A mother's love
with Rick Edwards

A Point of Light

B a s e d on extensive studies he conducted over many years, psychoanalyst J o h n B o w l b y wrote about the importance of the mother-child bond in his book Attachment. He wrote, "The young child's hunger for his mother's love and presence is as great as his hunger for food." And by contrast, he went on to add, "Her loss or absence inevitably generates a powerful sense of loss and anger."

God asked this question through the prophet Isaiah: "Can a mother forget the baby at her breasts and have no compassion on the child she has borne?" (Isa. 49:15 NIV). The obvious answer is no. It is uncommon and unusual for a mother not to feel great love for the child she has birthed. God made women with a capacity to love their children with unending devotion.

But beyond the initial love affair a mother often feels for her newborns, beyond the heroic rescuing of her children from physical danger, what is it that keeps a mother lovingly devoted to her children for a lifetime? The knowledge that they will leave her someday and will need to make it on their own is what keeps a mother focused. She needs the ability to see into the future - to envision the finish line - because she knows it's up to her to prepare them for that life of independence. A mother knows from her own experience that the difficulties and insecurities of childhood will not last forever. A wise mother also knows that present difficulties, though unpleasant, are often the schoolroom for building character.

Loving our children is not always natural, nor is it always easy. But it is absolutely essential. Mothers must love their children. A mother's constant love becomes the bedrock of security for her children. Before they leave home, there will be many times in their lives when it will seem to them that no one else loves them. Though they might wish for someone else's love, their mother's love will provide a North Star of security and hope in the midst of difficult days.

A mother must love. She gives that love in spite of her child's rebellion, in spite of her child's unresponsiveness, in spite of her own circumstances. And there are a thousand other in spite of's that a mother must face in her lifetime as a mother. In them, she must find the ability to continue to love her child with the love that God gives.

Amother's relationship with her child begins with love, continues with love, and ends one day on earth with love. God's plan is for His children to know deep, abiding, unending love from at least one human being in their life, and that person is Mother. Happy Mothers Day!!!!!!

Rick Edwards is pastor of Murphy First Baptist Churrch.