For All The Mothers Without Children on Mother’s Day

Last year it occurred to me, scrolling through posts of a few broken-hearted, that there are many on Mother’s Day that aren’t properly appreciated for who they are.  I’m speaking of all the Mom’s out there who have no children of their own; those who want so desperately to carry a child, but for whatever reason cannot.  I need to ask you an important question:  do you actually think carrying a child inside for nine months is what makes you a mom? 

If so, how many “mothers” have broken or abused or sadly ended the very life they carried?  Are they really moms?  Do they deserve to be remembered on this special day?  Or, how many “mothers” bore a child only to give it up to another because they couldn’t handle the responsibility or didn’t feel like they could adequately provide for the child.  It’s not that what they did is wrong, but they knew that even though they could carry the baby in their womb, they couldn’t be a mom.  So they did the right thing and found someone who could—quite often a mother who could not carry a child for herself. 

To suggest carrying a child inside for nine months is what makes one a mom is like telling a boy coming of age that having sex is what makes him a man.   No, a real mom is more than a walking human factory.  A real mom has the gift of nurture—the strength to love, cherish, accept, protect, educate, and pour herself into a child; and the courage to know, all the while, that one day she will have to let go and encourage that child to fly out on their own; taking a piece of her heart with them. 

So, to you Mothers without Children, know that you are loved and appreciated.  Know that God is using you as a mother in someone’s life whether you know it or not.  Know that Mothers are not valued because they can have kids, but because they have within them that special something that children need to be what God made them to be.  Know that you are needed—that the world would be less without you in it because so many children need someone like you in their lives.  Know that you don’t have to have a child of your own for us to celebrate you on Mother’s Day.  Celebrate yourself in this.  Celebrate knowing that God gifted you in such a way so that He could utilize you to be a mom to so many children that need you that you may have never seen had you been distracted by your own.  In a world with so many children without mothers, we need more mothers without children willing to be like you—willing to share themselves with a child not their own.  And what more powerful image of motherhood is there than that?  God bless you, and Happy Mother’s Day!