Grant me the grace to believe it
"Walk this path of love and suffering, even when I want to run"
This week on Mothering Spirit
Megan Hogg weaves together a story of the complex love of foster parenting, a beautiful Eucharistic theology, and Taylor Swift (yes, we agree it’s perfect timing, too):
“The call from the social worker came when it usually does, which is to say at a completely random day and time. There was a baby boy getting ready to be discharged from the hospital, but his birth parents were unable to care for him. Would my husband and I be willing to foster him? Yes, we said, almost on impulse.
Yes. Such a small word with such a big impact.
On my way to pick up the baby, I listened to Taylor Swift’s Invisible String:
‘Isn’t it just so pretty to think
All along there was some
Invisible string
Tying you to me?’
The minute I laid eyes on our new foster son—all 5 pounds of him, wrinkled and yawning—I believed those lyrics wholeheartedly.”
Read the whole essay here: The Invisible String of Foster Care.
Sarah White shares a litany for parenting’s daily surrender:
From the belief that I am alone in my motherhood, deliver me Jesus.
From the belief that my productivity lies within a completed checklist,
deliver me Jesus.
From the idol of business, deliver me Jesus…
Read the whole prayer: A Litany for Mothers.
From our sponsors
This week’s writing is sponsored by Be A Heart Design, a modern Christian lifestyle brand that creates beautiful products to help both adults and children grow in faith. Be sure to check out their Holiday 2023 collection which includes a new Gloria Design of their festive pajamas and a women’s sizing option!
This Week’s Recommendation
Each Friday we feature more work from our writers. This week we shared an excerpt from Jessica Mathisen’s Praying For Your Foster Children: A 30 Day Guide.
Hebrews 13:15 says: “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” This phrase was always so interesting to me; how would it be a sacrifice to thank God and praise Him? Then I lived some life and understood by experience—sometimes it is a sacrifice to thank and praise God. It seems the author of Hebrews is saying that when life is not going the way we think it should go, we are making a conscious effort that goes against our natural desires to give thanks.
Gratitude is not simply the power of positive thinking, but rather the practice of noticing the goodness of God. Our children have known deep heartache and trauma that will shape them, but we can work with them to help them understand how God has been with them all along in order to help them experience some peace and calm within the storm of uncertainty.
Read the whole excerpt here: Cultivating A Heart of Gratitude with Our Foster Children.
Substack Spotlight
is a weekly Substack newsletter from Claire McKeever-Burgett. Check out a few favorite posts:Claire writes about everyday life as a mother, woman, partner, and friend. At her truest, she speaks in the language of poetry, blessing, and prayer, which feels to her like the language of love.
Subscribe here to receive writing, reflection, and prayers in your inbox every Sunday evening so you and yours can begin your week grounded, held, and loved. Join a community of people who want to center women and our stories and share the good news of justice, love, and mercy.
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In Your Words
We know social media is a place where mothers of all ages and stages share from the heart about their joys and challenges. Each week we bring you a glimpse into one mother’s life—in the hopes that her words might resonate with your own story.
This week’s post comes from Christina Stafford (@breadandwonderment on Instagram):
Each time I encounter another piece of bad news, another horror story, another string of words that basically tells me that for someone else, the worst possible thing has happened, I feel the familiar tug of a helplessness that threatens my sense of hope and the goodness of the One who’s supposedly in charge of all this. I see my impulse echoed from many others: “What can I possibly do in this situation?” I am so small and the world’s problems are certainly not.
I sit with this question a lot. The only answer that has ever made any sense, that has ever really given me any kind of peace is this: Hold it.
Hold it. Hold the pain, the suffering, the relief, the division, the unity, the confusion, and the small victories. This is a tall order, but one that mothers know so well. We can soothe and kiss and make soft hushing noises while they cry, but we don’t often get to actually make the bad stuff go away. We just have to keep pouring in whatever goodness we have and hope that’s enough.
So we try to be a little gentler with the checkout clerk, and hold our husband’s hand a little more tightly, and be more willing and quicker to forgive difficult people, and speak more tenderly to our children.
We all want to act in big ways, and some of us will get to. But if you’re small, like me, there is no shame in aiming for goodness where you are, in the midst of a world that desperately needs it. Don’t be afraid of seeing the suffering of others. Hold it. And let it change you. This is the kind of bravery that could change the world.
If you like what you read at Mothering Spirit, we’d love if you’d share this with a friend! Maybe someone who needs encouragement in her mothering journey—or a place to pray in the midst of her busy days. Thanks for supporting our writers by sharing their work, following us on Instagram or Facebook, or supporting us on Patreon.
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Thank you for creating space for my words this week! <3