Isaiah 66:13 — As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

Let me share something — I’ve been fighting this devotion all day. For various reasons, some of which I’ll share, I’m not a great fan of Mother’s Day — especially not the modern American form of it which is not the same as the “Mothering Sunday” that I was used to as a youngster.
More of my reservations later, but first let’s celebrate what so many hearts are rightly full of today. God plainly holds mothers in great esteem! When He compares the comfort He intends to lavish on Jerusalem to the loving care a mother lavishes on her son (and as Henry Cowles points out, an adult son at that), He makes it plain that there is no higher standard of care.
Many men in the Bible owe much to the influence of their mothers — both for the good and, sad to say, for the bad. Solomon is a good example. His mother Bathsheba fought fiercely to ensure His succession to his father David’s throne. Her influence is reflected throughout the Book of Proverbs, starting at 1:8 — “forsake not the law of your mother”.
So what have I got against Mother’s Day? I can’t completely explain it. Part of it, though, is that I cannot reconcile this annual one-day celebration of motherhood with an environment in which the family, especially the family as God intended it, is so thoroughly disrespected. Let me share a couple of depressing statistics.
— Between 1965 and 2009 the rate of marriage between the ages of 25 and 34 fell from 80% to 50%.
— Between 1950 and 2000 the divorce rate in the US doubled.
“Well hang on”, you might say, “those statistics, are more about marriage than motherhood.” Well here is the one that really breaks my heart. The best estimate is that, from 1973 through 2011, there were 53 million abortions in the USA. That’s 53 million instances of motherhood that won’t be celebrated this year or any other year. Another indication of the declining respect for motherhood is provided by the Pew Institute:
The number of single father households has increased about ninefold since 1960, from less than 300,000 to more than 2.6 million in 2011. In comparison, the number of single mother households increased more than fourfold during that time period, up to 8.6 million in 2011, from 1.9 million in 1960.
I’d like to see the one day celebration of mothers turned into a year-long crusade for motherhood — and for that to be part of a greater mission to fix the American family!