A Mother’s Love
Table Talk
Setting the Table
You are welcome here. Come just as you are, bringing whatever is on your heart today. Take a few moments and allow yourself to just be. Take a couple deep breaths, grab yourself a cup of coffee, light a candle, do something that brings you comfort. Allow yourself to be present in this moment.
Parenting is HARD. Sometimes, being a child is HARD. How can our understanding of God be a healing reflection of the divine parent?
“We all long for someone to tell us who we are. The great struggle of the Christian life is to take God’s name for us, to believe we are beloved and to believe that is enough.”
- Rachel Held Evans
“To see and to be seen. That is the truest nature of love.”
- Brené Brown
Exodus 20:12
“Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long . . . .”
Food for Thought
Mother’s Day is upon us once again, with all its pastel colors and springtime floral arrangements and problematic greeting cards. While I am eternally grateful for the spirit of reconciliation, I spent far too many Mother’s Days poring over the greeting card aisle – searching for something that felt simultaneously respectful and honest, holding both the pain of estrangement and the dutiful daughter’s task at hand. My relationship with my mother is a complicated one, and, in my younger years, was not always easy.
Many have asked what changed over the years, and my simplest answer is that having kids of my own carried the biggest impact on our relationship. My wife and I had a daughter, and suddenly years of conflict and misunderstanding became water under the proverbial bridge. As it turns out, I am far more like my mother than I might like to admit (don’t tell her I said that). While I might have vehemently disagreed with her parenting methods, it is only through the lens of parenthood that I can now understand some of her reasoning. “Honor thy mother and father, so that your days may be long…” All my parents have ever wanted for me is for my days to be long, and that I would be assured of my soul’s belonging to God. Mission accomplished, I suppose.
As we go through our lives as adults, whether parents or not, whether wounded by childhood or not, we are all children of the Divine Creator. On this and other days designed to celebrate and honor our parents, it is likely our own experiences have distorted and clouded what it means to be a beloved child of God.
Watching my children grow and learn and experience the world is my greatest privilege, and they are my biggest teachers. They have reminded me, have re-taught me, what it means to be a child of unconditional love. Through their innocent worldview, I am reminded every day of God’s presence and wonder anew. I get to experience life, and love, and forgiveness, and hope, and joy through the eyes of a child – these children that have somehow been miraculously entrusted to me.
Each Sunday, I sit next to my daughter as she enthusiastically recites our church’s creed, “In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us…we are not alone.” As her parent, this is my deepest hope – that she would know she is never alone, that she would be assured of her soul’s belonging to God, that she would claim the love of Christ as her own, and that this would be enough.
As our God’s beloved creation, she is enough. She will always be enough – you will always be enough. I can only hope that her hours in the greeting card aisle won’t feel as troubled, and that love will forever be a central theme of the card she chooses.
Take a moment to consider the image of God as the ultimate parent – full of unconditional love and unbridled grace, reminding you that you belong, you are enough, and you are loved. What does this mean to you?
If you find it difficult to figure out what honoring your parents might look like, consider our Creator as the one who wants your days to be long, and your heart to be whole.
For a printable version of today's reflection Click Here!
Blessing
Loving God, we are thankful for all of the ways that you care for us amidst the hurt and the healing of our lives. We are grateful that you are so much more than our limited understanding of what it means to be a parent. Help us to remember that we have always belonged to you, and that we are enough. Amen.
A little Table Talk for your table...
Talk about or write about the images of God that are meaningful to you. How do these remind you that you are loved, that you are enough, and that you belong?
What does it mean to you that you are a beloved child of God?
In what ways can you live more of God’s love into the world? What do you think the result of that would look like? Would feel like?
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
Ask your kiddos where they find reminders of love? Who or what reminds them they are loved?
What can we do to remind others they are loved?
Have your kids make a thank you card or picture for one person who demonstrates the love of God in their life.
Meet our Welcoming Voice!
Amanda Owens is a former youth pastor and Divinity School graduate who has since transitioned into a more corporate professional career. Amanda and her wife, Kayce, now spend their time raising their three precious children and trying to maintain a sense of balance amidst the chaos.
To hear more from Amanda throughout the week, follow along on our Instagram!
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