Mothers Carry Many Loads...

Happy Late Mother's Day.  I felt like this year on Mother's day, I was never more grateful for the mother I have.  This year, I am thankful for the Lord answering prayer and giving me the privilege to be a mom after a season of waiting and longing.  I am praising the Lord for the sweet gift of Jeremiah.  It has been a stretching 3 months but I am thankful for this new role.  I was also this year on Mother's Day- never so thankful for my mom.  I think becoming a mom has given me a HUGE appreciation for my mom in thinking through all she did for me and my 3 siblings.  When I think of how she had 4 of us- I am just amazed!  :)  I appreciate the discipline, sacrifice and care my mother gave to us.  :)  And I appreciate her new role as grandmother and all she has done to help with Jeremiah esp. in the first few weeks.  :)  This Mothers' Day I was also thinking how many women long to be mothers and how the Lord has in his timing and providence not granted their request, and though that is so hard to understand, I do pray we would be attentive to their hurts and longings and encourage them to be a "mother" to children the Lord has placed in their midst.  The Lord has given women the desire to nurture and care for children and we need to encourage singles, and married women without children to invest in the children's lives around them!

On another note, one of the most interesting Mother's Day sermons I have heard- was John Piper's- To Be A Mother is a call to Suffer...  Not quite the flowery type of sermon for moms but something to ponder and think about as we are called to suffer and sacrifice for our little ones...