Mother's Sacrifice

Yesterday was Mother's Day, and our pastor had a sermon unlike any other I've heard on Mother's Day. One particular passage stuck out to me. Most of you are probably familiar with the story of King Solomon's display of wisdom in handling the situation of two prostitutes  who came to him with a complaint. As the passage is short, I include it here for you now to read again quickly.

1 Kings 3:16-28(NIV)

¹⁶ Now two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. ¹⁷ One of them said, “Pardon me, my lord. This woman and I live in the same house, and I had a baby while she was there with me. ¹⁸ The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one in the house but the two of us.
¹⁹ “During the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him. ²⁰ So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I your servant was asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast. ²¹ The next morning, I got up to nurse my son—and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the son I had borne.”
²² The other woman said, “No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours.”
But the first one insisted, “No! The dead one is yours; the living one is mine.” And so they argued before the king.
²³ The king said, “This one says, ‘My son is alive and your son is dead,’ while that one says, ‘No! Your son is dead and mine is alive.’”
²⁴ Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword for the king. ²⁵ He then gave an order: “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”
²⁶ The woman whose son was alive was deeply moved out of love for her son and said to the king, “Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!”
But the other said, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!”
²⁷ Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother.”
²⁸ When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice.

As you can imagine, it was an interesting choice of Scripture for Mother's Day. And maybe I've heard this before, but this year it really hit home in a new way. I think it's hard for most of us American moms to consider the physical giving up of a child, let alone to a woman you live with who is apparently quite devious. Yet the true mother in the story was willing to sacrifice her own feelings and emotions in order that her child might have life.

I believe this struck me as profound because that is what our "birth mom" is doing/has done. Most likely, she was unable to keep her daughter because of a medical condition that she could not afford to treat. So she does what she believes best. She places her infant daughter in a place where she believes she will be found quickly in order that she can receive the medical care necessary that she can have life. Or the social stigma of having a child with a special need in China is so intense that she believes it best for her child to be placed in an orphanage. Again, I think we can't fully comprehend this as Americans. But I'd like for us to try. If we knew or thought we knew that our child could die if they stay in our home, would we not do whatever we could that they could have life? And while it seems extreme, this is the choice thousands of people around the world face.

Thankfully, most of the people reading this won't ever have to make a decision so intense. Yet on smaller levels, moms do sacrifice for their children. I read two wonderful blog posts yesterday that friends have written about their moms. The thing I love about these two moms is that they are SO completely different. And both daughters have wonderful things to say about their moms. 

First: Patsy. A cookie-baking, soccer mom extraordinaire. 
Mama Patsy  
 
Next: Edie. A no-nonsense, fun-loving, director.
Mama Edie 

So as this younger generation of moms rises up, I hope that we can remember that we are different. We have different skill sets. We aren't all going to make delicious cookies. Some of us might make terrible jello. We might not all have the gumption to speak our minds. Some of us are going to be softer. And that's okay. Regardless of our skills, I think we all make sacrifices for our children. While some might be very larger, others will be seemingly small and insignificant. And while it may take those children twenty or thirty years to understand why you parent them the way they do, I think they will understand someday.