one “children”. But the honor, your father and mother, that’s still something that goes the whole way to the end. And the final one was the aspect of “woman, behold, your son. Son, behold, your mother.” At this point, I think woman could be a nice term here at this point, woman, behold, your son. And at first, if it was said in that order, her, perspective would have been looking up to Jesus behold, your son.
[00:18:50] I mean, so you wonder with Mary, does she understand what he’s saying? Behold, your son suffering? At this point, he made her look up to him on the cross, in the midst of his suffering, but when he said “John behold, thy mother,” I think it became clear at that point that there was a handoff.
[00:19:06] And it’s interesting that he picked the only disciple that was going to die a natural death. All the others died martyrdom. But at this point he looked down, took care of his mother, even when he was at the point of death. So, honor your father and mother. And that also means even taking care of them, maybe even after around death, making sure that they are taken care of. And some of you are now at that point where your parents are getting old enough, they’re getting harder to manage. And it’s one of those things where you’re trying to figure, well, what do I do here in order to do this?
[00:19:39] I understand Jesus shifted the care to someone else. He wasn’t going to be there, but he did make sure they were taken care of. And if we read through in Timothy and Titus, it does talk about that. I don’t want to say responsibility cause that sounds overbearing. But that there is something that we, as Christians should naturally do in order to take care of our own family.
[00:19:57] It shouldn’t become the burden of the church or someone else to take care of them. It talks about widows that now are wanting to be on the widow’s list of the church and say, “no.” As a believer, the families should be taken. So that’s something that you’ll need to pray through, especially if you have those issues with your own parents at this point here as well.
[00:20:17] And while we’re on the topic here of addressing mothers, let’s address mothers a little bit more widely here. First, I want to thank you for the suffering, you’ve endured those hidden stabs to the soul, those piercings of the soul that maybe you can’t even express, they kind of cumulatively gather over time if they’re not dealt with, and we know that motherhood wasn’t exactly the way you thought it was going to be. You may not have been called to watch your child push away, to live a homeless life, to be martyred for the sake of the gospel, but you’ve suffered in other ways.
[00:20:59] So when we think a little bit about this, I want to think, how has your heart. So many different, and sometimes it’s so specific. It’s never going to come up in a sermon because it’s such a small little niche or something that’s taboo to talk about. It’s not going to come up, but today I just want to list a few: infertility miscarriage, adoption, whether that’d be the parent who gave away a child or received it and had to learn, what’s it like to have a blended family and all the new challenges that come with that maybe you suffer from your children’s choices, whether that be them making a decision toward the Lord or against him, unanticipated physical or developmental delays or special needs on timely deaths. Not having the number of children or the gender of children you desire. As small as that seems there’s some of these things that are on the list are very hard to grieve publicly because you think I have it so good. How can I grieve that something didn’t happen the way that I wanted it to, but yet there’s feels like something’s wrong. Like the Lord didn’t do something right.
[00:22:16] Changes in your bodies that come with pregnancy and motherhood, broken relationships and so many other things. So for all of this, We say, thank you. And we acknowledge the suffering that you have endured in order to be the mother that God has called you to be. So this Mothers Day Let’sprayerfully take a posture of rejoicing for those who rejoice, but also mourning those who mourn for some people Mothers Day is one of the worst days of the year.
[00:22:47] They will skip church on Mothers Day because they don’t want to. see Other people celebrating. And even if they are celebrating because their children have wanted to celebrate them often, there’s that memory of that lost child, that memory of that decision or the blame that they have for themselves. If I just would’ve done something different, well then maybe other things would be different in my life. Maybe I’m to blame for what did or didn’t happen. So I want us to make space and partner with you to receive peace, forgiveness and move forward. Enjoy. For your peer soul. So beginning today, let’s commit to pray for, and with mothers and aspiring mothers with peer souls. And let’s pray now,
[00:23:34] Lord, God, I know that there are those among us who souls have been pierced for one reason or another. And have felt the pain that comes to all whose family circumstances do not turn out the way that they dreamed. they would Or even worse, they turned out exactly like they feared they would. So as Mothers Day, come upon us, we acknowledge as a time when Pierce hearts ache for what was, what is and what never will be. So, Lord, we dedicate this space to you for your purposes. And he asked, would you heal these mother’s hearts today? Would you bring their minds to rest in their hearts to peace?
[00:24:19] What’d you give them a sense? Is there anything that is pierced their heart? Anything think the thing that’s still tender, would you give them a sense of that, but protect them from it?
[00:24:37] Would you show them, are there any lies there before.
[00:24:44] That’s keeping this heart wound, the soul wound from healing. So, Lord, what are the biggest lies they’re believing concerning motherhood, children? Would you bring that to their heart and mind?
[00:25:05] And would you show them the truth?
[00:25:13] This is where the enemy gets a foothold. This is where the enemy is able to use something to mar your motherhood. This is the place where their children are able to not see what you want them to see in your heart. But to see some of the hurt, if you’re ministering as a mother, out of your hurt, your children are going to sense it.
[00:25:34] So Lord we asked, would you help them to receive the truth? And let go of this lie?
