Blog - Jodie Berndt

Mom Life: Watch, Print, ScreenSave, and Share!

02.14.2025

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

Mom Life Unscripted: A new show for you!

02.06.2025

Friends! I’m popping (popping!) into your inbox today with some exciting news. Next Monday, February 10, Focus on the Family will begin airing weekly episodes of a new show called Mom Life Unscripted with Jodie & Friends.

Each week, I’ll talk with another mom about the wonderful, messy, challenging, beautiful adventure of MOTHERHOOD.

Our first guest is probably better known for her movies than her mothering (I loved her as Carmen Cortez in Spy Kids; now she’s making good-clean-fun films for grown-ups), but Alexa PenaVega opens up about her family and the joys and heartaches she has walked through as a mom, including the devastating loss of their daughter, Indy, and the ways she and her husband Carlos have prioritized family life in an entertainment industry that is not built to sustain healthy marriages.

Celebrity spotlight aside, I’ve been thinking a lot about the challenges we face as moms (and grandmoms). How do we know what’s best for our child? Where do we turn when we grow weary, or when we feel overwhelmed? What can we do to cultivate more patience and kindness in our parenting? The Bible talks about all of these things and, to celebrate the release of Mom Life Unscripted, I wove those thoughts together with some of my favorite verses to create A Mother’s Prayer.

This printable PDF, designed especially for our email community, covers everything from the wisdom we need to the worries we carry as we ask God to bless and protect our families. Click here to download the prayer and print it for yourself (and feel free to share this email with another mom who might want to join our friend group).

Where do I watch Mom Life Unscripted?

And now for the question that everyone’s asking: Where do I watch Mom Life Unscripted?

That’s a great question, actually, and one that it’s taken Yours Truly more than a minute to comprehend. Mom Life Unscripted will air on Focus on the Family’s flagship YouTube channel, which means you can watch on your phone, your computer, or (if you’re tech savvy like my husband) on your TV. If you want to be notified when each new episode drops, click this link and then click again where it says “Notify Me.”

The episodes are sized just right for busy moms (about 20 minutes each), but they’re chock full of encouraging stories and practical wisdom for navigating life in the trenches of motherhood. Plus, every show wraps with an invitation to access a collection of prayer resources specific to each episode, free downloads you can use as you trust God to accomplish his best purposes in your family’s life.

And with that little teaser, I’ll leave you with my favorite line from Spy Kids, one that Alexa (aka “Carmen”) delivers near the end of the film:

Spy work, that’s easy. Keeping a family together, that’s difficult. And that’s the mission worth fighting for.

Mom Life can feel like a battle, but it’s worth it. Hang in there, friends!

❤️

And P.S., if you want to rephrase the Spy Kids line as a prayer, you’ll find a parallel sentiment in Nehemiah 4:14. Here’s how this verse looks when we turn it into a prayer:

Heavenly Father,

When we feel exhausted and under attack, don’t let us be afraid. Instead, may we remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for our families, our sons and our daughters, our homes.

Amen

The Power of Endurance: Hang in There, Friend

01.27.2025

Do you have a word of the year for 2025? I don’t. But as we prepare to flip the calendar over to February, I (finally) know what word I’d pick to describe 2024. My 2024 word is endurance.

I’m not sure, exactly, when “endurance” became the refrigerator hum for the year. Maybe it was when I taught a Bible Study on James, who says we should consider it “pure joy” when we face all kinds of trials. The way James 1:2-4 tells it, the painful stuff we go through tests our faith and produces perseverance (aka “endurance”), which ultimately makes us mature and complete. Perfect, some versions say. Well-developed. Lacking in nothing.

Truth be told, I wasn’t sure I needed (or wanted) to be mature and complete. Not if it meant having to go through—having to endure—things like sickness, financial hardship, or complicated relationships. Don’t get me wrong; I know suffering can produce good things in our lives—things like compassion, humility, and even a more resilient faith. But as I considered the gut-punching pain some dear friends were waking up to every day, I wondered if those promised benefits might ring a bit hollow. “I’m not sure these gals need more compassion or a stronger faith,” I said to the Lord. “What I think they need is to have their marriage restored. Their cancer gone. Their son to come home.”

That was my take on my friends’ suffering. Remarkably, though, they had a different perspective.

