Thank you, Callie and musicians for preparing that song for us and expressing what really is in all of our hearts. We know that the Lord is near. This morning, I want to do honor to the tradition of taking the second Sunday in May and remembering and honoring our mothers and recognizing them. Motherhood has a good reason for being revered and honored in society, not just because we wouldn't be here without mothers, but because of the way we're all profoundly shaped by our moms, and when it comes to caring and nurture, there's nothing, no one quite like mom in the job that they do. So mothers are worthy of our honor and appreciation that we might give them on this particular day, but not just mothers in general, but in particular, your mother. I encourage you to think in terms of your mother Part of what motivates us to express appreciation and recognition for our mothers is not just the importance of the work that they do, but also the difficulty, honestly, of the work that they do. Moms not only have great joys, but also great troubles, both externally and internally as well. Externally, she's the one who cleans the vomit up off the floor in the middle of the night, isn't she? She's the one who figures out the meal plan for the week. She's the one who makes sure the clothes are washed and takes special care to check the pockets from time to time for things left in there like cell phones and ballpoint pens and frogs. She's the one responsible for the potty training, the ABC teaching, all manner of bed making and heading off domestic crisis like running out of toilet paper or toothpaste or chocolate syrup. Those things mom takes care of. Then there's the carpooling, the buying of clothes, the getting of haircuts. Almost an endless list of micro-tasks that moms do on a daily basis that really you could put in the category of servant work. She serves. There's hardly ever a recognition of those kinds of tasks or a thank you. Who thinks about those things? Mom does. Mom thinks about those things. On any given day or any or all of those micro-tasks that she does may not go as expected. And in fact, considering the clientele she works with, most often they don't go exactly as expected, and it all serves to make Mom pretty tired, almost constantly. And it's not like she doesn't have any other responsibilities either. She has her husband, her home, her friends, that family in the church that needs a meal taken to them. She's helping out at the kids' school, Maybe she's interacting with her own extended family members. Maybe she works. Maybe she's a single mom. But those are just the external things that trouble mom. There's also a great deal of internal things that bring trouble to moms. Discouragement from seeing the lack of progress in the work that she does. I mean, it's like Groundhog Day over and over again every day. There's the intense concern over the physical and spiritual safety and well-being of her children as they venture out into a broken and deceptive world. Of course, there's the internal concern of her own perceived failings at being a mom. In every article she reads or blog post, it seems that she's doing worse and worse all the time. Doubts about whether she's doing it right. Maybe there's disagreements with her husband about exactly how to parent the kids. And then there are the times when there are internal defections, when her own children seem to reject all that she is patiently trying to teach them over the years, even beginning to resent or mock her for those things. Moms have troubles, soul troubles. So this morning, moms in particular, as we look at the Word of God, I want to devote the application of what we're looking at to you. I'm not going to add to the task list. I'm not going to tell you a lot of things that you need to be doing as moms, but rather help to encourage and strengthen you, especially in the times in the midst of the troubles you face. I want to do so by pointing to a most unusual place, really, for such an encouragement, a place of hope, and that is Psalm 3. It's a simple song. It wasn't written by a mom. It wasn't even written by a woman. It was written by King David. It was written over 3,000 years ago. But it has an incredible relevance to every mom in this room. You say, what does King David's expression have to do with a mom? Well, two things make the connection, really. One, David, when he wrote this psalm, was in the midst of troubles. Look at the superscription above the psalm itself. It says it's a psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son. This account is recorded in 2 Samuel 15-18, four full chapters on this one incident. David and Goliath only took one chapter to express. This takes four chapters in the scripture to express this incident out of which David writes this psalm. Let me summarize the trouble that David was experiencing as he wrote this psalm. David had been king of Israel for many years. The Philistines had been routed. Many battles had been won. It was a time of peace. His children were grown. Absalom, his favored son, the rightful heir to the throne when David died. Absalom, though, is an arrogant and conniving man. And rather than being a dutiful prince in the land and serving his father and benefiting the kingdom, Absalom has gone about, for the past few years, the underhanded, back-behind-the-back way of drawing the kingdom away from David and to himself, drawing the attention to himself. When he thinks he has enough political