In Other Words: Mother’s Day Despair?

“Mordecai understood that it is not failure
that brings despair,
but unfaithfulness and idleness.”
~Dorothy Patterson, Editor
Women’s Devotional Bible Devotion:
Service Through Providence

M

other’s Day is just a few days off.  There are moms that go through all sorts of emotions this time of year.  I remember very well two Mother’s Days that were so difficult after burying two children.  I know how blessed I am with the living children I have, yet there is that ache of the children that I would not get a hug from.  This certainly is painful, but it is not despair.  I have the hope to know I will see my children again.

I think of moms with children gone in other ways – possibly serving in the military, away at college, or newly married.  That empty home is lonely and that mom may keep looking for that card or longing for the car to come down the driveway for a personal visit.  This certainly is lonely, but in most cases, not despair.

Then there are the moms of “lost” children – lost in the world and lost from God.  I imagine this mom pleading and praying for their prodigal child to come back to God.  Though this may feel like despair, it is in most many cases because of a child’s decision.

But then there are the moms who know they fell away from God, allowed sin to creep in, allowed unfaithfulness or idleness in various ways to come in that did not show their children about God or Christianity and they now see the decisions their children have made that have not only caused themselves pain but many others.  All us moms go through failure times.  Our mothering will never be perfect.  We can lose our focus.  Things do creep into our lives.  But, there is hope from the despair of our unfaithfulness and idleness!  Whether this is your first Mother’s Day or 50th Mother’s Day . . . we have an awesome God who loves us with such depth we cannot even fathom, who is waiting with open arms for us to ask for forgiveness, to give ourselves (and our children) completely to Him, and to allow Him to show us that indeed,

The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23

We moms don’t have to live in despair. Our failures He can make into good.  If we were wrong with unfaithfulness, idlessness or a sin you know He wants to correct, He’s waiting.  He wants to give us the peace that passes all understanding.   If this Mother’s Day is a difficult one for you, a “first” for one reason or another, it is my hope that  our Heavenly Father is allowed to fill that void as only He can.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
2 Corinthians 4:7-9 (emphasis mine)

This week, Patricia is hosting “In ‘Other’ Words” on her blog Typing One Handed. Be sure to visit her site and the links to the other women who have shared on this quote. Then come back here on Friday, for next Tuesday’s new quote for In ‘Other’ Words. Be blessed.

I will be posting another book review & giveaway (hopefully this week, so do come back!