Father God,

On this Mother’s Day we pause to thank you for the gift of life. You alone are the Giver of Life—you give us our first birth and our second.

We thank you for the special privilege you have given women to be life-givers as well. Thank you for our own moms, for those who gave us life. Thank you for biological moms, adoptive moms, foster moms, spiritual moms, step-moms, neighborly moms, discipling moms—every mom who has brought forth and nurtured the lives of every person gathered here. Thank you, Father, for giving us all life through our mothers.

And for all the different moms gathering here today we pray:

For the new moms in our midst, may you make them like Elizabeth who said, “The Lord has done this for me” (Luke 1:25). And may they be like Mary who glorified the Lord, rejoiced in you, God her Savior (Luke 1:46-47), and treasured up all the first days of motherhood and the wonder of salvation in her heart. (Luke 2:19).

May we moms be like Moses’s mom who birthed and nurtured her baby boy in the fear of the Lord, not in the fear of man. Like Jochebed, may we be moms who trust you alone, your goodness, your sovereignty, no matter what we and our children face in the days ahead (Exodus 2:1-10).

With women in here who so long to be moms but are not yet, Lord, we lament. We cry out to you with them. Like Samuel’s mom Hannah, who wept and prayed year after year, we ask you to remember them (1 Samuel 1:11).

For the moms in distress, the moms who are suffering injustice or unkindness, we pray for faith. We pray that like Hagar, they would encounter you, hear from you, experience your provision. May the hurting moms here say with her, “You are the God who sees me” (Genesis 16:13).

For the moms who are grieving loss, the moms who are like “Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more” (Jeremiah 31:15) we pray that you would bring to mind and confidence the very next words in scripture, “there is hope.” For you, God alone, are a resurrection God and you have the last word.

And for the women in here who are like Anna, the precious prophetess who was called to childlessness, we sit in sorrow mixed with joy, recognizing this calling is sometimes hard, but also good, holy, and so important. With Anna, may these women worship you night and day, give thanks to you, and speak about Jesus to all (Luke 2:36-38).

On this Mother’s Day, may we women, made after your own image, called to give life in a variety of ways, “not become weary in doing good” but trust in you alone that “at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

To you, Lord, we give thanks for life, for moms, for children, for all that you are doing in and through your daughters in the many and diverse ways you have called us.

In the name of Jesus,

Amen