The Beauty of Motherhood

In two weeks my book, The Beauty of Motherhood: Grace-Filled Devotions for the Early Years, will be released. 

It’s surreal to think that this book will be born so soon, and, to follow the birthing metaphor, the exhaustion of expectation has set in. I’m overjoyed and terrified. I’m still finishing up a few more things that need to be done before the (book) baby arrives. Everything aches, literally and figuratively. 

Indeed just yesterday I came down with a dreadful set of chills, undoubtedly passed along by my sweet — but sickly — kindergartener. At bedtime, I shivered in bed under a stack of blankets, sipping tea and ruminating over the many emails I had yet to answer and the title of our book. Why had we decided on The *Beauty* of Motherhood again?

“Beauty” was the last word I’d use to describe motherhood at the moment. Overwhelming, yes. Crushing, yes. But beautiful? Well, I wasn’t feeling it after a day of struggling to care for my kids and barely hanging on to health myself. This led to an angsty journal session from which the following prayer emerged:

Dear God,

There are messes 
upon messes in this house,
the baby and I are playing an epic game
of spill or save the dog’s water bowl
(for the record, I’m losing 3:1),
my oldest is home sick from school
and passed his cough onto me… 
I confess, on days like this, I count 
the hours until bedtime, I fantasize
about being anywhere but here
(Hawaii sounds nice, don’t you think?)
I need a prayer to snap 
me out of this funk.

After bedtime, instead of praying,
I open my photo app on my phone and see
life more clearly
how my oldest wrapped
his arms around his baby brother
in the kiddie cart at the grocery store,
how my baby isn’t much of a baby anymore,
he’s toddling
here – there – everywhere

and, I forgot to take a picture, but a few days ago my oldest lost 
a tooth and found he could read Go Dog Go on his own
and you know I took a picture of that (!),

I took a picture of light cascading 
through the trees when we visited the playground,
I took a picture of my shadow while I held
my youngest, his weight pressing
against me,

Thank you for this weight, O God,
for this humbling, holy call
for the privilege to nurture my children

Let me taste it all — their sweetness and sourness
Let me embrace it all — our messes and our milestones
Let me hear it all — the cacophony and melody of grace
in their small voices

Let me feel 
the beauty of motherhood
again.

Amen.

My friend Kim and I wrote The Beauty of Motherhood for every mama searching for spiritual refreshment while raising young children. As moms in the thick of the early years, we’re acutely aware that the messages of grace we crafted for readers’ growth are words we still need to hear — daily.

Because we know motherhood manifests in a variety of ways and thus, our stories are limited, we encouraged our reader to share her story, too. I adore connecting with other mothers through storytelling, and so, to both raise awareness of our book and elevate the stories of other mothers whose backgrounds contrast ours, my coauthor Kim and I organized a Writing Tour for The Beauty of Motherhood. Over the course of this March and April, mothers in our network whose voices we admire will respond to the prompt, What does the beauty of motherhood look like in your life? Our first writers will debut their stories this week. 

Kim and I will be sharing these stories on social media, and you can follow along on Instagram with me (@erinstrybis) and Kim (@kknowlezeller) and #thebeautyofmotherhood. All are welcome to join in this writing tour, simply tag us when you write and we’ll share with our networks. At the close of the series we’ll offer a concluding post that links to each story.

Learn more about The Beauty of Motherhood and preorder your copy here.