May you find grace upon grace
I began to see God more clearly in each moment of motherhood
Welcome to the Mothering Spirit newsletter! Each Saturday morning, you’ll receive a round-up of the week’s posts—perfect for your weekend reading.
This week on Mothering Spirit
Elizabeth Berget remembers (with painful clarity) how new motherhood rearranged everything she knew about God:
“I began to see God more clearly in each moment of motherhood—for who can, like a mother, understand what it means for a grain of wheat to fall into the earth and die to produce new life?
Who can, like a mother, bear the image of a God who gave His life and body up for us, that He might bear new life?
Who can, like a mother, display the fiercely soft love of God who covers us with his wings?
Who can, like a mother, mirror a God who neither slumbers or sleeps in caring for us?
Who can, like a mother, show us the literal meaning of This is my body, broken for you; take and eat?”
Read the whole essay here: Love Poured Out.
Rebecca Smyth gives us a prayer that every parent needs in this season of transition: A Blessing for the September Mother (you’ll soon see why you need it in August, too!).
May you feel the gentle grasp of Jesus
leading you through every inch of your overwhelm.
And may you know when the expectations you’ve placed on yourself are,
quite frankly, pure trash.
May God free you from the chains of comparison
and shock you with the beauty of this calling.
From the archives, for where you are
No matter where mid-August finds you, we have words to meet you there.
Struggling with babies and toddlers? You’re Doing Great (And Other Truths From God and Bluey) by Sarah Rose.
Wrestling with anger as a mother? The Rising Fire Within Us by Jess Rozga-DeBoni.
Preparing for another school year with a neurodivergent child? Love That Overcomes Darkness by Jenni Ho-Huan
Sending kids off to college? She Never Regretted Her Yes by Anna Bonnema.
This Week’s Recommended Resource
Starting this fall we’ll be sharing new reads with you on Fridays. Each week we’ll introduce you to a book or resource from one of our Mothering Spirit writers.
This week we shared an excerpt from Everyday Sacrament: The Messy Grace of Parenting by Laura Kelly Fanucci.
“You are a whisper of a whirl curled up deep in my belly. The hormonal soup in which you swim makes me nauseous at all hours of the day. I choke down crackers when I wake, throw up in the sink before breakfast, and pull over at gas stations to get sick on the drive to work. I collapse on the couch before sunset most evenings, too tired to drag myself to bed.
I am three months pregnant. This is my body, given for you.”
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 becoming a paid subscriber on Substack.
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Will be coming back to that prayer!! So good and true.