None of them looked or sounded joyful, at least not the way I would describe joy. All of them shared their stories through tears, both angry and sad. But even in their heartache, they were all holding on, standing firm in their faith. And they said they were open to joy.

“I’m not there yet,” the youngest confided. “I can see how God has prepared me, and how he’s provided friends to give me counsel and comfort, but I’ve never felt this level of sadness before.

“But,” she continued, “this ache is revealing a new side of Jesus, because I’ve never needed his comfort like this before. I’ve never needed this Jesus before.”

God can handle our doubts and our questions

My young friend’s words all but undid me. She was discovering a deeper connection with Jesus as a result of her suffering, one that was transforming her faith—shaping her character and glowing her up—just like James promised. Having read somewhere that every painful experience can become a portal to intimacy with God, I went back to James to learn more about the power of endurance.

Near the end of his letter, James offers three real-life examples of what it looks like to be patient in suffering: The farmer (who has to wait for his crop), the prophets (many of whom endured ridicule, rejection, and physical pain), and Job.

Job? The guy who lost his wealth, his health, and even his children?

Not to get all testy about it, but if I am God and I want people to want to endure—to want to hang in there, when everything seems like it’s coming undone—I feel like I might pick a better, more appealing, character study. Noah, maybe, having to spend all that time shut up in the ark. Or Joseph, innocent but forgotten in prison. Almost anybody but Job, whose story only gets happy a few verses before it is over.

But the more I considered Job’s life (and processed insights from folks like Tim Keller, Warren Wiersbe, and Eugene Peterson), the more I realized that Job is actually a great role model for us when it comes to endurance. Here’s why:

Job didn’t bear his immense suffering with a stiff upper lip. He cursed the day he was born, wishing he had died as a baby. He questioned God (“Why have you made me your target?”). He got frustrated and confused when God didn’t answer.

And, through it all, he kept going.

Like the psalmist who cries How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?, Job never stopped praying. He didn’t walk away from his faith or turn his back on the Lord; he kept talking, even when God remained silent. And Job never pulled away from community—not even when his “friends” showed up to provide comfort, only to spend their days telling him what he must have done wrong.

Job didn’t retreat. Instead, he held fast to his faith, staking his trust in what he knew to be true about God:

“If I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.

But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”

God knows the way that we take.

I have that passage—Job 23:8-10—starred in my Bible. It’s a comfort and an anchor when I feel unseen, or when I have no idea what God is up to. It serves as a testimony to the power of endurance in the hard seasons, a reminder to keep doing the things that we did when life was happy and fun: Talk to God, go to church, stick close to our friends instead of pulling away or tucking into our shell like a uncertain turtle.

As Richard Foster put it in his book, Prayer, “What we learned to do in the light of God’s love, we also do in the dark of God’s absence.”

Put one foot in front of the other

I was still teasing out my thoughts on endurance, pondering the promise of passages like Romans 5:3-5 (which traces the pathway from suffering to hope and highlights the role of endurance), when I found myself in Hawaii last December. Not to go to the beach (although the chairs and umbrellas looked mighty inviting), but to join a few friends for a marathon.

As in, a 26.2 mile marathon.

To be clear, the event organizers said we could walk the whole thing; the idea was to promote movement and fitness at every level. Still, though. Doing a marathon—at any pace—was never really on my bucket list, and I found myself, around mile 18, wondering what I had gotten myself into. It was hot (a factor we hardly noticed, since it was so humid), the course was not flat (which came as a surprise), and—truth be told—my longest training run leading up to the race was only eight miles. Because honestly. Who has time to run (or worse, walk) longer than that?

“Endurance.”

I sensed the Lord whisper that one little word as I eyeballed mile-marker 19 in the distance. Had I not been so focused on finding the next water station, I might have actually laughed out loud. Here was God, telling me to keep going. To remember the wisdom from James. To simply do what I’d been doing since the start of the race and just put one foot in front of the other.

As it was, I did not laugh. Instead, I reached into my fanny pack and pulled out the card my fitness-guru friend Alisa had given me the night before.

Psalm 55:22. “Cast your cares on the Lord, and he will sustain you.”

Could there be a more beautiful promise—mid-marathon, mid-marriage crumble, mid-health crisis, or mid-anything?

When the hard seasons come—the times when putting one foot in front of the other feels like all we can do—consider the fact that that might be enough. God never asks us to carry our burdens alone; he doesn’t even ask us to pull half the weight. Instead, he invites us to let the hard things in our lives slide off our shoulders and onto his.

