When a Momma Hurts - Encouragement Café - May 11, 2017

When A Momma Hurts
By Carolyn Dale Newell

Thursday, May 11, 2017

“Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.” Psalm 42:5 NKJV

No one can break a momma’s heart into a million pieces like a child. However, not having children is unbearable for most. No matter what you are dealing with: infertility, a wayward child, or the untimely loss of a son, daughter, or grandchild, there is one answer.

We need hope. We have that hope in Jesus.

Your wound may be fresh, or it may be old. Mother’s Day will rip it open, and the pain is front and center once again. Yes, mommas deserve to be honored, but sometimes, it is a bit much. The TV broadcasts gift ideas. People (hopefully unknowingly) wish you a happy Mother’s Day.

Our safe place, the church, is often the hardest place to go. I avoided church on Mother’s Day for eight years.

People rarely think about the mommas in pain. We feel we are the only ones in the world with this hurt, but we are not alone.

There are countless women who struggle with this day. Women who want relief from their sadness. You go unrecognized. Until today.

Today, we embrace you. We pray for you. We point you to Jesus. He is the Master Carpenter for the broken heart. He tells us to cast our cares on Him. He wants to bear our burdens. Jesus gives us grace for the grief. He even gives us flowers.

Flowers? Last year, I stepped out on the patio to pray. My birthday was on Saturday, and now it was Mother’s Day. What a weekend! No call. No text. No card. As I sat on the swing, alone, I saw a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Pink primroses and yellow day lilies had grown up together as if someone had placed them in a vase.

During the past ten years of sorrow, these flowers had never grown in this manner. It lifted my spirit to know how much God cared.

Maybe you will not receive a heavenly floral arrangement, but possibly a sunrise, a sunset, a smile, or a hug. Maybe I have overlooked the gifts God has put in my path in past years.

How do you get through this time? Prayer and praise. God the Father knows what the loss of a child is like. Tell Him all about it.

Next, praise Him. I know you are in no mood to praise, but I will tell you a secret. The praises from our sorrowful hearts please our Savior. I have found that praise works like a medicine to a distressed momma.

God inhabits our praises, and as I praised, He healed. Pain flees in the presence of praise. We can feed on our tears, or we can feed on the faithfulness of God. When you do, you will receive grace, amazing, awesome grace to help you through this difficult time.

Spend much time in prayer and praise this week. Some helpful passages include: Psalm 37, and Psalm 42. You are never alone. God is by your side.

Heavenly Father, help Your daughters who struggle through Mother’s Day. We lift up our voices in praise to You because You have been our only constant. Thank You for grace and mercy, and please wipe our tears away. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

© 2017 by Carolyn Dale Newell.  All rights reserved.

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Originally published Thursday, 11 May 2017.

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