A Gift for Mom! 🤍

Oh, Momma, so it’s been one of “those days” and it’s only 9:30 in the morning? Your little darlings were up before the sun had a chance to peek its face over the horizon and instead of smiles on their faces, there was grumpiness written all over them? They didn’t want to eat their breakfast, changing their clothes was more of a chore than it should be, and little whiny voices chorus every few minutes? Now, you’re wondering how you are going to make it through this day?

Well, God sees you.

He sees how, instead of a scowl, you put on a smile to great your little ones. He sees you reminding yourself over and over again to be calm and patient. He sees you.

The dishes are piled higher than the Tower of Pisa and that mountain of laundry is high enough to climb and maybe even get lost in. Paperwork is a few weeks (OK months) overdue, and the floors look like they haven’t seen a broom in a fortnight (even though you JUST swept). The crazy thing about all this is YOU CLEAN EVERY SINGLE DAY! No, matter how much you clean, there’s always something that needs doing and catching up on. It’s exhausting and it’s boring.

God sees you.

He sees the little things you do, the mundane, the insignificant parts of homemaking and mothering. He sees when you have a little pep in your step while mopping, but He also sees when you’re overwhelmed because you rarely feel like you can get ahead. He sees the endless dishes, the nonstop meals, the constant cleaning up, and the long tiring days. God sees you and He likes what He sees. He made your hands for making a house a home. He gave you the energy to accomplish the many tasks you have. He gave you a heart for your family and your home. He sees you.

You sigh as another bill comes in the mail. “What are we going to do?” you wonder. One income makes things tight as does feeding and clothing and diapering and schooling so many little people. “Should I go back to work?” You throw the idea around but it never quite settles well. “Should I start a home business?” You wonder where you’ll find extra time. “What about . . . ” You come up with a litany of ideas but most won’t work out one way or another. You feel frustrated and defeated. You feel like you should help bring more incomes into the family but you’re already maxed out with keeping house and training your children and a whole slew of other things.

Momma, God sees you.

He sees what you give up each day to be with your children. He sees the nice house, fancy coffees, and long vacations on the beach that you do without in order to be a homemaker for your family. He sees you. God sees the cringe on your face when people jokingly say, “Being a stay at home mom isn’t a REAL job.” He disagrees. God rejoices to see such work and dedication on behalf of your family and He is honored when you give of yourself so willingly.

 It’s sometimes hard to see what you do as ‘important’. But God does.

You see yourself kissing endless boo-boos.

God sees you raising the future.

You see yourself once again rocking the baby in the middle of the night.

God sees you bringing new life into the world.

You see yourself folding clothes and washing dishes until you’re old and crippled.

God sees you making your home the happiest place on earth for your family.

Momma, God sees you.

So God Made a Grandmother book by Leslie Means

If you liked this, you'll love our book, SO GOD MADE A GRANDMA

Order Now!

Whitney Bougher

Whitney is Momma to three little munchkins ages three and under who always keep her on her toes! She is also a youth pastor's wife, chai tea lover, organizing fanatic, and enjoys a bowl of cookie dough on occasion. You can join her on the Bougher family blog: heartrighthome.wordpress.com

I Lost My Sight at 16—But It Wasn’t the End of My Vision

In: Faith
Cross and sunset

After my father shot me, I lay in a hospital bed, and my world went dark. I was 16 years old. The injury left me completely blind. But the darkness didn’t stop there. As my physical sight disappeared, something else came into focus—the depth of the wounds I had carried long before that moment, wounds I had never fully allowed myself to see. For years, I had learned how to survive without asking too many questions. I had learned how to minimize what hurt, how to explain things away, how to keep moving forward as if everything were normal. But...

Keep Reading

Ministry Starts Inside Your Own Four Walls

In: Faith
Family around a table

When people hear the word ministry, they often think of missionaries, or the pastor who preaches every Sunday, but in our home, ministry belongs to all of us—even our kids. Growing up, I didn’t think of myself as a ministry kid. Still, when my dad packed our old Astro for the summer and we all piled in, we were on mission. Each kid had a part to play in my dad’s evangelical magic shows (yes, you read that right!). My brother would juggle, my older sister sang, my middle sister flipped the projector slides that shone pictures of Jesus on...

