A Mother's Day Reflection

Eighteen years ago, I had dreams of what my life would look like….I would have 3 kids before I was 30…I would be a stay at home mother  after I taught for  3 years. Instead, I taught for 7 years, then had time to go back to school for a Master’s in Educational Management, and became an Assistant Principal for 4 years. I was stretched, and blessed with encouragement, through co-workers who loved Jesus.

 For seven years, Mother’s Day was a day of celebrating my own wonderful mother, but also one of longing to be a mother myself…a day where I willed myself to choose gratitude for what I did have, and look forward to what God would bring.

 Long before God gave us our own children through adoption, he gave us the youth at GHCC. What a joy they were to us…going to retreats, athletic events, parties, lock-ins, baptisms, graduations, even the sorrows and tears shared, and shed for those we loved and lost…and learning about God and others together. I can remember to this day the Mother’s Day cards I received and cherished, and the lessons learned about life and family during that time. They will never be forgotten! And “our kids” will always have a place in our hearts.

  I’ll be forty in a week, and blessed to be the mother of 2 beautiful children crafted just for me. I had a good plan, but God had a different, much broader plan, one I’m so glad He created; to teach me about Him, to loosen my grip of selfish expectations and to give the freedom from fear of the unknown in order to experience and display His glory in a way that my plans never could have done.                

 The journey to growing our family has changed my life forever, and set Christ’s presence and grace so deep within me that I long for more…for heaven. Anything I felt I have lost, I have gained that much more for having known Christ better and been loved so deeply through the losses.

 In every season, God has a purpose for us, and we have a choice to make (sometimes one day at a time). Will we allow the sweet presence of Jesus and the grace from the cross to speak truth, and breathe life into our struggling souls?

 May our losses and disappointments continually bring us to the grace, wisdom, freedom and peace that only a life surrendered by God could accomplish.

 Having your fingers pried off something you long for…that you are clinging to, can be painful and disappointing. But, when it’s God who is doing the prying, the end result is freedom…the freedom to hold onto the good He has for you…Himself, a new dream, the hope of heaven…and peace for life here on earth.

Revelation 7:12
Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.