This Sunday is one of my favorite days, even more than my birthday. Since I am a mom, Mother’s Day is just a great day to revel in the fact and let everyone cater to my every need (!)

Just like you get, huh?! Well, today, I want to encourage every mom out there whether you are a new mom or a grandmother. Why? Because, raising children is truly the most wonderful job in the world and the very hardest.

When you have little ones, there’s not a lot of rest at all much less on Mother’s Day. And you probably have your own mother/mother-in-law to give attention to.

And if you are a grandmother, then your children may be living in other states (like mine) so on Mother’s Day you really miss them even more. And, if you are a grandmother, than your own mother may be with the Lord (though mine is still doing great at almost 90) and so Mother’s Day may be emotionally painful.

But back to those of you with children under the age of 18, there are days when you just want to pull your hair out. And I totally understand. But does God realize how hard it can be?

I believe with all my heart He does. That’s why there are stories in the Bible:

Like the prodigal son – a very rebellious and disrespectful son demanding his inheritance and then leaving home.

The priest Eli and the Godly prophet Samuel, who led Israel, but failed as parents with sons who didn’t follow the Lord and were disobedient.

Like Cain and Abel, where there was so much sibling rivalry that Cain eventually killed his brother.

Or Joseph and the sibling rivalry with his half-brothers. They were going to kill him and instead sold him into slavery.

Along with children who acted awful, think of the mothers who couldn’t have children and were ridiculed because of it: Hannah, in the book of Samuel, was treated harshly from her husband’s other wife. Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, was unable to bear children until she was much older just like Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

And of course Mary, the mother of Jesus, who had to live with the rumors that she was pregnant before she was married. How hard it must have been to raise Jesus among such prejudices as well as knowing He was the Messiah!

My point is that you have a God who knows your weaknesses and your strengths and wants you to need Him every minute of every day.

In fact, with God on your side, every day can be a Mother’s Day! He treats you with great kindness, loves you unconditionally and forgives all your transgressions.

You have so much value to God that He died for you.

I also want to share that life hasn’t passed you by. Be content with whatever season of life God has you in. I remember moving to the country in Indiana with my two very young daughters and thinking, “Well, my life is over as I knew it.” And just three years later I was speaking and starting on my first book. You never know what God has planned for you….even when life can get so frustrating that you want to pull out all your hair!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Rom. 15:13

Happy Mother’s Day!