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08 May 2011

Mercy, Love, and Persistence

Thought about Mothering


Persistence. Never giving up. Lumbering on. Hmm, sounds like my father’s attitude. He was a WWII veteran and had Churchill’s attitude. Never give up, never give in, never ever. A bulldog with a bone. But today my pastor, Larry Jones, talked about MERCY being a quality shown by mothers who are persistent. I never really thought of mercy being a form of persistence but it made sense. We do not give up on our kids and one way we show that is by extending mercy to them.

We were blessed with a healthy baby boy almost thirteen years after we welcomed our precious baby girl. So many prayers were answered and a promise God gave me fulfilled when our little boy joined us, a little prematurely born, but well. We shared our joy with our Experiencing God class and we enjoyed the happiest and sweetest little baby around, and a social and active little fellow. Thirteen months later the little baby who loved music was sick, ended up getting immunizations that day and developing diarrhea that did not end until several months later when a naturepath recommended some drops that cleared him up (this after the pediatric gastroenterologist gave up on any further treatments!). During that time he began crying and fussing and was not consolable and stopped engaging with others. He was slipping away from us into autism.

Now years later after many interventions, my son is doing much better. Someone recently suggested that he had “outgrown” some of the problems. NO!!! That is my emphatic reaction. God directed our path as my husband and I determined what, why, and how we got our boy his various treatments and activities. He did the same as we raised our older child. The times I have gotten into trouble have been when I have listened to people and not to my heavenly Father. We are often tempted to give in and do “as you are told” and that is not a good plan when the telling is not from God.

Mothering is hard whether your child is a normal or even gifted child, as our oldest is. I am blessed to have a supportive husband. I no longer work as a psychologist, but am glad God has given me that knowledge to help others, including my son, who now has mild problems, not the screaming regressed difficulties he had early on. And I thank my pastor, a fellow writer, for helping me see that what we do is an act of mercy. And that just sounds a little nicer than persistent! God bless you all this Mother’s Day!

9 comments:

  1. Thank you, Carrie, for sharing your heart with us. What a beautiful and touching post this is and how appropriate for Mother's Day. Motherhood is all about mercy, love, persistence and in my case, forgiveness. I had one child (my son) who became a police officer, and the other child (my daughter) who ended up in trouble all of the time.

    She and I spent the afternoon together for Mother's Day yesterday and as we laughed and talked I realized how much God had intervened in our lives. After many years and tears, and as you said, promises of God, my daughter has accepted Christ into her life. And I realized an amazing thing...I had forgiven her for all of it. All the sleepless nights, all the worry, all the crying into my pillow because of her actions, all of it! Just as Christ forgives us and shows us mercy, love and persistence, He put that same ability in us as mothers. What a wonderful gift! And if you view my profile pic you can see just what the Lord hath done, and it is good in my eyes.

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  2. Wonderful testimony from two of my favorite people! I'm so thrilled the Lord has redeemed difficult situations for you both. He is a Master at that! I've always sensed Carrie's JOY in her beautiful son. He is such a cutie! I didn't realize all the particulars till this post.

    Diana, I'm so thankful you have a renewed relationship with your daughter and that she knows Christ's love firsthand! I pray you have many years together to make up for the lost years. I think of the verse, "I will restore to you the years the locusts have eaten..." That's certainly been true in my own life. Bless you both.

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  3. He is a little cutie, to be sure! Thank you, Laura! I love that scripture so much, and am still waiting for it to be fulfilled in other areas of my life. I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day, dear friend!

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  4. Carrie, you are an inspiration. I know you are missing your own Mother and thank you so much for sharing your experiences with your little boy. My youngest has had issues over the years and I believe he is high functioning Aspergers. One of the little things between us as he always had to do a repetitive kiss him on this cheek and then that cheek and then the first one again (and he never knew when he was done!) is that he says "I love you more" and I would respond "I love you more" and somehow I think I had to find more love for him, trying a little harder to deal with him, and loving him all the more for it! My other son has had Major Depression since he was young and it goes for him as well. Oh, what our children teach us...and a deeper well of love for those we have to love with a deeper level of persistence and patience. And,oh, that our Heavenly Father loves us so!

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  5. Thanks for sharing, Carla. God knew who to give these precious children to and that they would get lots of love and mercy. Kisses are great! Hugs!

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  6. Thank you for sharing and touching our hearts.
    I too had a son whom was born well, then developed health issues as an infant. He had CP, (multiple seizures a day),Labeled SXI. He is in heaven now. I miss him dearly. I know that he is no longer in pain.
    Bless you and yours.

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  7. Wendy, I am so sorry to hear that you had such a tragic loss. I hope that Mother's Day was not too difficult. That is good that God has given you peace that your son is not in pain any longer. Hugs!

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  8. Wendy, I am terribly sorry for your loss. Many, many things in this life we just don't understand "why", but we can rest assured in the Almighty. I'm glad that God has given you comfort in knowing that your son is now safe in His arms, and some day you WILL see him again!

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