A Mother’s Day Prayer for the Mom with Empty Arms

Lord, you know the heart of every woman who longs for her child.
Perhaps she is separated from her son or daughter by circumstances beyond her control.
Or, infertility brings fresh grief as month after month, the hope of pregnancy is shattered. Adoptive parents wait, feeling alone and invisible, while their home study is passed over or cast aside. International law can change without warning, laying waste to years of work and expense to bring an orphan child home. Mothers who have borne the grief of lost children are longing for that heavenly day when they’ll hold one another again. On Mother’s Day, the heart-wound cuts deep for the mom with empty arms. Her hope and faith are worn to a fragile thread as she longs to know you see her pain.

Today, Lord, bring your comfort to the mother who weeps. Build her up with strength and endurance to wait for your perfect plan to unfold. Satisfy her thirsty, hungry heart with “good things” since she feels so empty in this moment. (Psalm 107:9) Gently open her hands so she can release her dreams, her longings, and the hopes she’s holding into your care.

As our Giver, we know you are far better than any of your gifts in this world. Let the Word saturate her heart with the truth that your grace is enough, and your power flows in to fill every weak and broken place in her life. (2 Corinthians 12:9) Expand her knowledge of your love that is too wide and deep to fully comprehend.

Pour out a fresh breath of mercy on her spirit every morning. Draw her close to you in prayer, and fill every room of her home with your presence. Take her desire to care and nurture and guide and use her to cultivate beauty in the world around her. May the mother with empty arms take hold of you–discovering a peace, a joy, and a wholeness found in no other. Amen.

Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love
we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”

(Lamentations 3:21-24)

To pray together as a couple, let 101 Prayers for Mr. & Mrs. draw you closer to God every day: