Finding Joy in the Truths of Motherhood with Valerie Woerner [Episode 72]

Valerie is a mother of two girls and creator of a Prompt and Prayer Journal and author of a book, Grumpy Mom Takes a Holiday. We talk about God's will, fighting the lies about motherhood that the world gives, and how to start adjusting our thinking during our days. Key Points from this Episode: Dance to shake out the grumpiness in the mornings. We are stronger than we think we are with the help of God. “When ours [our plans] are interrupted, His are not. His plans are proceeding exactly as scheduled, moving us always (including those minutes or hours or years which seem most useless or wasted or unendurable) ‘toward the goal of true maturity’ (Rom 12:2).” - Elisabeth Elliot Trust that worthy things we want to do will get done, even if it's not in the time frame we expect, or we will learn it isn't what God wants us to be doing. We don't need to add extra drama to our lives. We need to be real about motherhood. We cannot do motherhood for the praise. Our challenging moments in our days are just that - moments. Rehashing the hard times just forces our minds to dwell on those negative things rather than embracing and focusing on the positive that has happened. We can give our children a safe place to grow up and don't need to share every mistake they make. Think about how that must make our children feel. The world wants to distract us from the amazing gift that motherhood is. God wants us to recognize the gift that it truly is! There is space a between stimulus and response. We can adjust our auto-pilot thinking to change how we feel about the same situations. Start by taking the time to notice your thoughts. We can take responsibility and have integrity in our lives by accepting that things are not just happening to us, but we can choose how to act.