Weekly Devotional
Posted:
8/9/2022
A Mother’s Heartache
As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you. (Isaiah 66:13)
I am convinced that no heart is as big as a mother’s. It willingly carries a heavy weight. It beats loudly. It aches deeply. It swells with joy. When God created moms, I think He must have put part of His own heart in them. How else could they give with such unconditional love?
A mother’s heart also breaks when her children make wrong choices, when they become sick or depressed. If their lives fall apart, her heart does too. There is no heartache like a mother’s heartache.
Many women in the Bible bore heartache as mothers. When Jesus was a baby, Mary was warned that one day her heart would be pierced. How painful that must have been to watch her son suffer and die because He had come to do His Father’s will, not His own. She submitted herself to it, though, because long ago she had said, “I am the Lord’s servant.” (Luke 1:38)
When we moms are given the opportunity to surrender ourselves and declare our dependence on God, we gain a new perspective. When we embrace the fact that we are unable to fix our children’s lives, we witness God’s ability to do what only He can do: bring beauty from ashes. And we, too, begin to change.
When we share in His sufferings (2 Cor. 1:5), we can rejoice knowing that Christ’s purpose is being fulfilled in us (1 Cor. 1:24-26). The testing of our faith produces perseverance so that we become mature and complete. (James 1:2-4)
When we crucify our doubts and fears, God resurrects in us lives of faith and hope.
And as we allow Jesus control of our children’s lives, we realize that we are children too. He said, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.” When we trust in his plan and purpose, He Himself is our comfort, even though the circumstances may not change immediately. Then our whole hearts are free to love Him.
And that’s all He ever really wanted anyway.
Heavenly Father, Help me to remember that every time I experience heartache over my children, Your heart breaks, too, when I do not trust in You. Help me release their lives into Your loving hands.