clout, he goes and asks his father David, can I go to Bethel and offer up sacrifices? That's not at all his intent to go to Bethel. He goes about 20 miles south of Jerusalem, gathers his political allies there with him, and there they proclaim him king. David's sitting on the throne in Jerusalem, but Absalom has proclaimed himself king in Israel. His political allies are strong, and the nation of Israel itself maybe figures David is past his prime, and they generally all as a nation begin to follow Absalom. They recognize him as king. David gets word of this. knowing how these things work. He fears for his own life and for the life of those who are loyal to him. And so, rather than embroil the city of Jerusalem in a bloody battle, he leaves the city of Jerusalem. Not only is David in the midst of the external trouble of fear for his own life and for those who gather around him, but there's also a very great soul angst. His own son has now defected from him and is out to kill him and any who are loyal to him. Surely his heart is also broken for the spiritual state of the nation of Israel to whom he has given his life to promote a faithfulness to God. And now they have engaged themselves and followed along with Absalom in this wicked rebellious thing. This is a truly a low point in David's life. David's got trouble. But also there's a second connection that make it applicable to moms in particular today or really anyone who's in the midst of trouble. And that is that David is stated in scripture to be a man after God's own heart. And so as he stops in the midst of this turmoil and impends the expression of his soul at that moment, it is an expression of a man who deeply desires to be a worshiper of God in all of his life. And the Holy Spirit has included this song that he wrote as part of the Psalms of Israel, as part of the scripture itself, so that it might be instructive to us. How do we handle, how do we respond as we're in the midst of troubles? It's not just written for maybe some future king of Israel who has a son who is disloyal to him, this is how you respond. It's written to every man, woman, and child on how we should respond. If we are seeking to be worshippers of the one true and living God, worshippers of the God of Israel, then this is how we respond. It's a perspective that goes much greater than the circumstance that David were in. It works from the greater to the lesser. If David responded like this in the midst of this great national trouble that broke his heart and his own life was in danger, then how much more should moms on a daily basis respond to the troubles that they face or even the great troubles that they face at times. Of course, I'm speaking from a perspective that primarily you who are listening to this seek to be a worshiper of the God of Israel as well. That something has happened in your life. At some point, maybe even your mother, someone has told you about the God of Israel, about the God of the Bible and how he sent his son to pay for, to take in his own person the penalty of your sins on the cross and he died for you. And that God's spirit has worked in your heart and caused you to say yes, I know I'm a sinner I know I'm in need of someone to take my sin for me. I can't stand before God in my condition on my own I need a Savior and you have to embrace Jesus as your Savior and as your Lord you you recognize what the scripture teaches that he is the final Lord and Savior of all men and he is the only one And so the spirit coming into your heart, now you desire to worship God, to follow God in all of life. And you want to be a worshiper of God and follow the example of a man after God's own heart. But if that transformation hasn't happened to you, then I encourage you to listen anyway and observe the beauty and the hope of one who is in a right relationship with God. And to see the kind of God that is worshiped here. and be drawn into a true understanding of what it means to have a right relationship with God. Listen as I read the words of Psalm 3. And then we're going to consider four particular temptations that moms face that are similar to the temptations that David faced here. And hopefully it will be a spiritual benefit and encouragement to you. It applies to moms, but of course it applies to all of us as well. Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son. Here's what he said. Here's what he penned. O Lord, how my adversaries have increased. Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, there's no deliverance for him in God. But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the one who lifts my head. I was crying to the Lord with my voice, and he answered me from his holy mountain. I lay down and slept, I awoke, for the Lord sustains me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me round about. Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God, for you have smitten all my enemies on the cheek, you have shattered the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord, your blessing upon your people." Consider with me. temptations that moms face in the midst of their trouble, to whom David's responses here to his own trouble serve as the answer, serve as the remedy. First, trouble, temptation that mom faces in trouble, and that is to carry your troubles, to bear your troubles. Because your difficulties, moms, are daily, because they're constant, Because in many ways they are real and they are unique to you alone and to your own circumstances and to your own children and to your own family. And you see no real end in sight of the difficulties you face as a mom. You just carry them around with you all the time. You've got this burden on you and it never seems to go away. And so depending on your personality and your circumstance or maybe your mood, what mood you happen to be in, you're tempted to deal with it in one of three ways. The first way is you just become Silent Sally. You suffer in silence. You know this is your lot in life to bear. You prayed for these children and now you have them. And you're not going to go around griping about it all the time. You just bear your burden. You just go about your duties, even if sometimes in a mere robotic kind of way. You just put your head down and you just do what you're supposed to do. You're going to hold it together, but every day that you continue like this, you just feel yourself further weighted by the difficulties of your particular circumstance and you can feel your heart getting colder and colder and colder. Silent Sally is all alone. She doesn't really have anyone she can share it with. Oh, she could share it with her husband. She could share her troubles with her husband or her good friend, but they really won't understand. You've tried that and they don't understand because it's unique to you. That only further discourages you. So you just carry your trouble like Silent Sally. Or maybe, maybe that's not you. Oh no, you wouldn't keep your troubles to yourself. That's not healthy. So you tell your troubles to everyone. You're grumbling Gwen. You gripe to your husband, to your friends, to your children, to your own mom, to the grocery store clerk. Heck, you even find yourself grumbling to yourself as you walk down the grocery store aisle. Your friends get to constantly hear how many diapers you've changed, and how often your husband doesn't support you in front of the kids, and how much sass your teenage daughter gives you, et cetera, et cetera. Okay, look, I'm not talking about just sharing your common burden of mothering with those who would understand or with your husband and trying to figure out a plan. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about chronicling your plight to any and every listener. Grumbling Gwen does that. It seems that gone from Gwen's mind is any consciousness of the simple instruction in the scripture to do all things without grumbling or complaining. No, you carry your troubles by. grumbling about them. But maybe that's not you either. You would never be grumbling, Gwen, nor would you be silent Sally. But instead, you carry your troubles around like volcanic Valerie. On the surface, everyone seems to think you're silent Sally. Everything's going fine, you smile, you're full of joy, you take care of your business, everything's going just great. But under the surface, the pressure. is building. And one day, unexpectedly, when the crumbs are not wiped off the cabinet, you blow and hot ash and smoke fill the house and anyone who happens to be standing around, whether or not they had anything to do with the crumbs on the cabinet or not, they're going to hear of your troubles with words like, you never, or I always, or you're so disappointing to me. or don't walk away from me, I'm not finished yet. You know her, Volcanic Valerie. She comes out every now and then. It's obvious that neither Sally nor Gwen nor Valerie are handling their troubles in a godly way. But what's a mom to do when the pressures are real and they're constant? Well, look at the psalm. What do we find David doing right off the bat as he is in the midst of this trouble? He's not carrying his trouble around in his person. He's casting his trouble on the Lord. Look at the very first words. Oh Lord, how my adversaries have increased. How many are rising up against me. How many are saying of my soul there's no deliverance for him and God. He's complaining, as it were, to the Lord. That's exactly what he's doing. He's telling the Lord of his troubles. Not complaining in a grumbling, griping, disgruntled sort of way, but in an honest, direct way. Oh, Lord, to you I will bring my complaint. He names it specifically. Notice he's not asking the Lord to do anything in particular here. He's just stating to the Lord his troubles. We see this over and over again in the Psalms. being gut level real with the Lord. Verbally and concretely expressing it to him. Psalm 142, 1 and 2, David says, I cry aloud with my voice to the Lord. I make my supplication with my voice to the Lord. I pour out my complaint to Him. I declare my trouble before Him. That's exactly what David's doing here. He's just declaring his trouble. He's expressing it verbally. In this case, in the form of a song he writes. Moms, take the example from David here. Don't carry your troubles. God's never intended you to do that. Don't bear them in silence. Don't grumble and gripe about them to anyone you can hear. Don't hold them in and then blow up one day. God's not designed you to do that. He's given you a relief. Come to me. Express it to me. And do so in set-aside times of private, reverent worship of the Lord. It's just you and the Lord. Do so when you're singing out in the midst of the congregation. You yourself are expressing much more than we're all expressing because you're expressing the movements of your own heart. Express it as you go about your busy day. Tell the Lord. Tell the Lord. That's what David did. That's what Peter tells us