[00:25:42] Just picture handing it over to the Lord. And Lord, I ask, would you help them to see- if they’re holding onto this lie, which you help them to see? Why do they hold onto this? How is this lie serving them?
[00:25:57] Would you show them, is there anything else that they need to hand over? They might have this healed heart so they can love their family and the way that they can’t only throw you.
[00:26:16] Let’s take some time to you, your interchange between the Lord. Take some time to talk to him about this
[00:26:27] and the rest of you can pray for those who are working through things.
[00:26:41] And Lord, we pray now for those who long to be mothers, but have not yet become mothers and the way they had planned. And for those who believe that they will never be mothers,
[00:26:55] Would you speak to them now? And you let them know, what do you want them to know? About the desire for motherhood.
[00:27:09] Would you show them, how do you see them and how do you feel about their situation? And again, the posture is just one of mind at rest, heart and peace listening. It’s not searching. It’s not your analytical mind. It’s one of listing with your heart with your mind not disregarding anything that comes. But if something comes and you’re like that doesn’t make sense, just lift it up to the Lord say- that doesn’t make sense. I don’t know what that means. What does this have to do with what we’re asking?
[00:27:48] We would like to pray for you. So if you’re among those who are struggling with motherhood in this way, would you let us pray for you? You just raise your hand if you’re among those who like prayer.
[00:28:01] Okay. If you just want to put your hand up and keep it up, we’ll gather around you and we’ll pray for you. Can you raise your hand and keep it up? Just look around. There’s a few that have hands up. If you see someone around you either gather around them or pray.
[00:28:21] And you see these hands feel free to get up out of your seat. Even if it’s across the room and pray for these mothers,
[00:28:36] we’re not going to make you talk to anybody. We’re not going to make you share anything with anybody. Now there’s probably a couple more that need to raise their hand. You want to raise your hand, we’ll gather around you and we’ll pray.
[00:28:53] I’m gonna take two minutes and pray for these mothers.
[00:28:58] You can pray quietly or out loud. Lord God, some of these women are mothers and don’t know it. What’d you give him a sense of that
[00:29:18] or we pray today? Would you begin the repairative work in their hearts, minds and bodies,
[00:29:26] in both the men and the women Lord that they would conceive and raise children and healthy, godly homes. Lord, it’s been said that you open the womb and close the womb throughout the whole Old Testament. And so Lord, I asked, would you give them a sense. Lord, is there anything that is closing the womb and their relationship,
[00:29:46] Lord, we asked for intimacy between husbands and wives, we pray against any guilt and shame coming into the marriage. Outside of the marriage bed, we asked Lord, would you wipe away anything that’s getting in the way of these couples can conceiving. Lord, would you give them a sense if there’s anything in their body image, anything in their diet, anything in their environment, any choices, any anxieties that’s causing things not to work properly.
[00:30:28] We come against bitterness, jealousy…
[00:30:34] And we asked, would you restore these couples and the right relationship with each other and with you not looking around, not out of jealousy, not out of anything else, but Lord obedience, walking to you and basking in your glory and your goodness.
[00:30:54] So, Lord, we asked you to bring healing to each of these.
[00:30:59] We ask that you would bring reconnections with the family discernment and tough situations.
[00:31:07] And finally, Lord, we pray for the children. Would you show us, is there anything that we are believing about our mothers that’s not true or at any lies that are dividing
[00:31:22] Lord, what’s the truth?
[00:31:28] Are there any hurts from others that we are carrying with us? They have passed on to us thats getting in the way of us loving them this Mothers Day? Wanting to be around them, wanting to do honor them in any way? Would you give us a sense Lord of anything that needs to be said or done but protect us from it Lord? Anything, we need to renounce? Anything we need to seek forgiveness for concerning our mothers?
[00:32:00] Lord, we thank you for what you’re doing here today. And we asked throughout this week that you prepare us for Mothers Day so that we would bring, as we come together, we will bring to completion many of these good works that you have begun here today. Healing the souls of mothers and their children on earth as is in heaven. We pray all this in the name of Christ. Amen.
[00:32:24] The final thing, this week, when you think about Mothers Day, don’t just think about “what am I going to get my mom?” How am I going to do this next thing, be thinking about those people who are not going to be able to celebrate or those people who are having that mixed celebration here.
[00:32:40] I don’t want to be a downer on Mothers Day. But at the same time, some of you are going to be struggling with these things. Maybe it would be good for you to find someone else who’s struggling on that day. Maybe on that day, rather than coming to Grace, you go out to lunch with them. You take them someplace else, someplace far away from the flowery dresses and the bouquets of flowers at the mother’s carry.
[00:33:01] Take them somewhere where you guys can pray, talk, support, or maybe you come together to church and you sit beside each other and that’s, the support that you need. And you grieve together in the midst of rejoicing. Maybe you understand those mothers who are both grieving and rejoicing, and maybe you love your mother and a little bit of a different way? Not just rejoicing because they’re a mother, but also understanding that pierced heart along the way. So as Mothers Day comes to your mind, remember what we said today. Ask the Lord to guide you in this, that you might understand both the suffering and the rejoicing of Mothers Day.
[00:33:39]
