Sarah's Daughters
We're on a different track today at Talk & Pray. For the last five weeks, we looked at Post-It
Note wisdom... tidbits and turns of phrase to help us be more focused, more productive, and
have a more positive mindset. My collection of wisdom tidbits come from all kinds of sources,
a personal development guru, my husband, friends, and my dad and mom. Numbers 2 and 4
from the Post-It Note wisdom series were from my mom.
Speaking of mother, since Sunday was Mother's Day, and post-it note tidbits, it brings to mind
something my daddy used to say... Tongue in cheek, especially if we were trying to play one
parent against the other, Daddy would say to us, "If it's not one thing, it's your mother." It's
still one of my favorites of his expressions among many funny things he said in his lifetime.
Whatever the cause of our teenage angst-restrictions on our social life, chores we didn't want
to do, mother/daughter conflict because our cycles aligned-his humorous take on it told me
that I'd been heard but shouldn't expect Daddy to take my side.
They were absolutely united as parents. The fact that we couldn't play one parent against the
other never stopped us from trying. We might complain to Daddy about Mom, but he wasn't
going to let us err to the point of disrespect. Expressing our frustration was one thing;
disrespecting Mom in any way, shape, or fashion would not have been tolerated.
I talked about Mom in Episode 10: Industry, Industrious, Industrial Strength. She was the
epitome of the Proverbs 31 woman, and I aspire to be as godly, as productive, as loved as she
was. Most days, not gonna lie, I come up short! Though she was 30 years my senior, she could
work circles around me. She's been home with the Lord for 17 years, and I still miss her.
I have no shortage, though, of women who continue to pour into me and influence me
personally, professionally, and spiritually. A friend of mind recently wrote a piece called
"Sarah's Daughters." I told her I would probably steal the title because of the image it evoked.
She touched briefly in her writing on the promise that God made to Abraham and Sarah... that
she would be the mother of many nations. Sarah didn't have daughters of her own. I find
Sarah's daughters in a different place.
I have been where Sarah was... hearing the news that she would bear a child, and responding
with incredulity... listen to the story from Genesis 18...
The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the
entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. 2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing
nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed
low to the ground.
3 He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. 4 Let a little
water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 Let me get you
something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way-now that you have come to
your servant."
"Very well," they answered, "do as you say."
6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. "Quick," he said, "get three seahs of the finest flour
and knead it and bake some bread."
7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried
to prepare it. 8 He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set
these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.
9 "Where is your wife Sarah?" they asked him.
"There, in the tent," he said.
10 Then one of them said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your
wife will have a son."
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and
Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to
herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?"
13 Then the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child,
now that I am old?' 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed
time next year, and Sarah will have a son."
15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, "I did not laugh."
But he said, "Yes, you did laugh."
What a story, though, right? I remember finding out I was expecting unexpectedly and laughing
hysterically and crying in alternating states of disbelief. What, now? How can this thing be...?
although to be sure, it occurred in the usual way. Nothing dramatic here.
My situation some 33-ish years ago is not at all special, and while my laughter may have been
akin to Sarah's, my entre into motherhood was not the same. I was what my mom called a
fertile myrtle. "Tell Jeff not to hang his britches on the bedpost, or you'll have a dozen kids!"
she said to me more than once.
That wasn't Sarah's story. She was barren into her old age. Her laughter at the pronouncement
of the Visitor in Abraham's camp must surely have been the gut reaction to many many long
years of a miracle denied. Likewise, for many, Mother's Day is a time of feeling left out or less-
than. I cavalierly throw about how being a mom wasn't in my plan, but I'm all too aware that
for some it is the dream of their hearts, a dream deferred or denied.
I think Sarah's daughters come in many forms... from those in the waiting room without
children to the fertile myrtles like me who get surprised with news that their life is irrevocably
changed.
Sarah's daughter is the mom who, after discovering her inability to have children of her own,
decides to adopt internationally. And she carries her laptop with her everywhere, afraid of
laying it down in case the information inside is lost and she cannot complete the paperwork
needed. A family member shared, "I feel like I carried my boys inside me, because I carried that
laptop everywhere I went. I couldn't lay it down; it was a part of me just like those boys were
from the moment I laid eyes on them."
Sarah's daughter is the mom who has no children of her own, but who lavishes her nieces and
nephews with all the time, energy, love, and devotion she can heap upon them, relishing that
she is the favorite auntie, and beaming with pride with their every accomplishment, often in the
background, because she's (quote) "just an aunt." Her calling doesn't include bearing children,
but they feel like her own. Her love runs that deep.
Sarah's daughter is the mom who still says she has three children even though only two are
living. The one, just because he is gone in death, doesn't stop being her son, and she doesn't
stop being his mom, even though she no longer worries about him coming home late, or getting
good grades, or making wise choices. "I have three children," she says, "and one lives with his
Father." When she gets quizzical looks, she says, "His heavenly Father. I'm still his mom."
Sarah's daughter is the mom who wonders where she went wrong because her child has gone
astray. Some days are so dark she wonders how she'll make it, and wonders if the next phone
call will include news from a hospital, a jail cell, or the morgue. And still she prays, and laughs
sardonically when well-meaning friends suggest it's just a "phase."
Sarah's daughter is the one who blew it today, yelled when she should have been calmer,
bought take-out when she could have cooked at home, gave the kids cake for breakfast because
today she needed an easy button. She is the single mom who would kill for a spa day, and who
laughs when well-meaning friends tell her she should get out more.
And she is the one still waiting. Praying. Accepting or fighting for her dream of a family.
Sarah... the mother of many nations. The mother of many daughters though she didn't bear a
one.
"If it's not one thing," Daddy would say, "it's your mother." The Psalmist wrote:
Who can be compared with the LORD our God, who is enthroned on high?
He stoops to look down on heaven and on earth.
He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump.
He sets them among princes, even the princes of his own people!
He gives the childless woman a family, making her a happy mother.
Praise the LORD!
(Psalm 113:5-9 NLT)
Father,
Thank you for mothers in all their glory! For all the moms, Jesus, you gave your life. I pray
your redemption finds them all! Thank you for entrusting women with the hearts and souls of
children as we mother them, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Give us grace to obey you
as your earthy mother Mary did - "I am the Lord's servant. May it be done to me according to
your word." Give us eyes of mercy to see those who need a mother's touch, and to see those
who long to be your hands and feet protecting and loving children as doctors, nurses, teachers,
advisers, aunts, youth leaders, family friends, and more. I pray Your love, provision, and
comfort abound in each mother who is struggling today. Help us be a mom to someone who
needs one today.
In Jesus's name, Amen
