4 | May 2024
Celebrate All Women This Mother’s Day By Stephanie Heading, managing editor
On the outside looking in. No one wants to be there.
However, on the second Sunday in May many women find themselves in just such a place as churches gather to worship and celebrate Moth- er’s Day. Mother’s Day is bittersweet for these women. Their melancholy has roots in innumerable sources—singleness, infertility, miscarriage or the loss of a child, mother, or other significant maternal figure. How do I know this? Because I was one of these women. Infertility treatment that never seemed to work made Mother’s Day excruci- ating for me. When the prospect of having my own child felt bleak, sitting in a worship service that focused on motherhood was another blow to my aching soul. My heart felt crushed, and my empty arms ached even more. Being a mother is a treasured role in life for many women, including me. The Lord heard my cries and gave me four wonderful children. However, all women, mothers or not, fill valuable roles, and our Heavenly Father loves them just the same.
Women are daughters, sisters, aunts, nieces, wives, co-workers, and friends, just to name a few. Often filling maternal roles in the lives of people within their sphere of influence, women daily impact the world around them. How can the church invite hurting women to come in from the outside?
By showing the compassion of Christ to wounded hearts. We show grace to those who don’t know Jesus, but sometimes we forget that believers hurt too. Celebrate mothers for the vital role they play in the lives of their children and grandchildren, but also recog- nize all women for what they do to bless the lives they touch. Make the Mother’s Day worship service a place of comfort and healing for struggling souls. As we celebrate this year, let’s remem- ber to uplift our hurting sisters along the way. “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2
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