Prayer Boots: An Encouragement For Moms

 “Youth fades; love droops; the leaves of friendship fall; a mother’s secret hope outlives them all.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

This is for the moms who harbor secret hopes for their babies. Keep hoping. Keep praying. Do not lose heart. You may be weary and heartbroken, but you have a special dispensation of grace to intercede for your child. Their Creator entrusted them to you on purpose. 

I feel deeply for moms. Chances are I may never know what it feels like to carry a child in my womb for 9 months, prevail through the miraculous terror of birth, or navigate the never-ending saga of motherhood. So I don’t pretend to know what every mother endures. Every person fights their own battle. But on two separate occasions the Lord allowed me to feel (once through intercession and then through a dream) what a mother I knew was going through; in both scenarios I felt an intensity of joy mingled with sorrow. At a critical moment in each vision, grief threatened to overpower my happiness, yet joy, undeterred and resilient, endured. Motherhood is not for the faint of heart.

What mother doesn’t feel the weight of her responsibility? I’ve heard hundreds of stories describing the fears which grip new moms during pregnancy. It’s not merely a fear of losing the baby but often of life post-baby, a fear of not measuring up to the standards of motherhood (which she’s largely placed on herself), of proving inadequate, of not loving her child enough, of generally messing up. Listen to this and see if it doesn’t grip your very heart as it did mine: God has entrusted all mothers with an eternal soul to nurture and protect. All mothers (believers or not, pagan or Christian, good or evil) have been invited into the divine process of creating the Imago Dei - the image of God - with the Creator. 

Incredible.

But all mothers have been entrusted with a wayward eternal soul, we might add, one with an inherently selfish will of its own. Whoever first began to perceive children as innately angelic did the world a huge disservice. *cough* It was Rousseau and the Romantics, but don’t tell them I told you. *cough* Any peasant mother could have debunked Émile with one timely anecdote evidencing the unprovoked devilishness of her baby and saved poor Jean-Jacques both a massive hand cramp and several quarts of ink. But what philosopher paid much attention to moms in the 1700s? Not many, I’d wager.

I think we can all agree today, children are most emphatically not angels. Their soul is corrupt, undeveloped, and wayward. It needs correction, discipline, lots of love, and good soul food (stuff of substance like stories which instill virtues in them before they even know what virtue is). Yet even after receiving everything their soul requires, it is still possible that your child may choose a path of disobedience and destruction.

 

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St. Augustine of Hippo was one such child. While I’m sure he had his share of issues growing up in a divided household (his father was pagan, his mother was God-fearing), he was aware of his own choices and deliberately pursued his own desires. The path he forged for himself was characterized by man-glorifying academia, worldly philosophy, hedonism, and debauchery.

His mother, Monica, never gave up on her grown son. Tirelessly she prayed for him. Endlessly she beseeched, even nagged, him to acknowledge his sin and repent. When Augustine left Africa to find answers to his life’s questions, Monica uprooted her life to follow him. She wanted to be near, to watch over him and pray. Ultimately, it was Monica’s persistent prayer which turned the spiritual tide for her son. Of his mother, Augustine states, “And now you [Oh God] stretched forth your hand from above and drew up my soul out of that profound darkness because my mother, your faithful one, wept to you on my behalf more than mothers are accustomed to weep for the bodily deaths of their children” (Confessions).

Like all moms, Monica was not without faults. Her strength, however, was persisting in faith and prayer for both her pagan husband Patricius (who came to a saving knowledge of Christ a year before he died) and her son, who is now revered as a Church Father. What a legacy! For 17 years Monica prayed for her wayward son, following him first to Rome and then Milan. She did not lose hope over his heart. In fact, as Augustine says, “She was fully confident that [God] who had promised the whole would give her the rest, and thus most calmly, and with a fully confident heart, she replied to me that she believed […] before she died she would see me a faithful Catholic” (Confessions). 

Monica did not make excuses for herself either. So many moms would have given up on their child, disgusted with their selfishness after devoting so many years of their life to their upbringing. Not Monica. She prayed and persisted in love until she saw her son come to repentance and salvation! Her prayers ushered Augustine into the Kingdom!

“My god has answered [me] more than abundantly!” - Saint Monica

Augustine spent 6 healing months with his mother after his repentance and confession of faith in Jesus. They were brief months, but the sweetest he had experienced in his life. Just before the final leg of their trip home to Africa, Monica died suddenly of a fever. Her life’s work had been fulfilled.

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If we learn nothing else from Saint Monica, it’s that a mother’s love for her child is a powerful force. If your heart is heavy over your own child, if you’re losing hope or are at your wit’s end, remember Monica. Let faith arise in your spirit. Pray! Don’t stop. Apply that holy pressure to the principalities of darkness. Fight for your baby as only a mother can. 

The Lord will honor your prayers. He will give you divine revelation for your son or daughter. He will give you words of knowledge and wisdom to know what to do and how to approach their heart. He has given you the Spirit who helps you in your weakness. As Paul writes, “For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). You’re not alone in this battle for your child’s soul.

Also, be encouraged that your efforts are well worth it. “Children are not a distraction from more important work, they are THE MOST important work,” C.S. Lewis writes. From our culture’s perspective, children are more of an accessory to your life than your Magnum Opus. But remember, God entrusted you with this eternal soul. Your child is your Magnum Opus. 

Take heart, strap on those prayer boots, and get to work.