Lord, God of Sara, Rebekah, and Rachel;
and God of Hagar, Bilhah, and Zilpah.
God of the hopeless, surprised by joy;
and God of the used-up and thrown away.

Created in your image,
her identity is found in relationship to you.
Made to reign over creation alongside man;
not to be ruled over or cheapened,
reduced to a bodily function, defaced,
only giving men what they want.
Oh God, forgive us.

So God help us this Mother’s day
to recognize what is genuine, what is good.
Open our eyes to those hidden among us,
and help us to see your love in the hard places.

We recognize those who work so hard
to be the mother you call them to be.
To balance work, dance lessons, and baseball games,
with dinner around the table, homework, and bed-time prayers.
And we bless them.

We recognize those who thought parenting days were done,
who had dreams of their own for the second half of life.
But for a dozen reasons are now changing diapers and mixing formula,
putting on pajamas, reading about three bears, and saying bed-time prayers.
And we bless them.

We recognize mothers whose plans for family,
changed forever when he walked out.
And now, working forty hours a week is only the beginning,
to finding good day care, finding time to cook,
and finding the energy to love their children.
And we bless them.
We recognize mothers who are most like you,
adopting children who are not their own.
But making them their own with unconditional love,
no less than any mother ever loved her child.
And we bless them.

And we recognize those who invest their hearts
in children destined for other families.
Knowing their time will be short, their attachment strong;
and every time their heart will break just a little.
And then they open their homes and their hearts again.
And we bless them.

And God, we recognize the mothers
who cannot understand how life can possibly go on.
Who cannot answer the question,
“How many children do you have?”
And we cannot imagine the pain this day inflicts,
year after year, tear after tear.
And we grieve with them.

God, we recognize those like Sarah and Hannah;
month after month, year after year unable to conceive.
Wanting more than anything to hold a baby – their baby,
but being told that it will not, cannot happen.
And we cannot imagine the pain this day inflicts,
married and unmarried, who just want a child.
And we grieve with them.

So we lift our hands to you,
on one hand those with whom we rejoice and bless,
on the other hand those with whom we weep.
Might you overwhelm our blessing
with your blessing, rich and full.
And might you break into our weeping,
surprising us with your grace.

Amen

Limited permission is granted for reuse of this prayer in worship or other venues. If printed in any form attribution must be given as "Glenn Pemberton, mosaicsite.org/glennpemberton." Special permission is required to print three or more of these prayers at one time in any form, print, electronic, etc., and must be secured by request at gdp05b@acu.edu.