Keep Reading

These Holy Small Things

In: Faith, Motherhood
Children sewing at machine

My 8-year-old-daughter has recently taken up sewing, to my simultaneous delight and chagrin. My delight because I too love sewing; my chagrin because her enthusiasm often outpaces my own abilities, namely, in the undertaking of tedious projects with no pattern. Take, for example, the cloth doll diaper we designed and stitched up together. Granted, the design was fairly basic to draw up and scale. But the minuscule nature of the work, both for my hands and head, was enough to throw me into existential questioning. It was one of those moments when you wonder how the sum of your life...

Keep Reading

Life Lessons from My Grown Children

In: Faith, Motherhood
Two women's hands on teacups

“Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.” – Rabindranath Tagore Quietly communing with a loved one in the early morning hours is such an intimate and precious time. Visiting with one’s grown child when all is dark and still is one of life’s purest pleasures. I remember the conversation clearly. My daughter’s husband, small children, and father were all asleep as we whispered and chatted. She and I are both fidgeters by nature, unable to be still for long. This inner restlessness must be remedied, and we are compelled by biology to...

Keep Reading

My Prayer Is Simple Now: “I Believe; Help My Unbelief.”

In: Faith
Woman sitting by water

I have spent most of my life in faith. Not circling it or analyzing it from a distance, but inside it—learning its language before I even realized I was learning it, shaping myself around it in ways that felt as natural as breathing. I was raised in Christian Science, which is a very particular kind of faith. It’s not really about “believing” in the way most people think. It’s about understanding. Aligning your thoughts with what is ultimately true about God and reality. If you can understand rightly, you can be well. If you can see clearly, healing follows. So...

Keep Reading

Your Worth Is Not Someone Else’s To Measure

In: Faith, Living
Woman looking over canyon

Insecurity is something we all carry in one form or another. For me, it has probably always looked confident and outgoing from the outside. But internally, it can feel heavy, complicated, and exhausting at times. And when someone comes along whose behavior reinforces those insecurities, it amplifies what was already there. There was someone I had hoped to genuinely connect with, but it was clear from the start that the feeling wasn’t mutual. From the beginning, their wall was up. No matter how kind I tried to be or how carefully I showed up, it never came down. Their distance...

Keep Reading

Lord, Give Me Faith Like Hannah

In: Faith
Woman walking in field with hand in wheat

Hannah knew what it was like to feel forgotten. She often clutched her empty womb and thought Surely the Lord has forgotten me.  She knew the bitter sting of feeling isolated and alone. She knew the anguish of praying day after day after day and seeing no fruit, not even a bud, from her faithfulness. Hannah knew what it was like to feel like the weight of the world was on her, and her hope may have dwindled. Even those around her did not offer encouragement. Quite the opposite—they did their best to sow seeds of discouragement. Yet Hannah pressed...

Keep Reading

God Carries Me Through the Deep Waters of Change

In: Faith, Living, Motherhood
Woman at the beach as waves come in

“Ahhh!” My underwater scream garbled in my snorkel tube as the manta ray’s cavernous mouth swept a hand’s distance from my face. My fingers tightened around the surfboard until my knuckles ached. My arms trembled. I jerked my head side to side, searching for my daughters, Mia and Megan. Recent college graduates, they had joined me on one last mother-daughter vacation before launching their adult lives. They floated easily on the vibrant Hawaiian water, relaxed, trusting. I wanted to borrow their calm. Earlier, our guide had explained that the LED lights built into the surfboard attracted plankton the way college...

Keep Reading

Faith After a Rare Disease Diagnosis

In: Faith, Motherhood
Family smiling in posed photo

My pastor frequently speaks of “kid pain” and acknowledges there’s nothing like it. I can testify to that. After nine months of uncertainty and unexplained issues following the birth of our now 4-year-old daughter, Harlow, we finally received her diagnosis of Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex Deficiency (PDCD), a life-limiting mitochondrial disease with no cure and no FDA-approved treatments. It was heartbreaking. In moments like these, a parent can fall into complete desperation. You go through a range of emotions almost too fast to name: fear for your child’s life; anxiousness about how much time you’ll get with them; overwhelming grief. And...

Keep Reading

What If I Don’t Hear God’s Voice?

In: Faith
Woman with folded hands looking up

There have been many times over the years when I’ve heard others share stories of how the Lord spoke to them or gave them a sign. Seashells scattered along a sandy beach, numbered to represent how many children they would have. A quiet walk in the park, followed by a clear sense that another little one was coming. What a blessing, I think, when I hear and read their stories. I often wonder how much more faith they must have than I do—to know with such certainty that what they heard was truly God speaking. I listen, I smile, and...

Keep Reading