Pastor Grant shared this prayer during worship on Mother’s Day, 2021, to honor and remember all the women who have blessed our lives:
Thank you, gracious God, for revealing your love in so many magnificent ways, and this day in particular, we pray in gratitude for our mothers and for all the women who have joined with you in the wonder of bringing forth new life.
There are times when only a woman’s love can understand our tears, soothe our disappoints, and calm all of our fears.
There are times when only a woman’s love can share the joy we feel when something we’ve dreamed about quite suddenly is real.
There are times when only a woman’s faith can help us on life’s way and inspire in us the confidence we need from day to day.
For women who are struggling, fill them with incandescent joy.
For women remembering children who have died and pregnancies that miscarried, wipe away their tears.
For women who decided other parents were the best choice for their babies, assure them that you continue watching over their little ones.
For women who adopted those kids and loved them fiercely as their own, thank you for giving them courage to love.
For those experiencing frustration or desperation in infertility, show them other ways to bring life in the world.
For those remembering mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunts no longer with us, point their eyes to resurrection that lies beyond the grave.
For those moving forward from mothers who did not show love, or hurt those they should have cared for, bind up their wounds.
Today is a day to honor the unyielding love and care for others we call “motherhood” and “womanhood,” wherever we have found it, and in whatever ways your Spirit cultivates it within each of us.
Amen!