to do in 1 Peter 5-7. casting your anxieties on the Lord, because He cares for you. He knows your trouble. He does understand. He sees exactly what's going on in your life and in your heart. You can be honest with Him. Tell your troubles to the Lord. But that's not David's final solution here. That's not where David stops, merely telling the Lord his troubles. There's another temptation, though, that comes along when you're in the midst of troubles, and that is to forget the Lord. to go into a spiritual slump, to get so wrapped up in the difficulties of what's facing you at any given time that you're distracted. You leave off your relationship with the Lord. Moms, have you found yourself at times looking up and finding your spiritual slump? You've just gone into a slump. You've forgotten to pursue the Lord. You feel distant from Him, not because there's any great sin, but because there's simply no time spent there. It's been days or weeks or months since you truly have related with the Lord in a personal way, in the contemplation of His Word, in the communicating with Him about what's going on in your life. She fills her days with doing her motherly duty. She's diligent about it. But as she does, she's forsaking her first duty, to be a worshiper and a lover of her soul. And as she does that, it won't be long before her troubles will actually become her idols, and her duties will become her only focus. But David won't go there. In the midst of what is a major crisis in his life, he won't go there. He won't allow himself to. Look at verses 3 and 4. He reflects on the Lord. He remembers the Lord. But you, verse 3, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the one who lifts my head. He remembers the personal relationship he has with the Lord. And he rejoices in it. And he personally expresses that to the Lord. He worships. right there while his son is running him out of Jerusalem and he's waiting anxiously to hear what's happening. Right there he worships. Not only is this honoring to the Lord in the expression of it, but he is also teaching his own heart at the time what is important. Let me remember what I know to be true, what my life is based on. Not let my eyes get so distracted by what's going on right in front of me that I forget what's really important. Let me look up in this moment. He says, look, the Lord is my shield. The Lord is my glory. The Lord is the one who lifts my head up. I'm going to remember the Lord. I'm going to reflect on him. And then in verse four, he looks back at the past. I cried to the Lord or was crying to the Lord with my voice, and he answered me from his holy mountain. David begins to reflect on times when God has answered his prayer before. He recalls specific times when he had called out to God for help, when he was running from King Saul, when he faced Goliath, when he faced the lion, when he faced the bear, when he faced the Philistines, when he faced his own sinfulness. I cried out to the Lord and He answered me. I remember. I reflect on that. Moms, remember the Lord. Worship the Lord. Make it a daily pattern. Don't let the busyness of your calling excuse you or distract you from the joy of relating with the Lord, remembering His personal care for you, His personal relationship with you, especially when you feel beset by your troubles, especially when you're becoming overwhelmed. Your troubles don't have to be your focus in life, whether they're external troubles in the little kids or the big kids, or whether they're internal troubles. They don't have to be your focus. The Lord is designed to be our focus. We were created to glorify in Him. This brings meaning, purpose, perspective into our life. Well, there's a third temptation you face, though, also, as moms, and that is fear. There's lots to fear as a mom. There's so many things that you cannot control. You try your best to protect your children from sickness, from painful falls, from dangerous dogs, from careless cousins, whatever it may be, you're trying to protect them. And not only those, but you try to minimize the harmful influences that they face as they increasingly go out into a dangerous and deceptive world. And you try to curb their own innate desires for the wicked and the foolish way. Moms busy themselves, Christian moms, especially with these kinds of things. But living as you do in a broken world, you come to realize pretty quick, I cannot protect them from all the evils that they face. And the temptation in that recognition is simply to try harder. It'll cause you to become fretful, free to be frantic, to go overboard and to try to control your child's universe. And as they get older, it gets even worse, because they don't stay on their blanket. They begin to move out and seem prone to getting trouble for themselves. All of this contributes to a mom's trouble in her physical activity. If she's Frida, if she's trying to protect them in every possible way from anything that might harm them, she becomes overwhelmed. But not only in activity, but also in intense concern. There's a love embedded deeply there. The question is not whether Frida should not be so concerned about her kids. Well, you know, they might get hurt or they might not. That's not the answer. Of course, moms will have an intense concern. The question is, what do they do with that concern? And again, we come back to the psalm. Well, what did David do with his concern, his fear? And David was forced out of Jerusalem and traveled 20 miles