Being a mother means losing some things but gaining much better things.  It means putting away your own wants and even some of your needs, and for a time, maybe some of your plans or aspirations, and sometimes, forever.

Being a mom does not mean having all the answers, and it doesn’t mean always knowing the “right” thing to do, but doing the best you know how to do.  It means recognizing that motherhood is also a sisterhood, and learning from other mothers, but it also means learning that God gave you your own intuition about your child, and learning  to trust it and know when it should over-ride the advice and opinions of others.

Being a mother means changes in your body that will never go back to how they were before.  It means changes in priorities that probably won’t either.

Being a mom comes with tears.  Sometimes lots and lots of tears.  Tears for the cruelty of the world and how that might effect your child, tears from sheer fatigue, tears of joy and pride and laughter, even.

Being a Mom is a sacred honor and a supreme privilege.  It gives us opportunities to impact our world beyond anything else we might do in our lives.  It is a chance to invest and be selfless.  It is an opportunity to experience everything as if it is new, all over again, as an adult, as  you observe your child discovering all kinds of things, from his own toes, to his shadow, and lightning bugs and squishy Jello.

Motherhood is a blessing and one that is too often taken for granted.  There are many women every Mother’s Day, who experience sorrow and pain of having been overlooked and not given this blessing, and I can’t begin to try and put myself in their place.  And there are those who are mothers who have babies they never got to raise.

There are babies that have been cut down in the womb by the women to whom God entrusted them.  Deceived women who have believed lies about those precious souls. In heaven I hope that those women who longed for babies, and those babies who never got to have a life on Earth, will belong to one another.

I know that being a Mom, for me, has been beautiful, wonderful, frightening, agonizing, sweet, joyful, infuriating, drudging, warm, snuggly, crazy, fulfilling, exhausting, and a most precious gift and honor.

I don’t know that my kids will ever know what being a Mom costs, nor what being a Mom “pays” in dividends.  But I thank the Lord for the blessing and honor of getting to be their Mom, and getting to be married to their Dad.

I also thank God for the Mom He gave me.  She poured in all the love she had, and no one could ask for a better legacy than that.  Love covers a multitude of sins.  It’s a darn good thing, too, right Mom?  🙂

We do our best and trust the Lord to make up the difference.  The Lord didn’t give those little people to us to keep.  They are never ours.  They are here for their own purposes in this world.  And some day we will open our arms and uncurl those hands, and let them go.

And yet those who are destined never to go out and fly, what about those?  Who will take care of them when Mom and Dad grow old and pass on?  Oh the heart ache of that Mom, who knows she will some day leave that helpless creature who looks like the rest but isn’t.

God what faith you ask of that Mother and that Father.

Is it any wonder we yearn for the safety of heaven?  At the end of the day, we want all to be gathered in and safe.  In a world where there is no safety, that is the greatest longing we have.

I am so thankful for a Father who loved me with a parental love so strong that He would give up that which is most precious to Him, all for the sake of having more sons and daughters, knowing that as Jesus laid down His life, He had power to take it up again.  But even so, it was necessary to turn away when all the sin of the world was laid upon Him.

I look forward to the day every tear is wiped from our eyes.   I’m ready to get on with the really good stuff.  And being a Mom is probably the best thing in this life that enables me to imagine how Heaven will be.  When a baby comes into your life, it is like you grow a whole heart that is just for that new person in your world.  Then another one comes, and while you are waiting, you don’t think you could possibly love another one as much as you love the first one, and lo and behold, another whole heart is born within you for that one as well, and the love is all just there for them the first time you see them.  They get their own private heart right there in your bosom, that belongs only to them.  It is a wonder.  Everyone tells you to be sure and cherish every moment and how fast it will go by.  What they don’t tell you is that even if you do cherish every moment, they’re still going to fly by.

Mothers ponder these things in our hearts.  Like Mary.  I can’t even imagine being Jesus’ mother.  When I watched that movie the Passion of the Christ, the moment that grabbed and squeezed my heart most was the depiction of Jesus when he was little and fell to the ground scraping His little hands, and Mary’s look of concern for her baby.  I almost felt ashamed that it was that one moment in all of that movie, that got to me most, but it does say something about motherhood and the magnitude of feeling that comes with it.  I realize that movie is a product of Hollywood, but next to my gratitude for saving grace, motherhood and family is my next most precious treasure.