Hi Friends! Mom Life Unscripted premiered on Focus on the Family’s YouTube channel this week, and the response has been super encouraging. I’m sharing a quick recap with some links today, but I also have a little request: If mom life stuff isn’t your thing, please don’t unsubscribe! I love our email friend group, and I promise it won’t be “all moms all the time” in the months to come. In fact, I have a half-written post about how God meets our desires and our unmet longings in ways that go far beyond what we think we are asking. I can’t wait to finish that one and share it with you next month!
But for those who DO want to know more about navigating life with toddlers, teens, and kids in their twenties (and beyond), I want to be sure you get looped in for the good stuff.
Episode 1 featured Alexa PenaVega, a beautiful actress, author, and mom. She talked about the reality of heaven (an awareness made all the more poignant after the loss of their baby daughter), the peace and joy that come with surrender, and the fact that we’ll never be “Christian enough” for some people and we’ll always be “too Christian” for others, so we need to just look at God and say: “Where do you want me, Lord? How do you want me using my voice?”
At the end of each episode, you’re invited to click the link in the YouTube description to access a collection of scripture prayers you can use to pray for yourself and your children. The prayers come in three different forms: Printable cards to keep in your purse or your journal, screen savers you can use on your phone (a great reminder to pray all day long!), and a one-page sheet that has all six prayers in one place (I taped mine by my coffee pot).
We’ll have new prayers each week, available just for the asking. Click this link for all the details, or just text MOM to 32728 and you’re in!
This coming Monday, I talk with Alyssa Bethke, who wrote a terrific book called When Doing it All is Undoing You (is that a great title or what?). Just like you’d expect from a mom who knows what it’s like to “do it all,” Alyssa showed up on set, pregnant with her fourth child, less than three weeks shy of her due date:
Alyssa got right to the heart of a lot of the mom life wrestle: Figuring out what we can control (and what we can’t). Being okay with a kitchen (or a life!) that doesn’t look like a Pinterest board. Knowing that the hidden moments of our lives – the seasons when we feel unseen, or like we don’t have much to show for ourselves – can be the times when God is actually doing his best work.
It was a rich conversation, punctuated by laughter and at least one “what if” when Alyssa wondered what would happen if she went into labor, right there on the show. What if her water broke?
Truth be told, that would have been a relatively calm scenario, compared to what actually happened. I won’t steal their thunder, other than to say that never have I ever heard a more incredible childbirth story. If you have Instagram, check out @JeffersonBethke and read his account of the baby’s arrival. If you don’t use that platform, well. Just picture a driveway-turned-delivery-room, a 12-year-old midwife, and a MacGyver-esque neighbor who just needed a shoelace.
(All is well…mama is fine…and baby Jayden is absolutely beautiful and utterly worthy of one of the best birth stories every told!)
Phew! Mom life is never dull!
I hope you’ll join us next week (or jump in anytime; that’s the beauty of YouTube). I promise I’ll keep working on that post about God showing up and exceeding our unmet longings, but for now, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite prayers for times when you feel under attack, out of control, or just like you don’t know which way is up in your parenting journey:
Heavenly Father,
I don’t know what to do but my eyes are on you. (2 Chronicles 12:20)
Amen
