When I first wrote 30 Day Everyday Mom Challenge Family Devotional: Raising Christian Hearts, it was August 11, 2018.
My boys were so little then. We were in a different season of life, with different rhythms, needs, challenges, and different kinds of noise filling the house. There were little-boy moments, homeschool days or what we lovingly called “Homeschool Saturday” adventures, family traditions, songs, games, prayers, messy tables, fishing, snuggle reading, and all the ordinary things that did not feel ordinary once I started paying closer attention.
I wrote that first version as a momma living right in the middle of it. Now, seven years later, I have been updating the book from a new season of motherhood.
My children are older now. They are out in the world living their best lives. They are building their own memories, working, growing, learning, laughing, becoming, and still finding their way. I am still their momma, but motherhood looks different now. It is less planning every minute, and more about listening, praying, remembering, encouraging, and trusting God with the seeds that were planted years ago.
And I have to tell you, rereading this devotional brought me so much joy. It reminded me that the little things were never little.
The handwritten notes mattered. The games mattered. The silly traditions mattered.
The prayers with Chupie mattered. The songs and pictures mattered. The walks, meals, stories, and challenges mattered.
Those small faithful actions were building something, even when I did not fully understand it at the time.
Tonight, while I was in the middle of editing the final chapter, Sam called me after work. I asked him if he remembered our family challenges from the book. He did.
Not only did he remember the challenges, but he remembered me writing the book. He was seven years old at the time. Seven.
That stopped me in the sweetest way.
We started talking about those memories together, and I felt such deep gratitude. What a gift to realize that something I wrote in one season of motherhood still lives in the heart of my child in another season. What a joy to hear him remember and to know those moments were not lost. What a joy to see God’s faithfulness in the everyday.
That is really what this devotional has always been about. It was never about perfect motherhood. It was not about doing every challenge perfectly, making every memory magical, or creating a home where nothing ever goes wrong. Goodness, no. Real families have hard days. Real mommas get tired. Real children grow through complicated seasons, and we’ve had our share. Real homes have messes, grief, laughter, healing, prayer, and sometimes all of it in the very same week.
This book is about choosing to notice God anyway. It is about practicing joy on purpose by planting seeds and trusting the Lord with the growth.
As I revised this devotional, I added what life has taught me since 2018. I brought in the language of my doctoral studies – the PERMA model and flourishing, faith, family legacy, and small faithful steps. I thought about positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment, but always through the lens of God’s Word and the life He calls us to live.
I also wrote for mommas in more than one season, since I’ve been through them all since the first edition.
This season of updating 30 Day Everyday Mom Challenge Family Devotional: Raising Christian Hearts has reminded me that God does not waste ordinary days. He gathers them and turns them into testimony.
And tonight, when Sam remembered, I felt that truth all over again.
What a joy it is to be writing again. What a joy it is to remember that I was never alone in the writing. It is a joy it is to see that the Lord was working in those little everyday moments all along.
Praise God.
“The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.” Psalm 126:3, KJV