Mothering Sunday - a day of family love, joy and thanksgiving. For Christians, this includes thankfulness for “Mother Church, ” for many, thankfulness for mothers and those who nurture and care for them. We meet on Sunday from homes filled with flowers and dodgy love filled breakfasts and homes of sorrow regret and loneliness.
Many will have mothers who have put them first and done their best, whatever their circumstances. Some of us will be mothers or carers doing our very best. Others, will have no good models of being mothered. Some will have mothers who have died, mothers they have been unable to see for months. Some will have lost children, never had children they wanted or have been unable to provide well for children.
Today we give thanks for all who care for and nurture us and those for whom we are able to offer care. In our 10am service on Sunday, we are looking at the pastoral principle “Casting out Fear.” The most often repeated commandment in the Bible is 'Do not fear. ' It's in there over two hundred times. It means we are going to be afraid, and it means we shouldn't let fear restrict and define our lives, we need to be willing to take risks in loving and accepting others as precious children of God.