Hope When Motherhood Is Hard: A 5 Day Devotional Намуна

We, moms, can be hyper-aware of the challenges our children face. We can be faithful to pray for them and even ask others to pray for them. But we still might not realize how deeply our children’s pain impacts us. However, acknowledging how suffering related to motherhood touches us personally is often an important step toward experiencing God’s comfort in the tender spaces of our hearts. When we recognize our trials for what they are and call out for God’s help in them, we find that while affliction is real, God’s comfort is real too.

Maybe a family member told you that your hard circumstance isn’t so bad or that it’s all in your head, suggesting that you just need to get over it and move on. It’s possible a well-meaning friend tried offering solutions to make a difficult situation better when you first needed her to sympathize and say, “I’m so very sorry.” You could be the woman who looks around at her friends and secretly feels discouraged because their challenges seem more difficult and they seem so strong, and yet you feel stuck in your trial. Or maybe you’ve been ignoring a hardship, hoping it will go away, not recognizing the toll it’s taking on you and your family.

We mothers experience the real effects of living in a sin-torn land. However good our intentions might be, ignoring those trials or denying their reality is a far cry from trusting God in them. Ignoring or denying them hinders the healing process and makes us prone to increased temptation to sin and more vulnerable to believing Satan’s lies. At the very least, doing so promotes a false sense of self-sufficiency and keeps us blind to our dependence on the Lord and our Christian brothers and sisters. But humbly acknowledging our suffering and pain, coupled with calling out to God, positions us to receive the comfort he offers.

Reflection Questions

1. Is every kind of suffering that you or I experience causally related to the arrival and impact of sin in our fallen world? Read Romans 8:20–23.

2. What affliction—or afflictions—do you currently face for which you could use God’s comfort?

3. Is there someone the Lord is bringing to mind whom you could comfort today?