We are soul-hungry

"I hear God wailing with us..waiting with us."

This week on Mothering Spirit

Ellie Roscher’s essay will stay with you, a stunning story of love and suffering from her son’s first days till now.

“And it is now, looking back, that I think I might be able to feel God holding us all—me, my baby, the nurse, his daughter, Mathias, the fifty-seven children and their parents. I hear God wailing with us. I sense God waiting with us. I experience God as the love that meets us in our primal, shattered weeping, rocking each of us at the cadence of our innermost, infinite rhythm.”

Read the rest here, fitting words for right now: The God of Wailing and Rocking.

Ashley Holston offers words for pregnancy after loss that speak to anyone who has struggled to trust God:

Because you’re clear-eyed about it all, no rose-colored glasses. You really have no idea where this road will lead.

Because you really believe God is faithful.

Because you really believe God is good.

Because you really believe God withholds no good thing. No good thing.

Because sometimes you have to work out your belief when it is wavering.

Read the whole prayer here: Why Taking Prenatal Vitamins is An Act of Faith.

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This Week’s Recommendation

Each Friday we feature more work from our writers. This week we shared an excerpt from Jenni Ho-Huan’s book, Be Still and Know: Treasures from Silence to Transform Your Life:

Our lives are now larger and more complex than they used to be. To hold steady, have clarity and the true power of a life well-lived, we need a large and deep substructure, one able to hold up the superstructure. This is not only urgent; it is essential to our wellbeing. For not only are we busy, we are buried by a tsunami of information, interests and invitations. There is always something more to know, do, explore, get wise about.

We are soul-hungry, wearied and desperate. Even the digital natives are finding that virtual soil is poor soil, without real nourishment.

Thus overloaded, the gift of the present moment is often the one we leave unwrapped as we are preoccupied with the next moment or the ones that are past.

Why are we so distracted from attending to the present moment we have, when it is the precise point of our agency and power? It’s important to learn to be fully present to the moment. The ability to be fully present comes as we grow the muscle to resist the tyranny of the urgent. It deepens as we experience the ever-present God and His love transforms all our moments—mundane or ecstatic. God touches the present moment and fills it with value, delight and promise.

Read the whole excerpt here: Be Still and Know.

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 Claudia Campbell (@claudiarcampbell on Instagram):

Sometimes I wish I could feel Jesus more quickly in the aftermath of an upside down morning.

When the kids tell you 5 minutes before they’re supposed to leave for school they don’t want the school lunch, and you realize you have no bread so you pivot and make pasta.

When you taste the pasta after they leave and realize you forgot the salt.

When you look at the stack of dishes in the sink left over from last night.

When you ignore the dishes to just sit for a minute, because you’re overwhelmed after a morning where autism won yet another round.

When you pray as you sit, that throughout the day your kids will feel Jesus too.

But as I looked through the chaos, while I’m not sure I started to feel Him right away, I started to see Him.

I see Jesus when I look through the stash of old lunch notes, as I recycle since I don’t have time to write a new one.

I see Jesus as I stir, with strength that can only come from Him after fighting through a morning of physical pain.

I see Jesus as I pack their lunches, knowing that their very lives are such a reminder of His faithfulness.

And the more I see Him, I’m reminded of what I know to be true. He is with me, always.

The thing is, I have to prioritize what I know above what I feel. Because most days, my feelings are all over the place and frankly, it takes them time to catch up to the truth.

I packed a whole lot of Jesus in their lunch box today. I pray they see Him. I pray they know He’s there. And I really hope they can feel Him too.

For this I prayed.

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