praise the name of the LORD!
Blessed be the name of the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore!
From the rising of the sun to its setting,
the name of the LORD is to be praised!
The LORD is high above all nations,
and His glory above the heavens!
Who is like the LORD our God,
who is seated on high,
who looks far down
on the heavens and the earth?
He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes,
with the princes of his people.
He gives the barren woman a home,
making her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the LORD!
I have learned that Mother’s Day is beautiful and bittersweet. The sweetness is lovely and fresh. But the bitter side of it comes from losing my children. From not being able to hold them. I know so many people who have lost their mothers or lost their child(ren) or who have broken relationships with their mother or child(ren). These are people for whom Mother’s Day is especially difficult. And I know women who are infertile; women who desperately desire to be mothers, but who struggle to conceive precious babies. I know unmarried women who desire nothing more than to be married, so they can devote their lives to serving a husband and children.
Who knew that silly little Hallmark holidays could bring such pain and anguish into peoples’ lives? Well, I do.
Anyway… my husband bought me some beautiful lilies, made me breakfast in bed, and has the table all set because my brother’s family and my parents are coming over for dinner after church ~ and the gentlemen are making the meal! How delightful. 🙂
Today I get to hold my sweet little boy on my lap. And I get to caress my sweet seventh baby from the closeness of my womb. And I have the beautiful knowledge that five of my covenant children are rejoicing in Heaven, all because they went from the comfort of my womb to the peace of God’s mansions. I get to visit with them in worship in about two hours ~ where my husband and I will sit in the heavenlies with our seven descendants yet again.
So I am prayerful and thankful and joyful!!
And eager to worship this morning with that attitude. Bittersweet or not. 🙂
May the Lord bless you in these beautiful & difficult efforts.
Melissa, our Pastor preached to the bittersweet side of this holiday, this morning. It was a very sobering sermon. But it was an amazing sermon all at the same time. Our campus Pastor and his wife have lost 26 of their babies to miscarriages. They shared today about their journey, their hope in God and their continued JOY in Him through each death of each child. They’ve been blessed with 3 beautiful children, but scattered in ages, which is a daily reminder to them of the children they lost.
I’m going to email you the sermon video clip because I think you will be very encouraged by it. Sometimes I think its good on these days, to stop and mourn with those who are mourning – to remember that for some, today is a holiday they feel they can’t celebrate because they don’t have the joy yet of being a Mommy. I was really reminded today to stop and pray for those women and to pray that it would be God’s will to bless them in that way this year.
Anyway… thinking of you!
-Stef
*hugs*
I hope your Mother’s day was a blessed one and how sweet of the guys to make the dinner meal for the mothers in their families. =)
~Jaclynn