My pastor asked me if I had any wisdom to impart as he prepared his Mother’s Day sermon for the coming Sunday. So I did my quick little Mother’s Day thing about how the truth is that most of us just actually want the day OFF, a day AWAY from the children and husbands we love so so much. How the perfect Mother’s Day really requires no mothering. Then I went into my little joke about how I think we really could use another wife in my house. “A good one, though, this time,” I said for the millionth time in my life because I don’t think “Pastor Gregg” had heard my spiel (he’s new). “One who can clean the house and watch the kids.”
Here’s what I really think about Mother’s Day at church. I always get worried that a Mother’s Day sermon will feel forced, or worse, “light.” I just got a catalog from a local Christian book store, featuring all sorts of garbage for Mother’s Day. Tea cups. Stupid plaques. Gift books. Essentially a bunch of Jesus junk that no mom actually needs. Nothing to encourage moms to go deep into their gifts, to focus on their Maker to see how we’re made and who they’re made to be. Nothing to challenge them in to live out faith in daring, dangerous ways. Nothing to get to know God better. Nothing deep, powerful, impactful, moving, meaningful, eternal….
I’m so tired of Mother’s Day being light and fluffy. I think moms should be celebrated — but not coddled. Mother’s Day just perpetuates the lowering-the-standard thing that happens to women when they become moms. Like having children should zap out every other meaningful, challenging thing (including getting deep with God, if we’re honest) in our lives.
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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #12834]