the other way from Absalom as Absalom is coming into Jerusalem. He's waiting at the fords of the Jordan River, 2 Samuel tells us. His life was in danger, his heart was broken, the nation was in turmoil, and yet what does he say in verse 5? What is his response? What does he do? Look at the text. I lay down and slept. I woke, for the Lord sustains me. Talk about a time when you're expressing you're not in control when you go to sleep. You have control over nothing, not even what you dream. He remembered the Lord. He's resting in the Lord, remembering what He has just told himself and reminded himself about the Lord in verses 3 and 4. Now he lets that remembrance, he lets that remembering of the Lord sink down into his heart. I'm not just going to have a mental acknowledgment, yeah, the Lord has done good in the past and the Lord is my glory and the one who lifts my head, but I'm going to let that affect my life. I'm going to let it affect what I do and how I carry myself. I'm going to lay down and sleep. when I get finished with my motherly duties for the day. Because the Lord is the one who is going to sustain me. The Lord is the one who is going to protect my children. David boldly declares in verse 6, I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me round about." He's not speaking metaphorically. The whole nation of Israel was turned against him. There were ten thousands of people currently marching toward him to overtake his camp. And what does David say? I will not be afraid. Now is he just being foolish? Is he just forgetting? Is he just putting out of his mind? La la la la. No. He's not not remembering his troubles. He is remembering his God first and foremost. And he is resting in, waiting on the Lord. He declares it boldly. I love the way Wayne Mack puts it in his book. It used to be called Fear Factor. The book's called Courage Now. He says, Stop giving your heart permission to be controlled by fear. Well, I can't help it. I'm just, no, no. Stop giving your heart permission to be controlled by fear. Moms, here is your God-given relief valve. Here is your hope in the midst of what seems like the endless tasks and difficulties and concerns that moms face. You have good, holy, right concerns for your children. In those concerns, rest in the Lord. upon the Lord, consider His character, consider His past faithfulness to you, and rest in that. Refuse to let your fears consume you. Go about your motherly duties in diligence, yes, but go about with an overriding sense of peace in your heart that God is in fact in control. You don't have to control your child's universe, nor are you able. You can turn that over to Him. You can go from being fretful Frida to restful Rita. What a relief. You don't have to lay awake at night in fretful anxiety over your troubles or your children. Okay, so if you're tracking through this psalm here, you've already told the Lord your complaint. You've already exposed it to Him. I got troubles. I'm just admitting it. You've already remembered the Lord. You've remembered His goodness, His faithfulness, who He is, and now you're letting that affect your behavior. I go to sleep, and I'll wake up in the morning. I'll say no to fear. I'll let my heart be at peace. Psalm 116, verse 5 and 7, we read it this morning in our Scripture reading. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord is gracious and righteous. Yes, our God is compassionate and preserves the simple. The Lord has dealt bountifully with me. I'm resting on that. Psalm 4, 8, just the next Psalm. I will in peace, I will both lie down and sleep. For the Lord is the one who makes me dwell in safety. You alone, O Lord. Psalm 127, verse 2, it's vain for you to rise up early and retire late and eat the bread of painful labors. For the Lord gives to his beloved even in their sleep. That's what David knew. That's what David expresses here. What a tremendous grace and provision for moms. The Lord gives to His beloved even in their sleep. When you lay down and sleep at night, mom, the Lord is still working. You can count on that. You can trust in that. We need not be beset with fears of things we can't control. Yet, there's another temptation as well. that even restful Rita faces, that King David certainly faced as well. And that is to wake from your restful night's sleep. I went to sleep in peace. The Lord is in control. I know it. And when you wake up, your troubles are still right there. They haven't gone away. They didn't. And so the temptation is to say to yourself, I got this. I can do this. I'm going to conquer my troubles. I just need to double down on the issue. I'll rid myself of my troubles. The temptation? Self-reliance. You're a can-do Cassie. David surely fought this temptation here. After all, he was the anointed king of Israel. He had routed the Philistines. He had killed Goliath. Or had he? Was he really the one who accomplished all those things? David is very willing to admit in Psalm 18, I'll let you read Psalm 18 later, over and over again, he recounts what had happened in his life and he says, it was the Lord who brought me the victory. It was the Lord who made me strong. It was the Lord who put me on the throne in Israel. It was the Lord who defeated my enemies. He's the one who did it. for me and through me to accomplish his desire. And so, in this crisis, David doesn't look to himself for deliverance. David doesn't just become a can-do Cassie. I can do it. I'm going to do this thing. I've done it