The Mixed Emotions of Mother’s Day From a Sidewalk Counselor to Abortion-Minded Moms

God has called me to speak to mothers, to turn their hearts from abortion to life, from darkness and despair to the light of Jesus. Many of the moms I follow and minister to are post-abortive by the time they meet me. Many struggle. Some of their children are in rebellion or worse. None I work with regret the precious children they ushered into the world rather than aborted, but most are scrambling on stones of blessings too widely spaced across frothy rapids of troubles. 

It is hard to know just what to write to them on my daily email I send them all, since for many, Mother’s Day is filled with mixed feelings or outright sorrow.

These Hallmark Card days when we honor special people in our lives always cause angst for me. In each case, the imperfections in the relationships of our fallen world seem more glaring. Maybe some of your lives are perfect, with those special days unfolding like the happy verses and pictures on the special cards. For those whose are not, I pray God will whisper in your spirit, “It will be ok.”

I had a strange thought on a walk yesterday. I was thinking of those times in my life when every relationship was perfect for however brief a time. All was harmonious. Our thoughts and spirits were in perfect synch and love was exquisitely wholly present. Since God who created time and space is not bound by time and space, in a sense, He is always in every moment. 

I wondered if Heaven would be like that for us. Sin will be vanquished and the Bible says it is completely forgiven and covered by Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross which paid the penalty for our transgressions. Therefore, in our redeemed bodies with God, will we be able to capture forever those glimpses of whole and perfect moments that passed so quickly... with none of the nagging taint of sin marring the joy? No longer bound by time, will all we yearned for that we only caught for a second out of the corner of our eye then be our eternal reality? Will those perfect, joyous seconds in our lives that we wished we could hold on to forever really be ever before us? Is that what God means in the verse about how the years the locusts have devoured will be restored?

I am blessed that my sweet, gentle mom is still alive. She is a wonderful mother, and someone who I would have sought as my friend even if she were not my mother. I thank God for her and am grateful I can still call her in person to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. I know not everyone today will be able to do that, and my heart breaks for them.

However, take heart all of you who struggle with sadness on this day for whatever reason. To those who put their faith in God we are promised that all shame of our youth, all reproaches of our wounded relationships, all barrenness and desolation of our lives will be remembered no more. God will redeem all we have lost and He Himself will be our eternal joy.

Isaiah 54:1-10 

“Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the Lord. “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities. “Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. ...