The better-late-than-never club
Aren't most mothers playing catch up, most of the time?
From the editor: No, you don’t need to check your phone—it’s still Tuesday, not Saturday! It’s just been One Of Those Weeks. I tried to get our regular Substack out last weekend like normal, but lately life has been anything but normal. I know you understand. Enjoy this week’s offerings, and rest assured—from one frazzled mom to another—that it’s ok to not have it all together. None of us do, and that’s a truth worth remembering every single week.
This week on Mothering Spirit
In our latest essay, Tara McMullen chews on the metaphor of parenting as bread-making. When are we rising? When are we being kneaded? When will we ever be finished?
I huffed at God, whining that I was trying and still there were obstacles and frustrations. I lamented that I may never get the minutiae of motherhood right. Why, oh why, after four and a half years was I still falling and failing on a daily basis? When would it all smooth out?
After lobbing my volley of complaints, as I washed dough off my hands, I heard so clearly: “Maybe you’re in the midst of another rise.”
Read the whole essay here: The Rising Dough of Motherhood.
Speaking of feeding, here’s something we wish we would’ve had when we needed it: a prayer for when breastfeeding feels impossibly hard. (Turns out the words speak to more than newborn nursing woes, too.)
God, this was supposed to be easy
But it’s beyond hard.Everything hurts.
We’re both weeping,
this baby and me.We’ve tried everything,
asked for help,
begged and hoped and prayed.But each day gets harder,
and my worries grow bigger.Help me to put us both in Your loving hands,
To trust that You will care for us and comfort us,
To believe there will be ways for both of us to be fed…
Read (and share) the whole thing here: A Prayer for Breastfeeding Struggles.
p.s. Want to write a prayer on the holiness of bottle-feeding? Formula-feeding? Exclusively pumping? Tube feeding? We’d love to publish it!
For your reading
With Mother’s Day on the horizon in many countries, we have all kinds of moms in mind: foster mothers, single mothers, godmothers, grandmothers, widowed moms, and grieving mothers, to name a few.
Here’s a prayer to remember many kinds of mothers when you celebrate this Sunday.
“Maybe you have been some of these mothers, too. The ones for whom Mother’s Day is never as simple as cards and brunch and flowers can celebrate. None of us is all of these things. But we are all here together. And together, we are what can make motherhood so complex—and sometimes challenging to celebrate.” For All The Mothers by Laura Kelly Fanucci.
“It’s easy to say that it took my becoming a parent to fully understand the challenges that my mother was facing. The fear of not being able to feed your family. The fear of being all alone. The fear of having to do it all but not knowing how. However, it took more than a better understanding of the pieces of parenting she tried to keep hidden: it took my forgiving her in my heart, when she didn’t ask and she didn’t know.” (From Karianna Frey, Forgiving when you want to burn the world down)
Motherhood is
A prayer breathed out,
A life living out:
Each of them
is worth it.
All of this
is worth it.
From our writers, for your mothers
Looking for a beautiful, thoughtful Mother’s Day gift for someone in your life?
We gathered a huge collection of books from our Mothering Spirit writers to make your gift-giving extra easy!
Check out new releases & special deals from
, , , , , , , , and many more.We’re in awe of all the stages and shades of life and faith they write about—far beyond motherhood, too. (Bonus: you can still get most of these books in time for Sunday!)
Want to write for us?
If any of these upcoming topics speak to you, we’d love to share your prayers, too:
Racism & parenting
Divorce, separation, or single parenting
Prayers about springtime gatherings: baby showers, graduations, weddings, first communions or confirmations
We’re looking for original prayers (previously published on your social media, blog, or other personal site are fine). We always give you full credit/copyright & tag you on our social media when we publish. Email your prayers to newsletter@motheringspirit.com.
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