I wanted to tell you about a devotional I read recently: The Beauty of Motherhood. It’s one I wish I had years ago, but one I now hope to share with new mom friends everywhere. It’s one all moms can use; military mamas, new mamas, tired mamas, mamas walking through grief and loneliness, and those looking for hope and grace.
The Beauty of Motherhood offers plenty of the latter.
The Beauty of Motherhood
This devotional is for moms everywhere. It’s the gift I wish I had in those early days, those first days. Kim and Erin throw open the door to grace and prayer, encouraging it to trickle into your difficult mornings or exhausting nights. This book quietly reminds us of who we are and who we hope to be; for our kids, for ourselves—appointed by our Creator.
Mama.
Contents
Each chapter is marked with scripture and a gracious letter to the reader from Erin or Kim. Their words dance across the pages with compassion and gentleness. The pages contain a scripture, a story, a practice, and a prayer. The prayers at the end of each section are both simple and meaningful. There’s no fluffy language or complex phrasing. Just straightforward, grace-filled words. Each word of this carefully written devotional points us back to Christ while celebrating our role as mothers.
The pages of “The Beautify of Motherhood” turn us to prayer, celebration, remembrance, and stillness.
Kim and Erin do such a wonderful job of speaking to us as friends. As if they are sitting across from us drinking coffee, their words are a balm to the tired mother’s soul. Each page tenderly directs us to the cross.
You won’t find any in-your-face advice or negativity here, just grace upon grace.
The stories they share are sincere and relatable, from infancy to childhood.
I quickly found myself smiling and reflecting alongside them. Their stories contain sibling relationships, new mom anxieties, everyday grace, and patience with our children. Each section details both the good and the hard that motherhood offers us, while gently leading us back to our Creator. They take us along to appointments, little victories, trying to conceive, as they grapple with guilt, grief, and identity shifts. Kim and Erin beautifully display the trials and lessons we have or will all go through in motherhood. Throughout The Beauty of Motherhood, the authors take our hand and walk alongside us, leading us in reflection and prayer.
On page 69, Erin writes, “My arms cradle his body and we sway back and forth, back and forth in the darkness. Jesus take away his pain, I pray silently. Then I add, Mine too. I’m so exhausted, I’m on the verge of tears myself. I love my son with all my heart, but in moments like this, when his needs threaten to break me, another part of me wants to run away, back to a time when sleep came easy, and I didn’t have to tend to a tiny human.”
In the Beauty of Motherhood, Erin so vividly describes every mom everywhere caring for their sick child in the middle of the night. Our feelings, our prayers. Our struggle to mother and care for our child while also needing care ourselves. How is motherhood so often feeling two things at once?
Erin goes on to say, “For now, I hum the melody of ‘God Is So Good’ into my son’s ear, his fluttering eyelids and gentle sigh promise enough that miracles happen every day, and I can rest in this beauty, this small crack of light.”
In the afterword, Kim and Erin conclude;
“The beauty of motherhood is yours
In this moment and stage,
In your worry, pride, love, and rage,
In cutting veggies and grapes,
In kissing cuts and scrapes,
In building Legos and blocks,
In playing with bubbles and chalk,
In rocking children to sleep,
In all the memories you keep.
Let these words remind you
As you grapple in faith
You’re never alone,
You’re drenched in God’s grace.
The call to mother—
A challenge and a treasure
Bestowing you with the name forever:
Mama.”
The Beauty of Motherhood points the reader over and over again to the “crack of light,” reminding us that God is present always—in the struggles, in the late nights, in the stillness and sickness, and guilt and grief.
You can find The Beauty of Motherhood on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Target.
Needing some other book suggestions? Check out some other reading recommendations from the team here and here!
