How Will You Celebrate Mother's Day?

I am extraordinarily grateful to be a mother. My children are an amazing blessing. I am also blessed to have a mother who has loved me and continues to do so. But the truth is, I have mixed feelings about Mother's Day.

There were many years that I wanted to be a mother, but infertility stood in the way. I remember attending painful church services where mothers received flowers or were asked to stand up and be acknowledged. During those years, Mother's Day was a very sad, and lonely day.

As you might expect, after becoming a mother, Mother's Day ceased to be personally painful. But I still remember the pain. So on Mother's Day, instead of wanting to celebrate, I find that my heart aches for those women for whom Mother's Day is still painful--those who struggle with infertility, have lost children, are estranged from their children, or have lost their mothers. For those women, Sunday will be hard.

We have a special day planned on Sunday. In the afternoon, our children will perform in a choral concert which will make this mother's heart proud. My mother will also attend the concert and will join us for a meal afterward. We will indeed celebrate the day. But I also have a list of women who I will be especially praying for and will seek to encourage on Mother's Day. If anyone is reading this, I encourage you to come up with a list of your own.