Hope for Weary Moms: A 5-Day Devotional Sample

We all have a chore we greatly dislike. It’s something we do for the good of the family, but we’d be willing to do almost anything else. For me, that chore is grocery shopping. I’d rather clean my son’s bathroom. And that’s saying something!

One afternoon I headed to the grocery store to do my weekly shopping, dreading the chore before me. By the time I parked the car, I was throwing a mom-sized tantrum—a pity-party for one. I felt weary spiritually, emotionally, and physically, and I was sick and tired of constantly taking care of everyone else. I could only think of me, me, and me.

Inside the store, I trudged down the aisles, filling my cart with groceries and my mind with grumbling and complaining. I’m beyond exhausted. I never get a break. I can’t do all my family needs me to do. I have nothing left to give. There’s no end in sight. I can’t keep doing this.

Then, God got my attention. As I approached the check-out lane, I saw an elderly woman in her eighties. She inched along slowly, her sweater hanging loosely on her bent frame, and her shopping cart serving as her support. But what caught my eye were the minimal contents of her cart. One package of lunch meat, a cheap loaf of bread, a couple apples, and a single quart of milk.

I stared at her cart and then mine. The contrast couldn’t have been greater. My shopping cart screamed that my house was full. Her cart whispered that it would not always be this way. Before me stood a woman who I imagined once pushed a cart like mine, and in that moment, I realized someday I would push a cart like hers.

I suddenly had a new-found perspective. This season of weariness isn’t because I’m cursed—it’s because I’m blessed. I have children in my home, but one day they’ll be gone. And oh, how I’ll long for the days of full shopping carts!

Weary mother, it was God’s grace in the grocery aisle that taught me this—that our sacrificial mothering is not only his kindness to our children but to us as well. The Lord has given us this challenging season of life for our own blessing and sanctification, both to experience the joys of motherhood and to learn to depend upon him in every circumstance.

Motherhood is a long journey that requires incalculable love, strength, and perseverance. We often feel inadequate. And you know what? We are! We, in and of ourselves, are insufficient for the task, but this is our sure hope: God is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Eph. 3:20). If you have trusted in Christ, who died and rose again for your sins, with the same confidence you can set your hope on him to provide you with his power to serve and love your children well.