EN(dur)ANCE by Robin Gudal

 

Here’s a Mother’s Day prayer to those who:

• Gave birth to their first child — we celebrate with you.

• Lost a child this year — we weep with you.

• Are in the trenches with little ones every day and wear the badge of food stains — we appreciate and support you.

• Experienced loss through miscarriage, failed adoptions or running away — we mourn with you.

• Walk the hard path of infertility, fraught with pokes, prods, tears and disappointment — we walk with you. Forgive us when we say foolish things, we don’t mean to make life harder.

• Are adoptive moms, foster moms, mentor moms and spiritual moms — we need you, thank you!

• Have warm and close relationships with your children — we celebrate with you.

• Have disappointment, heartache and distance with your children — we sit with you.

• Lost their mothers this year — we lament with you.

• Experienced abuse at the hands of your own mother — we acknowledge your experience and are sorry.

• Have aborted children — we acknowledge their life and you on this day.

• Are single and long to be married and mothering your own children — we grieve that life has not turned out the way you longed for it to be.

• Step-parents — we walk with you on these often-complex paths.

• Envisioned lavishing love on grandchildren, yet that dream is not to be — we acknowledge your sorrow of lost dreams.

• Have empty nests —  may Christ be your portion in the gaps of your life.

• Placed children up for adoption — we commend you for your selflessness and remember how you hold that child in your heart.

• Are pregnant with new life, both expected and surprised — we anticipate with you.

• All moms, “keep on, keeping on;’” we need you to love this next generation — you are deeply appreciated.

• All mothers-in-law — may we admire and respect you, always, in all of life’s situations.

• Dads who must fill the role of Mom — we value and support you.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Lastly, for my mom, who is in the depths of Alzheimer’s:

“Two Mothers Remembered” by Joann Snow Duncanson:

“I had two mothers —two mothers I claim

Two different people, yet with the same name.

Two separate women, diverse by design,

But I loved them both because they were mine.

The first was the mother who carried me here,

Gave birth and nurtured and launched my career.

She was the one whose features I bear,

Complete with the facial expressions I wear.

She gave her love, which follows me yet,

Along with the examples in life she set.

As I got older, she somehow younger grew,

And we’d laugh as just mothers and daughters do.

But then came the time that her mind clouded so,

And I sensed that the mother I knew would soon go.

So quickly she changed and turned into the other,

A stranger who dressed in the clothes of my mother.

Oh, she looked the same, at least at arm’s length,

But now she was the child and I was her strength.

We’d come full circle, we women three,

My mother the first, the second and me.

And if my own children should come to a day,

When a new mother comes and the old goes away,

I’d ask of them nothing that I didn’t do.

Love both of your mothers as both loved you.”

Happy Mother’s Day!

Robin (Beckman) Gudal, intentional in life, is a wife, momma, nana, friend, and a flawed and imperfect follower of Jesus.