A Mother's Day Tribute

My weak words couldn’t phrase a better tribute. Taken from JD Greear at The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham.

A Mother’s Day Tribute

• To those who gave birth this year to their first child, we celebrate with you.
• To those who lost a child this year, we mourn with you.
• To those who are in the trenches with little ones every day and wear the badge of food stains, we appreciate you.
• To those who experienced loss this year through miscarriage, failed adoptions, or a child that ran away, we grieve with you.
• To those who walk the hard path of infertility, fraught with pokes, prods, tears, and disappointment, we walk with you. (Forgive us when we say foolish things. We don’t mean to make this harder than it is.)
• To foster moms, mentor moms, and spiritual moms, we need you.
• To those who have warm and close relationships with your children, we celebrate with you.
• To those who have disappointment, heartache, and distance from your children, we wait with you
• To those who lost their mothers this year, we grieve with you.
• To those who were encouraged to have an abortion, we cry with you.
• To those who lived through driving tests, medical tests, and the overall testing of motherhood, thank you.
• To those who will have emptier nests in the upcoming year, we rejoice and grieve with you.
• And to those who are pregnant with new life, we anticipate with you.

We have in our midst perhaps the greatest warriors in our culture—women in whom God has placed the spirit of motherhood.

To all of you, we honor you.

Elyse Fitzpatrick says, “Many women feel like this is the one day when they are forced to look at either their own shortcomings (resulting in guilt) or the shortcomings of others   who fail to appreciate them properly (resulting in discontent). It’s the one day you’re told over and over that our identity as women is not rooted in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus      Christ, but in your ability to be the source of life and goodness for all.”

But the gospel is not about your accomplishments as a mother; it’s about your position as God’ daughter. You are honored and received not because of what you have  or haven’t done as a mother but because of what God did to make you his own. His commendation and presence is better than 1000 beautiful children or a million bouquets of flowers.

-JD Greear