Hang in there, friend.

You might not see God in your season of suffering, but he knows the way that you take. ❤️

Top Ten Favorite Things + a Black Friday GIVEAWAY

11.29.2024

We all have our favorite things, and I imagine your inbox is chock full of ideas on Black Friday. I’m all for sharing gift ideas that we love—and you’ll find my Top Ten in this post—but first…

Let’s do a Black Friday Book Giveaway!

These three lovelies released this year, and they’ve quickly become some of my go-to favorites from the bookshelf:

Sara Hagerty’s The Gift of Limitations is for anyone who’s feeling defeated or weary (or who just has too much laundry, too many bills, and too many open tabs on her browser). With the wisdom and empathy of a trusted friend, Sara takes us by the hand and shows us how to exchange our thoughts for God’s so that, instead of being a burden, our weaknesses can become a wonder-full part of our stories. (As a 62-year-old grandma, I devoured this book; my 30-year-old daughter is loving it too!)

Jeannie Cunnion’s Closer to God is a beautifully designed devotional that’s perfect for anyone who wants to experience God’s soul-refreshing, tangible presence in everyday life—but isn’t sure how that happens, exactly. With 40 different (short) readings and prompts to spur reflection and prayer, this is a bedside table book you can return to again and again. And psst…this one makes a great hostess gift or stocking stuffer; Jeannie writes about deep stuff in a shallow-ish way (which I mean as high compliment).

And finally, Alyssa Bethke’s When Doing it All is Undoing You is one of those books where you read the title and, next thing you know, you’ve hit “add to cart.” This one’s for the gal who loves to control circumstances, manage outcomes, and hold everything together—and then wrestles with a sense of disillusionment when life doesn’t look like like she thought it would. Is there a better way? Yes, indeed!

Again, all three of these beauties are in the book bundle. We’re hosting the giveaway on my Instagram page and I’ll announce the winner on Sunday. But…there’s a catch: You can’t KEEP them all if you win. ‘Tis the season for sharing our favorite things, and in order to enter the giveaway, you have to tag TWO FRIENDS with whom you will share the books. Two for your friends; one for you. (Which is, I know, how a lot of us shop.) 😉

Speaking of friends…

These are a few of my favorite things

I found myself at an early Christmas party this year, one where everyone was asked to bring one of their “favorite things” for a gift swap. We didn’t steal from one another; instead, the hostess read a poem that came with instructions like, “Santa comes when the kids are in bed; pass your gift to someone wearing red.” It was all very civilized and nobody got hurt.

And people’s gift ideas were super creative! Folks showed up with everything from a pair of gold earrings and some must-have moisturizer to a basket stuffed with all the fixings for espresso martinis.

Me? Well, I took the invitation quite literally and brought my actual new favorite thing. It’s this walking vest, and (like almost everything else in this Top Ten list) it’s something I use pretty much every day.

Truth be told, the walking vest was NOT the most popular gift at the party. In fact, I’m pretty sure people thought I was joking. But then the Wall Street Journal ran a piece about the bone-density benefits of sporting such a stylish apparatus, and my phone started blowing up with people wanting the link, and to know how heavy a vest they should order. (The answer, experts say, is 5-10% of your body weight).

Gift idea #2 is just as valuable (at least for those of us who take coffee seriously). I’m a latte girl on a home-coffee budget, and this milk frother makes even the most ho-hum coffee taste like it came from a legit barista:

3. My friend Emilie recommended these little candles. They burn for twenty minutes (think Swiss watch in wax form), and they’ve helped keep me focused when I want to pray, read my Bible, or just sit in solitude for a bit as I lean into God.

4. You may remember me writing—and raving—about my three-year-plan to read the whole Bible. I’m on the home stretch now, and Search the Scriptures has been the best traveling companion a reader could want. The book comes with do-able reading portions, plus introductions to each section and daily questions add to your understanding. (Pro-tip: I took the book to FedEx and had them chop it into three different volumes and spiral-bind each. Makes it easier to tuck into a purse or suitcase!)

5. Okay so, Jesus didn’t journal (that we know of), so if you are not a journal-person, don’t let anybody guilt you about that. But if you ARE a journal lover (or if you think you might be), the Growth Book is, hands-down, the best spiritual resource I have ever used. Visit the Growth Roots Co. website to discover all the features tucked into this gem (and check out the new colors while you are there!).

