“Turn us toward yourself, O God of Hosts, show us your face and we shall be saved” (Augustine).
Prayers and mother musings drove me from my bed, producing all-too-familiar sleep patterns. When I became a mother, I discovered that motherhood was a calling to a life of prayer. From the instant I knew a child had been conceived, and sometimes even before, I began to pray. Prayers for my children occupy my mind throughout every single day. I believe mothers send up more requests and pleadings for their children than any other human does during their lifetimes.
These musings occupy my mind for several reasons. My husband’s mother is now gone from us. He is orphaned. Are her heavenly prayers now joining the intercession of Jesus and the Holy Spirit before the Father? I don’t know the mysteries of heaven, but I am mindful of her loss. My prayers must multiply now, picking up her task to intercede for him.
And then, there are our rambunctious offspring.
With six children, there’s plenty to pray about. They are world-changers who blast off to nether regions to help the poor, study health care systems in Asia, and strike romantic poses under the Eiffel Tower. They work their way through college, learn to fly airplanes, earn advanced degrees, change careers, plant churches, and seek to cure cancer. They are bold and courageous.
“Meanwhile my mother persevered in praying for me,” Augustine wrote. “She was far away, but you are present everywhere, so you heard her in that land where she was, and took pity on me where I was.”
As my children were transplanted into the wider world, it became obvious that God was large and I was small.
When children are young a mother fills their lives, but too soon they escape the hearth to live their own lives, to travel far, and to seek their callings. Long after they’ve left mothering care, God remains. He is still there, no matter where they go, able to help in time of need, yearning to draw them tenderly to himself when they no longer desire a mother’s caress. He is the one.
“Father, mother and guardians may be absent,” Augustine confessed to God, “but you are present, you who created us and called us and even through those set over us work for our good and the saving of souls.”
Over 1600 years ago, Augustine ran away from God, took a mistress, and joined a cult. Monica, his mother, prayed faithfully for her child. Of her tear-soaked praying, a bishop told her, “It is inconceivable that he should perish, a son of tears like yours.”
God moved. Augustine yielded his life to Christ. He later confessed to God that when he did, his mother “blessed you, who have power to do more than we ask or understand, for she saw that you had granted her much more in my regard than she had been wont to beg of you in her wretched, tearful groaning.”
Hearts of love move us to pray for our children. Our weeping is essential. No matter what occurs in our children’s lives, whether blessing or trial, our prayers are necessary. We are joined to them from conception onward, no matter where they go. When no one else is in their corner bringing their concerns before God, we are there, weeping and pleading.
This is our most important ministry as mothers. It supersedes all others. They outgrow the need for our physical care, and they need our prayers more than our advice, tempted as we are to give it. Mother, you have been called to a ministry of prayer.
How does your call to prayer shape your life?
All quotes are from The Confessions, Saint Augustine, translated by Maria Boulding, O.S.B., Vintage Spiritual Classics, 1997, page numbers in order: pg. 63, 87, 184, 53, 169.
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Melinda, I love this post! This is the story of my life with three children and their spouses (and one former spouse and his wife), eight grandchildren and their four spouses and those to come (whom God has already chosen but who also need prayer), and now six great grandchildren (and those to come) and their future spouses. So, yes, intercessory ministry is the most important ministry this mom and grandma has!
Thanks for this VERY meaningful post, Melinda!
Love and thanks!
Aunt Jackie
When you conceived that first baby, did it occur to you that you had just been called to a lifetime of prayer? It dawned on me gradually.
I am sorry to say that I did not have a close walk with the Lord when she was conceived. So, God had to bring me to Himself first! THEN, I very much wanted to be the mother who would bring my children up to love the LORD. STILL, I thought I could do that. God knew how to show me that only HE could take care of these whom He had entrusted to me. THEN, I went from worry to intercession. What a peace that brought! I have precious memories of the miracles He did to teach me to trust my family to HIM!
Love and thanks, Melinda!
Aunt Jackie
Moving from worry to intercession is a work of grace in a momma’s heart, for sure—part of our Momma Sanctification. 🙂
Aha! As soon as I spotted this one, I was hooked, being your mother, of course!! Yes, I pray that all Christian mothers know this truth! I join you daily in your prayers for my wonderful grandchildren, their spouses, and the four beautiful great-grands!!
The reason I think it dawns on us gradually is that we are learning as we go and growing spiritually too. Soon, we learn we cannot control all the things we wish we could in regard to our children, and we learn to pray fervently and quickly!!
I figure by this point in my life, my main reason for existing is to pray for my descendants!! It is my joy to do it! Talking to Jesus about the ones I love is the most important things in my life for He does love them more than I can.
Love, hugs, and prayers!
It’s nice to know you’re there praying. The older my kids and grandkids get, the more I see myself entirely as an intercessor. You’ll laugh at this, but when I had my first baby at the tender age of eighteen, I assumed that when my kids reached that age, I would no longer worry about them. I mean, I was fine, right? I wasn’t worried about me at age eighteen. I was having the time of my life with my teenage husband and sweet baby. 🙂 But, I’m sure you were doing a lot of praying then. Gradually, my praying time increased as I comprehended what you explained. We love them. We are worriers. We grow. We can’t control everything. We are small. God is big. We pray.
Yes, I thought that too, Melinda. When they are grown, then my worries are over, but that’s when the really BIG challenges come. By then, we know that the best thing, and sometimes the only thing, we can do is PRAY!
May I please print out this devotional? I’m doing a devotion at Val’s baby shower on Saturday, and I thought when I read this: “Val needs to hear this!” I’d like to quote parts of it, and I think it will benefit all the ladies there.
By all means. The sooner new mothers realize the importance of prayer, the sooner they learn God is big and they are small. Wish I’d learned it sooner.
Amen! Wish I had been more spiritually mature and prayed more when you girls were young.
Ah. Thank you. Now, with tears running down my face, I need to get up and go and pray, and pray, and pray. Thank you.
Tear-laden prayers that stem from a full and loving heart are powerful. We tap into God’s passion for our children when we pray with tears.
“We love them. We are worriers. We grow. We can’t control everything. We are small. God is big. We pray.” Yes.