Around this time of year, sweet cards fill the aisles of your local Rite-Aid or CVS, decorated with butterflies and flowers. Mother’s Day is on its way, and it seems like everyone in line has a bright bouquet of flowers and note to tuck into an envelope.

But for you, few of the adoring messages apply.

It’s not that you don’t love your mom. But World’s Best Mother? You’re my hero? Thanks for always being there? Nope.

Do Mother’s Day cards leave you feeling sad, rather than grateful? Instead of giving expression to your familial joy, do they just remind you what you’re missing out on?

Maybe your mother left you to be raised by your father or grandparents. Maybe your mother was functionally absent due to addiction or mental illness. Maybe your mother was emotionally distant and cold, leaving you with too few good memories. Maybe your mom loved you so much, but died when you still needed her. Maybe you don’t even know who your biological mother is.

Whatever your situation, your heart aches on Mother’s Day. You long to celebrate like other families: with a phone call, brunch, or a sentimental Hallmark card. But you can’t.

Especially today, you can find comfort in the love of a God who has chosen and adopted you. Dwell on the promises God makes to his children:

• God will never abandon or fail you.
  

  My father and mother may abandon me, but the Lord will take care of me.
  (Psalm 27:10)

• God’s love for his people is greater than that of any earthly parent.
  

  The Lord answers, “Can a woman forget her own baby and not love the child she bore? Even if a mother should forget her child, I will never forget you.”
  (Isaiah 49:14–15)

• You have a parent in heaven who will provide for all your needs.

  God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who cries out, “Father, my Father!” … And since you are his child, God will give you all that he has for his children.
  (Galatians 4:6-7)