Prayer for Mother’s Day[i]

Eternal God, You have made mothers and motherhood for your own glory.

We praise you for being the creator of motherhood. In your wisdom and grace you fashioned us in our mother’s wombs and nurtured us through their love and sacrifice.

Thank you for equipping mothers physically, emotionally, and spiritually for the important task of raising children.

You have made motherhood to be a display of your own nurture and care for us. You have said, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” Isa 49:15

Our Holy Father, we confess that mother’s day exposes our many sins and need for your grace.

We have failed our mothers. We have not only broken their hearts through disobedience, we have failed to give them the honor and love that you require.

Our mothers have failed us. Some of us were abandoned, neglected, mislead, or abused by our mothers. And we are not only wounded, we have allowed ourselves to be defined by this and followed in their steps. Even the best of our mothers still failed us. We have often worked hard to receive from them what they should have given us willingly. And sometimes they have still withheld it. We come to you as wounded people. Lord heal us.

Our mothering is broken. We are too often selfish, impatient, and angry. We have we failed our children too many times to count. We have been annoyed with them for their weakness and failures. We have been slow to forgive for their sins. We have wrongly compared them to others instead of cherishing them as individuals. We have resented their need to be trained and discipled.

Forgive us for believing the lies of our generation about motherhood. We have too easily come to see our children as an interruption to the good life.

On the other hand, We have idolized motherhood and family. We have sought to find our significance in perfect children. We have been controlled by fear and shame when our children fail us. We have envied the success of others, and taken our eyes off of Jesus. We have defined womanhood through motherhood instead of through relationship with you. We have made carnal judgements about those with no children and those we perceive have too many children.

Our bodies are broken. Many of us have lost children to miscarriage or been unable to conceive. Our hearts are broken beyond our ability to bear it. Who will deliver us?

We thank you our God and savior that in Jesus you have provided grace upon grace for us.

We thank you God for sending your son as a sacrifice for all of our sins, even the sins of motherhood. We praise you that we do not have to live in the shame of our weakness or sinfulness.

Our God, We thank you that we can commit our children to you with all of their sins and temptations. We confess that our hope for our children is found in you and your inexhaustible grace.

We bless you for the grace that is already on display in the lives of our children. You have answered so many prayers and we thank you.

We praise you for the daily grace to help us to walk through the joys and challenges of motherhood knowing that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.

[i]Written by Pastor Matt Troupe