6. Pens. Can pens be a love language? I think they might be. My current obsession are these black-ink “jotter pens” from Emily Lex; they write so smooooooth and feature different words like delight, celebrate, and (my favorite) abide…

…and if you’re a gal who likes to color-code notes or draw in your journal, this fun pack from LePen pairs perfectly with the Growth Book—no ink bleeding through or smearing on the page!

7. This tomato knife. My shopping-genius friend Michelle gifted this knife to me; if you like your tomatoes sliced straight and thin, you’ll want one too! (And psst – they come in a six-pack if you want to gift one to all of your Proverbs 27:17 friends!)

8. Our family is not a “game” family, but I want us to be—and Priorities was a definite crowd pleaser this year. The object is to guess how someone will “prioritize” five different cards and then spell P-R-I-O-R-I-T-I-E-S before “the house” does. Lot of laughs and (because you’re all on the same team) hardly any fighting.

9. And (almost) finally, in what might be the clearest sign yet that I’m moving up the rungs on Santa’s Nice List, I brought the weighted vest to the Favorite Things party (with a side of the 20-minute candles so that the gift would be good for body and soul) and, when all of the swapping and re-swapping was done, I somehow wound up with these:

These splurge-worthy hand towels from Weezie Towels have upgraded our Christmas game like no other decor. They are soft and useful and oh-so-pretty, and everyone who comes to my house this year is going to be more than a little impressed. (Thank you, Molly.)

And gift idea #10? Well…you all know I am not a great shopper, but I know a good deal when I see one. And when the publisher emailed to let me know that Praying the Scriptures for Your Children had been selected as an Amazon special on Black Friday Week, I knew I had to let you know.

Seriously. Never have I ever seen the book priced so low. Stock up on baby gifts, or grab a few copies and plan to pray for your kids with some friends in the new year (and you can use this free printable study guide on your own or in a larger group). But hop to it, cuz this price won’t last long!

Here’s hoping you enjoy at least one of my favorite things. Happy shopping—and don’t forget to tag two friends in the book bundle giveaway on my Instagram page.

(And for those of you who are like me and find yourself a little bit stressed out on Black Friday, can I just leave you with one of my favorite “Help me, God” prayers? This one’s from 2 Chronicles 20:12: We don’t know what to do, Lord, but our eyes are on you.)

Grateful for all of you!

❤️

Advent Adoration Calendar to Give Thanks and Praise

11.26.2024

Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. That’s Psalm 145:2, and if my DMs and emails are any indication, you all are READY to give thanks and praise God this holiday season. Specifically, you are asking me to re-share the Advent Adoration calendar and honestly? That makes my heart sing!

The Advent Adoration calendar is a printable resource we created several years ago for our email community, and pulling it out every year has become one of my most-beloved Christmas traditions.

Whether you’re looking to banish anxiety, access God’s presence with praise, or you just want a little motivation to live out Psalm 145:2 and praise God every day (as in, on the good days and the ones that feel iffy), this DIY Advent Adoration Calendar can help. Each day features a different attribute of God—He is our Protector, our Counselor, the God who is Able, etc.—with a corresponding Bible verse to help move our hearts away from things like worry and fear and towards adoration, thanksgiving, peacefulness, and praise.

I’d planned to tuck the printable into a post on my “Favorite Things” (look for that later this week), but it occurred to me that some (all?) of us might have our hands full this week, so the sooner you got this one in your in-box, the better!

Click here to download the cards, then just print and cut. (I used heavy card stock and a paper cutter, but any old paper-and-scissors combo will do.) And if you’re looking for a new twist on the “name one thing you are grateful for” convo at Thanksgiving, consider gifting a set of the cards to everyone at the table—and maybe even talking about God’s attributes and how you’ve witnessed his protection, wisdom, compassion, or whatever this year.

Party favor, done!

Happy Thanksgiving!

xo – Jodie

P.S. Advent officially starts this Sunday, December 1. Day 1 reminds us that God is FAITHFUL. As you display your cards – whether it’s on a mantle, in a window, tucked into the boughs of your Christmas tree (I’ve seen it done!), or just in a stack by your bed – maybe take a few minutes (on your own, or with your spouse or a child) to reflect: Where have you experienced God’s faithfulness this year?