Women on My Mind.

With Mother's Day quickly approaching, I have found myself with several different women on my mind and heart as it relates to motherhood and childrearing and this painfully wonderful and mysterious journey of bearing and raising little people. People like:

My sister, Kendra, who feels God's deep calling to be a mother, but who just experienced a miscarriage last week after going through the emotional valleys and peaks of invitro. Her heart, along with her husband's, is broken and this Mother's Day will be a bittersweet day for her, I'm sure. Pray for peace and emotional healing and God's perfect hope.

Community friends, Lisa and Mrs. G, who lost their 2 young teen daughters in a tragic car accident nearly one year ago. This will be their first Mother's Day, since the death of these girls, and I'm sure that their hearts are aching with loss and sweet memories and so many other emotions that I can't begin to comprehend. They will be on my mind in a special way this Sunday.

Several friends of mine who have lost children very young (as infants and preschoolers)---I am in prayer by name for Rachel who lost baby Levi days after his birth; and Melanie whose infant daughter died in the womb just days before delivery; and Jody who lost sweet Teagan in a tragic accident; and another Jodi whose infant son died from SIDS in his first few months of life.

For so many friends who have relationships with their own mothers that are fraught was pain and fragmentation and mistrust and confusion. I pray for healing and reconciliation for these relationships.

God created mothers for a very special role, and while the pain and death and mourning of this present world often distort our views of this relationship and how it was intended to be.....I think that the mother-child role gives us a glimpse, if only faint, of the depth of His love for each of us. What will you do to show appreciation for the mothers and special women in your life this year?