A Mother's Prayer

Written by Sister Pam Graham

One of the most wonderful feelings in the world is when the doctor hands you your very own little baby.  All of a sudden you are overwhelmed knowing all the responsibilities and feelings that come along with raising a baby.  How much you love them and all you need to teach them and how much you love them and “will I be a good parent” and did I mention how much you love them!  

Like every parent, we were so excited when our first baby boy came but even more because our very first baby was stillborn.  I carried her 35 weeks, but God chose to take her to Heaven.  Even though there were many tears, and we didn’t understand, we wrote on her little pink tombstone “God doeth all things well” because God sees things we can’t, and we chose to trust God no matter what!  

After this happened our doctor didn’t know for sure we would be able to have another baby, so of course, we prayed.  We prayed every day that God would see fit to bless us with a child.  We promised we would teach him to love God and we would take him to church, and we would dedicate him to God.  We even had two great men of God and our family and friends praying with us.  

After what seemed like forever, we found out a baby was on the way!  Joy and fear came all at the same time.  Would I be able to carry this baby?  The praying didn’t stop and once again we chose to trust God.  And sure enough, a baby came and another and another until God blessed us with eight children!  Five boys and three girls!  How thankful we were that God heard and answered our prayers.  

We thought we prayed diligently to have a baby and now it was our responsibility to raise these children and we knew we still needed God’s help.  We wanted to have children who would love God and serve Him and make a difference to those around them.  We wanted children who would love each other and get along with each other and you know, there’s a lot of competition between five boys!  

We prayed that they would accept Jesus as their Saviour.  We prayed for their safety.   Yes, there were broken bones and stitches and sickness, but God helped us through all of it.  We prayed for their schooling.  We prayed that when the time came God would lead them to the right spouse.  We prayed that each one would be exactly what God wanted them to be!  

How can we make it through life without God’s help?  Now our children are all raised and are adults.  They are all in some type of ministry for the Lord.  Were we perfect parents?  Of course not.  Did we have troubles in life? Of course, we did.  Now we have 20 grandchildren and we’re praying just as hard for them as we did our children.  “Thank you, dear Lord, for your goodness and for the many blessings  you have given to us. We give you all the honor and the glory. Amen”