Everyone knows that Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday. Unless you forgot! Oh my!

There are mixed emotions for many people on this special day coming up. Some are giddy and excited about having a family dinner and it will look like a scene from a Norman Rockwell magazine on Sunday.

It’s not that easy for most. We are complicated people in a complicated world. There is pain. There might be unrest. There are so many scenarios that can come into play.

We are not all able to take our mothers out to dinner or go to her house to have a joyous family gathering.

If you don’t know me, my mom went to heaven when I was 7 years old. I’m certainly not looking for pity here. But I grew up very differently than even my own siblings, who were all quite a bit older than me. They knew my mom. I didn’t really get that privilege of knowing her very much.

I have so many blessings, including a wonderful mother in law, two sons make me a mother myself, and lots of nieces, nephews, and grand nieces and nephews. So I feel like a mother in many ways and have an older generation to look to. A wonderful legacy that my mom left me, of diaries and her faith.

But think about what the “Mother’s Day Hallmark holiday” might look like to people in these kinds of situations:

A mother who has babies in heaven. A mother who has tried but has a very strained or absent relationship with her child of any age. A daughter who is losing her mom right now, as she is at her bedside vigil. A granddaughter who would love to spend time with her grandmother, but she lives in a state very far away. A SON who knows he should call his mother, but is in a state of unforgiveness and his pride will not let him do so. A daughter who never really knew her mother because she was “discarded” in some way long ago. A daughter who will be grieving on Sunday, because her mom is mentally far away in some other place. An orphan who is crying for the arms of a mother-someone just to hold her.

If you have a grand time with a mom or grandma, or if you are a mom or grandma, APPRECIATE it and savor the moments! But let us not forget the people who may be going through invisible pain on Mother’s Day.

Count your blessings and enjoy ever moment you can with those you love. You don’t know when they might be the last. Those who are in Christ Jesus, and knew their loved ones were, will have hope. Many do not have hope.

Let’s remember them this weekend. I’m sure you can think of many other kinds of things friends may be going through.

Please share a story or an encouragement for someone else today.