Prayer for Mothering Sunday.

Dear Lord, you are our parent, the best of mothering and fathering. Today we thank you for our earthly mothers but also lift to you those for whom this will be a painful day. We ask you to be with those of us who are pained every day by those things that separate us from giving or receiving a mother’s love; whether that is by bereavement or estrangement, loss or abuse, distance or incarceration.

Lord we pray for those who know the pain of childlessness, of separation or of loss; for those who bear difficult, strained child/parent relationships, and those who feel uncared for or unloved or unappreciated on a day that celebrates things they do not have or have never known.  Lord, gather all those in such pain under your wings as a mother hen gathers her chicks, and give them understanding, consolation, peace, reassurance and protection from further hurt.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

©Keren Dibbens-Wyatt, photo from Pixabay