Happy Mother's Day

I am thankful for all of the mothers in the world, especially mine, for she gave me life and is a wonderful inspiration to me. But I also think of all of us who are not mothers and sometimes feel that the world views us as having not quite made it because we have not had children or created our own family. 

The beautiful reality is that while God made me female, with the coming of Christ, he gave me the ability to do more than have physical children - he allowed me the opportunity to have spiritual children. And I am thankful for the many spiritual children God has given me - scattered around the world. 

If you are feeling alone or "less" today because you have never had children of your own, your mom is no longer with you, or perhaps was not everything you thought she should be, know this: you are in a family, you are not alone. Your value is neither within your ability to have children or your "own" family nor in your good or bad relationship with your mother. Your value is in the fact that, because Jesus came to earth, no one is excluded from being a part of a family. 

And a challenge to the church family: exclude no one. Everyone has value, and everyone should feel our affirmation for being complete and for being exactly who they were created to be. We were not created to be alone. We were meant to be in families. And this belong to a family did not necessarily indicate marriage and birthing children. 

Let's embrace one another and be the true family of God this weekend and in the days, weeks and years to come!