Each year I am reminded of the true struggle many women face on Mother’s Day. For so many, the mention of this holiday stirs up lots of emotions and unwanted feelings. I am surrounded by family and friends who have struggled with infertility for years and their longing for a child grows deeper and deeper, leaving many questioning God’s love. Thats why I have asked my dear friend and colleague, Lisa Moseley, to share with us today. Lisa knows the deep pain of infertility, but I love how she shows God’s love in a hard situation. Here is Lisa…
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Mother’s Day is often a wonderful time of celebration. We celebrate our moms, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, wives, and often mothers-to-be. Yet, for many women this special day is filled with heartache.
Those who have lost their mother, those who have lost a child or pregnancy, and those who struggle with the hope of being a mother that may never come to be due to infertility. I fall in that last category.
Psalm 127:3 says this: “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from Him.”
Over the past eight years, I have spent hours, days, and months in prayer seeking direction in my struggle with infertility. Sometimes it manifests in tears, others in pleas, but I’ve always asked for guidance and wisdom. But what I’ve found is silence.
Silence isn’t rare when it comes to God. But His quietness can be deafening. It’s even been shown to be enough to make a person go crazy.
Remember the 40 years the Israelites spent in the desert? Or the three days after Jesus was crucified? The story that most frequently comes to my mind is Abraham and Sarah―and it’s the one that others have repeatedly told me as well. I think that Sarah went a little crazy. She literally laughed when she was told she would conceive a child. Abraham and Sarah were in their 90’s when they were blessed with Isaac. Surely that’s not God’s plan for me?
To know God’s Word is to know there are many promises He has made to His children. But there are also many examples of when His ways are not ours. So, why? Why not us? Why this journey and this specific struggle? I’ve wrestled with more questions than answers. What have I done to not be worthy of this reward? One of my favorite songs says it best, “Sometimes I gotta stop; Remember that you’re God, And I am not.”
While I no longer allow the struggle and heartache to define me, Mother’s Day is still not an easy day to navigate. In her book, “When God Doesn’t Fix It,” Laura Story shares this message:
Trials are an opportunity. They are an invitation to do good works to glorify our Father in heaven, to transform our lives from the inside out, and to drive us into the arms and footsteps of Jesus.
The road may not be straight; we may not have all the answers; but God has something bigger prepared for us and will give us the answers and direction if we are still and patient. I still don’t know where we will go from here in our journey to have a child, but I do know this, “Faith is being sure of the things we hope for, and certain of the things we cannot see” (Hebrews 11:1).
This Mother’s Day I hope that you have many reasons to celebrate. For those that, like me, find it difficult to do so, I pray that you are filled with God’s peace this week. That those who don’t know your struggle or maybe can’t find the words will simply say “we love you” and that you will find only the sincerity in those words.