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!