Intentionally seeking out evidence of God’s grace—in ourselves, our children, and even our circumstances—is a powerful and practical way to battle discouragement in motherhood.

In the daily tending, weeding, and pruning of motherhood, we can point to the faithful Gardener who keeps and cultivates us too—from Eden into eternity.

When we’re craving comfort as moms, God pours it out on us abundantly through his people, his Word, and his very nature.

Christ offers us the truest rest and deepest relief for our exhaustion that we can’t find anywhere else.

We’re not meant to shoulder the burdens of motherhood ourselves—Jesus offers us rest.

When motherhood humbles us, we can look to God to raise us up.

What happens when we feel more like we’re wilting than blooming in motherhood? We remember God is our strong helper, and we trust him with the blooming fruit.

No doubt about it, motherhood leaves us weary. We know it. We feel it deep in our bones. Jesus came to give us the ultimate rest we need.

Motherhood is one of the hardest jobs in the world, but it’s also one of the greatest ways we can learn to throw ourselves completely at the feet of Jesus.

Being a mom often means being up in the middle of the night. If God ordained every minute you spend awake in the nighttime, are these moments gifts of grace?

I’m sleep deprived. You probably are, too.

I’m sleep deprived because we have a four-year-old son who struggles with sleep due to disability. You might be sleep deprived because of an infant or a toddler or a teenager or hormone problems or anxiety or never-ending piles of work or too many Netflix binges.

...I’ve heard all the admonitions about how we’re not God and how sleeping is recognizing our dependence on him. I couldn’t agree more. I agree with my whole heart, even as I beg God to allow me the privilege of those precious hours of dependence each night. But sometimes he says no to the sleep we long for and he asks us to depend on him in a different way. 

...Ask God to make his fruit overflow at all times and in all circumstances, so that we can say with Paul that we know how to be brought low and how to abound, in little sleep and much, and it’s not by negating all the effects of sleeplessness. It’s by being content in him and slogging through the fog with kindness.

"The fog of physical exhaustion, emotional weariness, and feelings of constant failure didn’t lift for at least the first year... I simply wasn’t myself; I felt like a hollow shell of a person. I didn’t enjoy being around people, was increasingly short-tempered...The difference was Postpartum Depression...

For those of you in the throws of PPD...You can rest. It isn’t solely up to you to fix yourself - physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Healing takes time. But as you wait, know God is working on your behalf...

By God’s grace, you can be honest with your husband, open with friends, and seek the counsel of medical professionals, boasting all the more gladly of your weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon you. 

Postpartum depression can’t separate you from the love of God, friend (Romans 8:39). Because of the reconciling power of the gospel for believers, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).

Even when you’re hurting, trust the gospel’s prescription for your heart and the healing comfort of his nearness."