From One Mom To AnotherAugust 2016
The Strength to Rejoice and Be Glad
The spring season and month of May can be very challenging! Mother’s Day, graduations, birthdays, final exams and projects, rain, end of year performances and parties, hot days followed by loud storms, and so much more. Spring can be a special time and it can be marked by many heartaches. For mothers of seniors, it’s full of last events and good-byes. For those who have lost their mothers, Mother’s Day can be a painful reminder of the crushing loss. For women who have never become mothers or for mothers who have lost children, it can be another painful reminder of dreams that never came true and of the pain of grieving year after year over those dreams. I don’t pretend to be able to provide comfort in my words nor do I pretend to understand fully the pain of these dear, wounded hearts, but I would like to point you today, after some of the dust has settled from spring, to the wounded heart of the Savior and the broken heart of the Father and the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
If I believe the Bible, which I do, then, my words to you should be “Blessed are those that mourn for you shall be comforted.” How can the word blessed, sometimes translated happy, be connected with mourning? This week I went to the funeral of a former student – so young to be gone already. So broken were the hearts of his parents. Two weeks ago, the funeral of a mother who was a brand new grandmother and a little younger than myself. Again, broken hearts of loving, devoted husband and young adult children.
On every hand, it seems, are many losses that could crush our hearts. Yet, Scripture tells us that it is better to go to the house of a funeral than to that of a party, because it teaches us to number our days and to value the time that God gives us. It helps us to realize that each moment is precious and that each day we take breath there is a purpose for our lives and somewhere someone that needs our love. These most difficult moments serve to remind us to live life completely so that when we also take our final breaths, that we won’t be tormented with regrets and “if onlys.”
For those that can hear these words, I want to encourage you that when you are so crushed that you can’t find comfort for your heart, that is when we are forced to find our comfort ONLY in God. To find God is to be given a huge gift that is impossible to value. In seeking Him and His comfort, we find all things. As I think on some of my dear friends that are grieving right now, I pray that you will find that gift of seeking.
As mothers of babies that seem to wake just when we actually dose off, or toddlers with endless accidents to clean up, or teenagers with constant drama to calm, or with nests that never filled or that seem ever empty, we tend to take for granted that tomorrow may bring better things. For each of you and each of us, I want to encourage you today that whatever condition you find yourself in, that you will face your struggle and place it at the Father’s feet and that you will find a way to lift your eyes to His and enjoy every moment He gives you (even through tears, at times).
I’d like to encourage you that today is the day that God has given you. I pray that you and I will face it holding tight to the Hand of Him who gave it to us and find His strength to rejoice and be glad in it. If spring was hard for you, I pray you find the comfort in Him who was a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. When you wonder how people think they can “know how you feel,” remember that truly He does know and He is there with the gift of comfort when you are ready.