I am privileged to host a podcast for women over at The Light Network. On said podcast, we talk about a lot of different wife-related things. From time to time, I receive messages back from listeners asking about certain topics they’d like to see included in our show lineup. If there’s anything I’ve learned from these emails, it’s that today must be a hard day. So, in case you’re wondering, that’s where this post comes from.

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Dear You,

I know that today is an emotional day. You are probably battling some intense feelings. Feelings of sadness over the loss of a baby that many never knew was yours. Feelings of anger after someone else asks when you’re going to start a family, not realizing you’ve been trying for months. Feelings of hurt because your own mother ins’t who she needs to be. Feelings of guilt because you aren’t even sure you want to have children. Wherever you come from, whatever is going on in your life, please know that you’re not alone.

We are not cookie-cutter women. Not all of us will be mothers. Not all of us will have multiple children. Not all of us will thrive in the clothes-making, gluten-free food department. Some of us won’t be able to breast-feed. Others of us won’t be able to stay home with our children. We won’t all do motherhood the same, and some of us won’t do it at all. Maybe you’ll have children, but not biologically. Maybe you’ll have multiple children, but feel guilty that you didn’t adopt, too. Maybe you and your husband desperately want to start a family, but it just isn’t happening, and no one quite understands how much their words hurt when they constantly badger you about hurrying up and not waiting so long.

For all these and many more reasons, today will be a hard day. Maybe it’s the first year you are spending without your mother. Maybe today reminds you of all the ways your mother failed you, or didn’t show up when you needed her most. Maybe today rips your heart out because you thought you would be holding a baby in your arms by now, but miscarriage ended that life before you had the chance. I am so, so sorry if you are dealing with any of these hurtful things, but again, you are not alone. You are never alone.

Hebrews 13:5 – “For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

1 Peter 5:7 – “Casting your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.”

Matthew 28:20 – “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Psalm 34:18 – “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart”

Psalm 34:17 – “The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles”

Psalm 145:18 – “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.”

Jeremiah 29:13 – “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart”

Luke 11:9 – “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

James 1:5 – “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

Matthew 6:33-34 – “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

Today will be a hard day, but it won’t be the only hard day. Continue to seek God. Ask for strength and patience with others. Ask for Him to heal your broken heart, to mend your broken spirit. Seek wise counsel, and find comfort in the words of His prophets and inspired writers. Ask Him to use you, to allow your life to glorify Him. In whatever ways that means, ask that you will find peace and contentment and fulfillment. Only when our hope is in the Lord and His plans for us will we truly be at peace.

I pray that this message gives you hope and peace and direction. Our God is a God of all comfort. Cast your cares upon Him. He is faithful to deliver.