Ode to Worried Mothers

As a mother, I know what it is like to be concerned about the health and welfare of my children.However, there are often times I have to remind myself that there is a difference between just concern, and incessant stressing over issues which are fully out of our control, such as a child scraping a knee while playing a game of sports, or a teen enduring rejection from a classmate they have a terrible crush on. Can needless worry really prevent any of these life circumstances from occurring?

Recently, a relative sent me a poem about worried mothers. The poem spoke of worry as if it was an honored badge to wear, and the time would soon come that we, mom's, would pass the baton down to our children, and so on and so on. The poem which was intended to be a quaint ode to parenting, strangely hit me in an odd way, causing me to reevaluate my role as mother, as well as a believer in God. Two lines of the poem were particularly interesting:

As I pondered such words as "anguish, tormented and frustrations," I wasreminded of a story I heard at my first Bible study as a young adult. The lesson that day was faith in God. To drill the instructors point home, he told the class a true story about two mothers. One worried constantly about her young child, and as a result, she suffered many physical ailments related to stress, such as ulcers, nervous jitters, headaches, and the like. The woman's neighbor, another young mother, had a child the same age, yet she never seemed to have such ailments and would go about her daily smiling as she did her chores. In the morning, she'd walk her son to the bus stop, kiss him good bye, wave as he got on the bus, and then she would begin her household chores. One day, the mother who worried incessantly received a phone call. Her child had been hit by a car, instantly killed by a drunk driver whose car swerved out of control. The two mothers spoke at the funeral, the grieving mother stating through her tears, "I tried to be best mother possible. I warned him about everything as needing to put your gloves on in winter, look both ways before crossing the street, don't run with food in your mouth, and things like that, yet, even though I worried myself sick every time he was out of my sight, look what happened!" The other mother put her hand on the distraught woman's shoulder and quietly said, "As mothers, we do the best we can do, teaching them all we can so they can grow up healthy and happy. Endless worry and stress can not prevent nature from taking its course, and there will be times they come home with scraped knees from playing football, or a broken arm from falling off a bike. Even worry cannot prevent these. The accident was not your fault. It just happened."

The grieving mother listened to her friend, but her words sounded shallow. "If only I had been there, or worried more, perhaps this could have been prevented!" the tearful mother thought.

The grieving mother's neighbor was just as good a mom as anyone else, yet her faith in God called her to place her family's health and welfare in the loving hands of the Lord.Every morning before her husband left for work, and her son prepared to exit for school,  she would say a prayer to God to keep her family safe and healthy, leaving worry and fear in God's hands, and not her own. This practice did not ensure that nothing bad would happen to her family, but it allowed her to show God that HE is in control, and that she trusted His wisdom and judgment in all things, even things she herself may not understand.

Today, we have pondered the idea of faith and trust in God. It is not always easy to take something as precious as our family from our own control and place it in to the hands of the Lord, but if we believe in our heavenly Father's abilities, then this form of godly surrender returns its blessings back to us by offering us peace.

God does not require us to be "sentenced" to a joyless existence of physical and emotional "torment" and "frustration," merely because we have children we love. A loving God would also not wish His children to be plagued with ulcers, nervous jitters, headaches and sour stomachs, or for parents to pass these ailments down to their children.If you wish to pass down something to your child, offer him wisdom, faith and strength. Let these be his wings, and not fear of living, loving and learning.

Just as you have a child you care about and love, so, too, does God regard YOU as HIS child. He does not harbor fear or anxiety, but rather, His gentle hand is always extended, just waiting for you to grab hold in trust.

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Contributed by Melanie Schurr (Copyright (c)2003 Melanie Schurr) Melanie Schurr is author of "Ecstatic Living Ecstatic Loving: How to have more peace and joy in marriage, and life in general by walking in harmony with God," and "Son Salutations: A refreshing collection of modern inspirations for those who seek God each day." For more information, visit her web page at www.angelfire.com/mi/melschurr