This weekend is Mother’s Day.  It’s one of my most anxious weekends of preaching.  I always question what I have to say to mothers.  I’m neither a woman nor a mom and the reality is that for some people being a mom is not always easy.  Picking up the broken pieces of a daughter’s heart; cleaning up the mess of life that comes from bad choices is often part of motherhood.  I got an e-mail from a mom a while back, she wrote,

Dan, please continue praying for (my daughter). Especially in the next few weeks. God is doing amazing things in her life, but they are not easy for her. Isn’t that the way it is sometimes? My husband and I have been through this (storm) with her, so I can say with great confidence that “He is an awesome God” In the midst of the turmoil, I remembered your words, “You may be in a storm or just got through one. But if not, you can bet one is coming.  I sat there thinking, I hope that’s not me. Well it was and it was a big storm. But, with lots of prayer and support from our life group, we came through the storm. Now we are (just trying to pick) up the pieces and move on with her.

Sometimes being a mom is difficult. And sometimes it’s risky.  There is always the possibility that your heart might get launched into unknown places for unknown reasons.  Mother’s Day can bring a time of mixed emotions for us. We don’t all come to the day the same way. For some of you, Mother’s Day is a wonderful day. For some it’s a horrible day.

Maybe you want to be a mother but you can’t be for some reason.  You’re not asking God if he will take care of your kids.  You are asking if he cares enough to give you a child.  It’s not easy. In our church family we’ve had mothers who lost a child to suicide. Kids who are struggling with the pain and confusion of divorce. Sons and daughters making choices that are eating up their hearts.  And I bet there aren’t many of us who don’t know a single mom — someone for whom motherhood has been or is becoming a hard, solo journey.

So what do Mother’s need on Mother’s Day? Angela Guffey went thru a struggle in motherhood and wrote these words,

Mothering requires everything. But eventually, everything given plus little replenished equals desperately empty. I held the empty cup of my soul out to my husband and begged him to fill it. I held out my cup to a bigger house and a minivan. But only Jesus could fill my soul. I tried my children…they could not fill the place designed by God for Himself. …I thought that the goal of motherhood was to be a supermom. But in fact, the goal of mothering is to be a woman of God to your children. A woman of God intimately connected to her Savior. A woman of God can love and give from the overflowing cup God has filled.

If you are a Mother, that’s my prayer for your weekend — that God would fill up your cup!