I know that Mother's Day is a day of remembering the Moms and Father's Day is a day of remembering the Dads and they are wonderful special occasions ... IF ... the family members have hearts of love and appreciation for their Moms and Dads! It is a wonderful day to celebrate and honor, to buy and give, to receive and feel loved. How many people truly respect and honor their Moms and Dads the way the Lord intended? Very few!I want to speak up for the millions of moms, grandmothers, wives, dads, grandfathers, husbands and more who find that MOTHER'S DAY and FATHER'S DAY TO BE VERY PAINFUL days that they dread because of the disappointment they know will surface once again as they are rejected and NOT honored like those whose families are whole and living with respect towards those that are to be honored on these days. May those of you who do NOT experience these issues in your own lives have compassion upon those who do. Please be sensitive to others around you that are hurting ... they may be in your own family or your friend next door or the person you will see with heaviness on their faces rather than smiles and joy because life is serving them well ... perhaps that lack of joy is because their own Mom or Dad is no longer alive to be celebrated and honored.
Those parents whose children are living with grudges towards them for their own mistakes in rearing them or other issues and mistakes that have surfaced during their adulthood ... find these special days as days they only pray would hurry on by! The day drags on with the hope that any minute the phone will ring with a surprise call from the child that has ignored this day in the past ... wondering to themselves, "Will they ever forgive me for my mistakes and try to love me the way that God intended for children to love and respect their parents in spite of their mistakes? Will they someday love me just a little bit as much as I so truly love them in spite of how they feel I have failed them?"
As nightfall arrives and the clock moves to an hour of "too late to call" the heart is once again beaten down by the load of pain that has blanketed "the hope that the baby that I craddled in my arms many years ago will call" that tried to peek through the heaviness once again this year. But, just like years of the past, there was no call, no card in the mail, nothing .... just the all too familiar wondering, "What could my child have been thinking all day today knowing this day was one that others were celebrating? Did they think of me just a little bit as they went on with their life, as they celebrated their wife or husband, or inlaws, or as their own children honored them? Just wondering with pain hovering still ... pain that doesn't go away .... pain that is tucked away until the next day that comes that celebrates family ... like birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas ... more days that are dreaded rather than looked forward to because of the usual pain that seems to visit so many times each year.
Lord, will you touch the hearts of those who are holding grudges, unforgiveness, judgments, bitterness, rage, anger, and unloving thoughts towards parents and show them that it was YOU who decided who would be their parents ... and it is YOU that inspired the scriptures that command us to forgive ... otherwise, we live with the consequence of not forgiving by living in prisons of torment until we do? It is YOU that instructed in one of your own TEN COMMANDMENTS to honor our parents so that our own lives will be long.
Lord, I ask you to forgive those who use these occasions to shoot arrows into the already hurting hearts of parents as "silent messages" to get back at them for how they feel they had hurt them in the past. Forgive them for shooting arrows that have been tipped into the pain of their past experiences to inflict and further express their disgust, disapproval, disappointment, and more towards parents that failed them in one way or the other. Forgive them for holding onto grudges because it is easier than to express forgiveness and love. Help them to see themselves and the mistakes they have made in rearing their children. Forgive them for their omission in silence, in doing nothing to reach out to their parents. I pray they don't experience the same pain when their day comes to wait for a call, card, or visit from their children. Heal their memories of their parent's shortcomings and help them to understand that those shortcomings were not a measure of their parent's love but perhaps a measure of wrongly coping with life's struggles ... making choices that cannot be corrected, choices made because they were not thinking clearly in the midst of pain or anguish or trying to find love themselves.
Lord, tenderize these hearts and bridge the gaps over the rivers of pain that flood the minds, souls, spirits and hearts of those who are in the midst of this struggle. I ask you for a MOVE of the Holy Spirit upon these children of yours ... to return to YOU and to listen to YOU and to do as YOU have instructed. I thank you for your purposes in allowing this measure of pain and hurt and may it bring your eternal purposes to fruition. If only, Lord, we would ALL show our love to one another every day of the year we would not have need to express it through man's day of special holiday celebrations.
If the words in this message could help just one experiencing this measure of pain and disappointment know that someone cares and understands, then the pain I am writing about has produced good fruit. May we all be reminded of the story of how the song "IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL" was written. Take a moment to see this short video that might very well depict God's plan to bring good from another's pain ... He does this all the time. CLICK HERE:
http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=3a0175c544b72e4861b9
Bring healing, dear LORD ... tenderize our hearts to sympathize rather than criticize, to show compassion towards one another. I ask you for this before the next "special day" that our culture celebrates ... Father's Day next month ... I thank you that your Word says in Malachai that you will send Elijah to restore the hearts ... I ask all of this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth ... AMEN and AMEN
"Behold, I am going to send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse." Malachi 4:5-6
"For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you." Matthew 6:14
"Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven."
http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=3a0175c544b72e4861b9
Bring healing, dear LORD ... tenderize our hearts to sympathize rather than criticize, to show compassion towards one another. I ask you for this before the next "special day" that our culture celebrates ... Father's Day next month ... I thank you that your Word says in Malachai that you will send Elijah to restore the hearts ... I ask all of this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth ... AMEN and AMEN
"Behold, I am going to send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse." Malachi 4:5-6
"For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you." Matthew 6:14
"Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven."
Matthew 18:21-22
