Peter Barham, one of our Pastors at Woodgreen, wrote a prayer for our Mothering Sunday morning services yesterday. A number of people commented on how helpful - and all-encompassing - they found it. It's copied below. This is a prayer for mothers of all sorts, which can be prayed all year round...
Loving God, we give thanks today for mothers.
Thank you for the blessing of mother figures in our
lives. For those mothers who gave birth to us, for great grandmothers and
grandmothers and women who have treated us as their own children. Thank you for
all our mothers mean to us and do for us. You teach us how to be good mothers,
cherishing and protecting the children among us. Help us mother lovingly,
fairly, wisely and with great joy. Help us raise our children to be the people
they are born to be.
We need your comfort here today, Lord, because we live in
a broken world. Some are missing their mothers, some are missing their
children, some are parted by distance or death. Some are new mothers, coming to
terms with new responsibility or expectant mothers, wondering and waiting; Some
are single mothers or caring for children of others.
Especially comfort those who have longed to be biological
mothers, but cannot. Those women who are single. Those who have lost a child,
given up their child for adoption, or who chose not to give birth, and had an
abortion. Those whose children have physical, mental or emotional disabilities.
We pray for those here whose mothers have disappointed
them; we ask for grace in relationships where there is pain and bitterness, for
healing in relationships where there is abuse and violence. Comfort mothers
around the world. Mothers who cannot feed their children due to poverty,
mothers who are homeless or without a homeland; mothers who must teach their
children about the dangers of bombs and bullets.
Help our church to be a space where people can feel
mothered, a family where women's gifts and talents are appreciated and
nurtured.
For each mother in our church, because of what Jesus has
done, create in them a clean heart. Renew a refreshed spirit within them. Give
them gospel strength to get through the day. Open their eyes so that they see
your hand at work in the mess of life. Be their constant in fluctuating
emotions. Keep the gospel ever before them and make it a reality in their daily
life as a mother.
We pray that tomorrow you would be with them in all the
muck and mire of motherhood. Help them to find their joy in you and not in my
circumstances. May they remember that even when it feels otherwise, you are
always with them, will never leave them, or forsake them. Tonight help them
to sleep in peace knowing that even when
they lose their grip, you will never let go of them. And they will open their
eyes in the morning to find mercy, fresh and new, ready for the taking.
Thank you Lord for the way you care for mothers, Amen
