To Moms and Those Who Have Them

Hey moms! Today is your day. Today is the day you get to relax, sit back and be pampered as a thank you for all you do! I hope you enjoy it. Before I get into anything else, I want to give a special thanks to my mom. She is quite a stud. I wasn't what you would call an "easy child." I had an attitude that could make a mom's head explode and a tongue as sharp as a knife, but with a whole lot of love and guidance, my mom (and dad but today isn't your day, pops) made me into a much better person. I'm pretty blessed!
As blessed as I am, I have talked to enough people and heard enough stories to know that not everyone feels this way. Not everyone was surrounded by a beautiful balance of love and discipline. Not everyone grew up with the knowledge of how special they were. So if you feel like you missed out on that special bond a mother can offer, this is for you.
Most people have heard of God being called Father. He is often compared to earthly fathers and is even called "Daddy" a few times in scripture. But did you also know that he also uses the characteristics of a great mother to show us more of who he is? In Isaiah, the chosen people of God cry out to him feeling their city has been forgotten and abandoned, and God answers, "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me" (Isaiah 49:15-16).
Yes, earthly mother's fail. Some abandon. Some neglect. Some are over-bearing and over-involved. Some may make you feel that you don't make the grade. But God, who knows your deepest faults and failures, promises that he will not forget you. He has a tattoo of you on his hand! I hope and pray you have a great relationship with your mother. And if you don't, please try to, regardless of the wounds that have been inflicted. We are all broken and full of faults, but God loves and forgives in spite of our wickedness. Don't the let bitterness from you past ruin your potential relationships of the future. Seek God's love and he will fill you with enough grace and forgiveness to offer it to others. 
So no matter your relationship with your parents know that, as humans, they will fail you. But God offers a beautiful combination of the characteristics of both a mother and a father., and he offers them freely. Go to him. Speak to him. Receive his love. He will not refuse you, instead he will put loving arms around you. Isaiah continues to write out the response of God in 66:13 and says, "As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you." So go and be comforted by the greatest mother/father combination of all, and stand in awe knowing that you are not forgotten.