By Judy Brackett
The women in my family seem to create a new generation on average every twenty years…more or less. Starting back from the 1800’s to now, it is an average. Once it was discovered “how” babies are made, you would have thought it would have been easier to control that statistic.
For some, it just seems that fertility was eminent. And for others, it just wasn’t and in retrospect, they were overlooked. They were perhaps viewed as having different priorities. Those whom conception was difficult simply redirected their attention towards other productive things like careers, hobbies and pouring themselves into the lives of others. Our women are strong even in their pain or, so it appears.
We have been planning for the “Mother’s’ Day” event at Buford Church of God. The very words… MOTHER’S DAY… makes some women flinch. It is a reminder that some did not carry their children inside their womb or their own mother is no longer in their life due to a death or a relationship choice. Just admit it… FAMILY TITLES CAN BE SO DEMANDING.
Can I be transparent for a moment? It took me years to understand women who could not conceive. While I personally seem to pop up pregnant just drinking from public water fountains, my younger sister Jody struggled. She would joke that my children scared her from ever wanting her own, but deep down she longed for a little person who had her nose and hopefully not her husband’s. It never happened for them.
And for those missing their mothers, my great-grandmother passed when I was twenty-two. My grandmother is now ninety-eight and my mother is seventy-eight. We currently have five generations and it is hard not to take those in our lives for granted until they are gone. But it will happen at some point and I will know that pain as well.
I can’t overlook the mothers whose children are either estranged or deceased. THAT is hard. This is a day they dreamed of being celebrated for all those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches tucked into lunch boxes or moments in the public dressing room trying to accommodate body image issues and budgets. This day is a reminder that those moments have stopped.
When fighting to understand this idealistic day, I remember the first mother mentioned in the Bible. Consider Eve and her two boys, Cain and Abel. (Genesis 4) She didn’t have a mother to call and ask advice. Her kids were difficult, and Cain even killed his brother, then was banished from their homeland. She lost both of her sons at one time. Motherhood was hard… possibly harder than teaching Adam to be an attentive husband.
Mother’s’ Day is emotional for just about everyone for one reason or another. As a woman, you have been called by God to be more than just a daughter, a “baby motel” for nine months and then a babysitter for eighteen years. Sometimes He calls us to be leaders, nurturers, encouragers, caretakers, disciplinarians and even parents to many not our own. There is no perfection in those titles. Those of us who have been given the badge of MOTHER or DAUGHTER have sincerely jacked up that job description more than we would like to admit.
WE ARE ALL IN THIS LIFE FOR A PURPOSE. God formed each one for an exclusive job description. There is never a reason to compete or compare. Don’t discount for what you have lost or never achieved because God is a Father of healing, peace, and direction. Celebrate Mother’s Day because YOU are HERE, and we women need you with us.
