The Mother in Me 
I learned how to be a "mom" to others, even though I didn't have children of my own.
It was the most dreaded day of the year.
Maybe I should just skip church and stay home under my covers. Pretend it's an ordinary day, I thought. Instead, my husband and I headed for church. Once seated in the back, rather than in my regular pew, I looked around at the other women who seemed to glow this morning. They wore corsages. I buttoned my raincoat, grateful for the morning drizzle that gave ...
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Related Topics:
Children, Infertility, Ministry, Motherhood, Mothers
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Average User Rating:
Gale
My church regards Mother's Day as a day to honor ALL adult women, so that women who do not have children do not feel excluded. During the worship service on Mother's Day, all adult women are asked to stand and young children go around passing out gifts to them. I do not have any children myself, due to never having been blessed with a husband to date. But I have the opportunity to exercise the maternal instsincts that God designed me with as a woman by helping out once a month in the church nursery.
Janice
Thanks so much for sharing your heart. I am forty six and have no children of my own, but I have three that I have taken since they were infant and what a blessing they have been to me. I feel no less a mother than if I had given birth to them myself. Thanks for allowing me to know that there are others that have been through similar situations and have made it. Love
vivian
hello and thank you for a wonderful, insightful and helpful article. the pain of infertility isolates - it can make us pull away from relationships and social settings/interactions that seem to "advertise" our childlessness. infertility also serves to highlight how little control we ultimately have over being able to conceive. the powerful thing about spiritual mothering is that it redeems both situations. it brings us back into community and into an active role of servant/leader, rather than succumbing to a passive, victim-like mentality, which is a real temptation. i came to christ through a professor of mine, who was truly a spiritual mother to me, as she had no children. i have been married for 20 years and have 2 young children (1 biological and 1 adopted). i, too, have experienced the blessing of mentoring a younger woman (though i feel more like an older sister to her than a mother). investing in lives in any way - biological, adoptive or spiritual, is honoring to god.
Holley
Dandi, Thank you soooo much for writing this article. It is one of the most encouraging things I've read about infertility. My husband and I have been struggling to have children for three years, and the Lord has been talking to me a lot lately about being a "spiritual mother." It was so reassuring to hear you talk about that in your own life. Thank you for being a blessing!! Holley
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