Happy Mother’s Day to those who celebrate
I don’t care for the holiday myself…
But if my family wants to buy me dinner because of it then that’s OK too haha.
And yes, as with all holidays that celebrate anything relationally meaningful, one must include the obligatory, “And if you are feeling any sort of left-outness about Mother’s Day, then we exalt you.”
The funny part about this language is, a lot of mothers feel left out, too. Left out of normal life/adult conversations, left out of the club that can drink their coffee hot or string two coherent thoughts together without a kid interrupting their thought processes. Left out of the group that doesn’t have the bowling ball mom belly that I still hate even years later and every time I try to do exercises to fix it my body is like, “Haha that’s cute. Meanwhile your genetics would like to relay a message to you that resistance toward this particular type of belly is futile.”
So yes, I exalt those who think their lives would be better on the other side of motherhood—that somehow deep fulfillment is waiting there for them.
But I also exalt those who have never really recovered from having kids and who may never will. Those who love and appreciate the gift that their kids are, and yet still have days where that “gift” feels like being freshly nailed to a cross every single day with no end in sight—a Jesus meets Sisyphus Greek hell.
Here’s the harsh truth about Mother’s Day: both camps must make their peace with the circumstances that God has put in their lives. Not just the bereaved or pre-bereaved, but those who are Atreyu’s-horse-level deep in the absolute trial that raising small humans actually is.
Anyway, wherever you are on that spectrum, I wish you the ability to make peace with real life as you have found it today, not the life you wish you had or the life you think you need. Your life today.
And the best way to make peace with your circumstance is to hold it in your hands, look at Jesus and the nail marks on His hands and feet—His body broken for you just like your body or spirit is broken over children sometimes—and say, “Yes, Lord. I receive it. I accept it. Not my will but yours be done.”
It’s common for people to tell others who are struggling that they need to “let go” of their burdens or whatever is stressing them out. “Just let it go.”
“Just.”
I have found that advice never helps me. What has helped me is not letting it go, but pulling it in closer. Looking it in the face.
Accepting it.
Saying yes to it.
Not fighting it anymore because of my trust in God’s ultimate goodness in the face of and despite my pain.
Anyway, I’m not sure how to end this post because the window of time I had to write it is gone and my kids and husband are needing my attention right now, so I’m just gonna say this: whatever your circumstance today on this Mother’s Day 2025, may you have PEACE in the middle of it.
Have a peaceful-with-God Mother’s Day, my darlings.