The Brave Art Of MotherhoodSample

Embracing Your Story

Last year I was in Washington, D.C., standing in the front of a room, holding a mic, speaking to a roomful of moms. As I gazed around the room at all the women looking for a word of hope, at all the moms pushing little ones in strollers in the back, at the women daring to dream, I decided to veer from my set script and tell them what was on my heart.

I shared a story of a mom who had seven kids and had the IRS knocking on her door. This mom had less than fifteen dollars in her checking account, but she also had a dream, a target of change, and an old netbook computer her parents had given her for Christmas. 

I told those moms how she started to write, to dare to be real, and to spread a bit of hope. I spoke about how she suffered through a divorce and lost everything, yet in the losing, she found herself again. I explained how she got knocked down and how she stood back up, over and over. 

I shared how she found happiness again.

I shared how she made a new agreement about worth.

And then I introduced that room of moms to the mom of my story. Me.

Tears fell freely that afternoon. But they weren’t tears of sadness; they were tears of hope. I took a risk to voice my story and found a bond with a roomful of women who also wanted the realness of hope. We all knew our fight; we knew we weren’t alone. 

I realized in that moment that my story has worth.

Yours does too.

Embrace your story. Share it with others. 

And cling to the hope that comes out of it.

I pray that this devotional will be part of a new story beginning for you. I pray that as you read, you will discover the agreements you’ve made about yourself, the excuses you give, and why your reality is what it is. But it doesn’t have to be what it is. If you dare, if you decide to walk this path, to disrupt patterns that keep you stuck, all while in the midst of motherhood, I can guarantee you that your future will be different. That is the brave art of motherhood. 

What are you most afraid of today? What is your greatest hope today?