Mothering Sunday Prayer
Loving God, you are both Father and Mother to us. When things are broken and painful, when things are full of joy and goodness, when things are full of hope and when things are full of despair, we choose to sit with you and tell you about our day. When nothing much has happened and when our world has almost fallen apart, we know that you are always there, with ears that hear, arms to hold and gentle calming whispers to soothe the soul.
As we come to you today we come with much fear and sadness,
with anxiety for the future and worries for the world. As we celebrate today
with Mums and their children, we hear not only laughter, but crying too. Amidst
our celebrations, the groaning of a conflict where women and men, boys and
girls, grandparents and siblings are separated and suffering great loss. Our
hearts travel across the continent where children being knitted together in
their mother’s womb were not given the chance for life. Where women were not
given the chance to be mothers. Where orphans who already had less had their
home stripped away.
We celebrate our Mum’s today, knowing and seeing the
protection of a child goes far beyond offering a comforting knee. It is bodies
thrown in the way of snipers, it is sending children away and staying to fight,
it is leaving everything behind to give our children a life, it is sitting
breastfeeding on a wall that has been broken by bombs. We thank you for those
who will do everything to protect and care for their children.
Where we hear the sounds of mourning, we pray for those
today who are feeling most strongly loss. We pray for those who are separated by
war, may they find connection. We pray for those whose Mum is not with them any
more, we pray for comfort. We pray for those who have lost a child, we pray for
peace. We pray that you might soothe their souls as you pick them up and carry
them today.
Loving God, you are both Father and Mother to us. When
things are broken and painful, when things are full of joy and goodness, when things
are full of hope and when things are full of despair, we choose to sit with you
and tell you about our day. When nothing much has happened and when our world has
almost fallen apart, we know that you are always there, with ears that hear,
arms to hold and gentle calming whispers to soothe the soul.
As we come to you today, we come knowing that family life is
not always all we hope it to be. This day for some is a day of bitterness, a
day where those who have wanted but not been able to have children have a
sorrowful and painful reminder of that. We pray that you might bring some
sweetness into their lives through the blessings of others. We pray that they
might know that you hold that pain with them and hear your gentle voice.
We celebrate our Mums today and as we do so think of those who
are in difficult circumstances and doing everything they can to make sure their
children have a life. As the cost of living rises, they work their hardest to
ensure that food and clothes and laughter is readily available. When they,
themselves are worried, they sit and listen to the worries of their child as
they tell them about their day. Where anxiety for the future overwhelms, where
the call to be a good parent is a battle in itself, where a Mum never feels
they can give enough, we pray that they may be reminded of how you look upon
their face – with joy and with love and with compassion – your strength leading
them on.
In amongst the good Mums are the Mums that have never been
there, the Mums that don’t seem to care. We pray for those who have never known
a Mum that sits and makes time for them, for whom this day reminds them of what
they have never had. We pray that they might find a place where they can simply
sit and tell someone whose attention is fully on them all about their day, in
its joys and in its brokenness, in its hope and in its healing.
Loving God, you are both Father and Mother to us. When
things are broken and painful, when things are full of joy and goodness, when things
are full of hope and when things are full of despair, we choose to sit with you
and tell you about our day. When nothing much has happened and when our world has
almost fallen apart, we know that you are always there, with ears that hear,
arms to hold and gentle calming whispers to soothe the soul.