Motherhood

Mother’s Day brings mixed feelings for me. On the one hand, I appreciate and celebrate all of the mothers and mother figures in my life.

On the other hand, I feel a sadness and struggle with celebrating a time when so many people have lost their mothers, didn’t know their mothers, or had bad mothers that left them with a lifetime of scars.

We are oftentimes very quick to point out how fathers have damaged their children by being absent, emotionally void, or abusive. We never seem to address these same negative traits in mothers. Everyone assumes that a women having children and nurturing a child comes naturally to all women. It does not.

Being a mother doesn’t come with a manual. What works for one child does not work for another. A woman can do her absolute best and the resultant failure or success of her child has little to do with it. A woman can be an absolute monster and her child turns out to be a successful, productive, emotionally decent human being.

Yet mothers are all judged with a broad stroke brush as the “reason” the child acts a specific way.

Motherhood is a job without instructions. The pay is low, the hours are long, the customers are always demanding, and sometimes it is a thankless job. The rewards are the smiles of the children you raise, the joy out of seeing them grow and find themselves, and the blessings you know you’ve bestowed on the world.

The world needs mothers. For everything.

I am thankful to be a mother. I am thankful to have a pretty good mother and also to be surrounded by a village of surrogate mothers.

Praying for the motherless. May your heart be blessed with love.

Praying for the mothers worrying their best is not enough. You are doing your best, continue to love up on your babies.