in the past. I'll do it again. But rather, he just humbly expresses his trust in God in a humble, confident, expectant prayer. Look at the text, verse 7. Arise, O Lord. Save me. Oh my god. You've smitten all my enemies on the cheek. You've shattered the teeth of the wicked Salvation belongs or deliverance belongs to the Lord your blessing upon your people you desire to bless your people and that Deliverance belongs to you and to you alone. I'm admitting that I'm admitting it directly to you and I upon that admission I'm actually asking for help I'm actually asking for help There's a difference between saying that God can protect you and your children and actually asking Him to. Right? Moms, don't you know this? There's a difference between your instructions to your children to go make things right with one another and they go and they say, I was wrong. I'm sorry. There's a difference between acknowledging that and actually going the next step and saying, So will you forgive me? What's the difference? Just one thing, pride. Any can-do Cassie can say, yeah, I guess I need help. But it's a humble, non-self-reliant person who can say, will you help me? Those are two totally different things. The temptation And our troubles is to become self-reliant. Our temptation is even take the knowledge of God and His control and to take that and to twist it and pervert it and say, well, I just, okay, I just need to work harder then. I got this theological knowledge and I got my grid here and I just need to work harder. Rather than doing what David did. Look, he says, arise, O Lord. and save me, O my God." He doesn't go out and rally his battle troops and say, arise, O men, let's do this thing. First and foremost, he says, arise, O Lord, and help me and save me. Salvation belongs to the Lord. There is a deep humility in admitting that. To avoid the temptation of self-reliance, it's hard to be humble. to actually express our dependence on the Lord. But with it comes the promise of Psalm 34. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted. He delivers those who are contrite, low in their spirit. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous. His ears are open to their cry. When we actually cry out for help and say, arise, oh Lord, save me. deliver me. I do need your help and now I'm asking for it. I'm not simply telling you of my troubles. I'm not simply remembering that you can help. I'm not simply being at rest about it. Now I am asking you for help. I'm humbly admitting my need for you. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Moms, just remember God's desire for you is just as much, maybe more, to help you grow in your relationship with Him than it is to help your children grow in their maturity and be safe and healthy, etc. Remember, when your troubles face you all around, And you cry out to the Lord for help. The reason for your troubles is not just that God might help your children. It is so that God might help you to be not so self-dependent, to continually strip away from you that thing that says, I can live without God. I can do this thing. I'm a capable person. God's even taught me some things. Thanks, God. I'll take it from here. But simply continually to say, I need your help and to actually express that to God. He's provided many graces to bless you moms, to draw you into closer fellowship with Him, even as you live out your role in this broken world as a mom. Tell Him your troubles. Go to Him. Talk to Him about it. Don't be silent before Him. Remember and reflect on His ways in the past. What has He done? What is His character? What are His promises? Rest and wait upon that provision, upon those promises, and then actually ask him for help. This is the joy of relating with God as one of his people. These are the provisions that's been provided for us. In doing so, there's no guarantee that your troubles are going to disappear. Actually, if your troubles are bound up in your children, you hope they don't disappear. But there is a guarantee, God's own guarantee That as you do these things, as David did here, he will fill your heart with a supernatural kind of peace, of well-being, of sense of safety and security and relationship with him. It surpasses all understanding. And in the process, you'll be becoming more and more like what David was becoming. You'll be becoming a mom after God's own heart. Let's pray together. Our God, your word is a blessing for your people. It pulls us out of where we are. It shows us your great provision for us. It shows us who you are. Lord, we thank you for the trouble that David went through with his son Absalom. We thank you for working by your spirit to have him pen these words. They apply to moms, but they apply to all of us. Lord, I pray that you would cause us to respond like this in our troubles. We all pray especially for the moms here, or our mother, whether she's here or not. We pray that you would give her the grace to follow the path of a mom after God's own heart, one who seeks to worship you and follow you. We pray that you would give her that grace. Let your spirit be strong in her. And when she becomes overwhelmed, Lord, remind her of these truths and draw her to yourself. Lord, I pray that you would make each and every one of us truly grateful for the gift that you have given us of our own mom. And allow us all to express that today. Help us in that, Lord, with truth, with true gratitude, true love. We ask it in Jesus' name, for His glory. Amen.