1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:07,080 Speaker 1: Life audio. 2 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:17,920 Speaker 2: You're listening to everyday prayers with Million Praying Moms, helping 3 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:20,400 Speaker 2: you pray God's word for your family in the areas 4 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:23,959 Speaker 2: you need at most. I'm your host, Nicolette Bell. Here 5 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:27,600 Speaker 2: we believe prayer isn't a last resort. It's our first 6 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:30,680 Speaker 2: and best response in parenting, and every day we come 7 00:00:30,720 --> 00:00:33,920 Speaker 2: together to partner with God for the hearts of our children. 8 00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:37,560 Speaker 2: Today's devotion is written and read by Schelleene Roberts, author 9 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:40,080 Speaker 2: of When Mothering Is Hard and No One Sees. Our 10 00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 2: summer book Club pick. Each Monday, Shaleene will be sharing 11 00:00:43,760 --> 00:00:46,239 Speaker 2: a devotional excerpt in Prayer from her book, and I 12 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:49,440 Speaker 2: will be hosting several Friday interviews with her throughout the summer. 13 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:52,000 Speaker 2: You can grab your copy of the book and find 14 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:55,840 Speaker 2: a reading guide to read along on our website, Millionprayingmoms 15 00:00:55,960 --> 00:00:59,720 Speaker 2: dot Com. Use code book Club twenty for twenty percent 16 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:02,640 Speaker 2: off your order from our Mom's shop. We will email 17 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:05,880 Speaker 2: out application questions and a short teaching video from Shellen 18 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:08,759 Speaker 2: each week to go along with our reading. I pray 19 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:11,200 Speaker 2: that reading this book together will help you to feel 20 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:14,440 Speaker 2: seen by God in your motherhood this summer. After a 21 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:18,080 Speaker 2: quick word from our sponsors. We'll pray together for our children. 22 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:22,440 Speaker 1: A prayer for seeing the sacred. In the small Genesis 23 00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:25,640 Speaker 1: one twenty six, then God said, let us make mankind 24 00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:29,920 Speaker 1: and our image and our likeness. When I became a mother, 25 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 1: I knew this role would be sacred. Something inside me 26 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:35,319 Speaker 1: whispered of that truth. And just as sure as the 27 00:01:35,319 --> 00:01:37,120 Speaker 1: studying side, I knew the work I was doing was 28 00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:39,760 Speaker 1: a high calling. But no one told me that sometimes 29 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:43,120 Speaker 1: this work would also feel invisible. There's a certain kind 30 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:45,080 Speaker 1: of weariness that settles into the bones of a mother 31 00:01:45,400 --> 00:01:47,440 Speaker 1: who has poured out everything she has in service to 32 00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:50,400 Speaker 1: her family. The laundry doesn't care that you're depleted. The 33 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:52,880 Speaker 1: dinner doesn't make itself because you reached your limit. The 34 00:01:52,960 --> 00:01:55,160 Speaker 1: children don't stop needing you simply because you have nothing 35 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:57,240 Speaker 1: left to give. And somewhere in the middle of the 36 00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:00,240 Speaker 1: noise and the mess and the relentless normalcy of it all, 37 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:03,440 Speaker 1: a quiet question begins to form. Does any of this 38 00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:07,560 Speaker 1: actually matter? Maybe you've asked that question too, Maybe you've 39 00:02:07,560 --> 00:02:09,480 Speaker 1: found yourself asking it as you rock the baby and 40 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:12,440 Speaker 1: the glider at the end of a long day. Maybe 41 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:14,760 Speaker 1: you've asked it while you're folding laundry in the quiet 42 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:16,919 Speaker 1: of the car after school drop off, or in the 43 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:19,440 Speaker 1: shower where no one can hear you cry. We ask 44 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:23,760 Speaker 1: this question because motherhood can feel unrewarded and unapplauded, and 45 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:27,360 Speaker 1: even on its best days, it's often desperately hard. It 46 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:30,120 Speaker 1: demans everything we have to give. It stretches us beyond 47 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:32,880 Speaker 1: our human capacity. It takes our heart and turns it 48 00:02:32,919 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: inside out. It despite the herd. We know this is holy. 49 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:39,960 Speaker 1: If only we got have eyes to see. That's exactly 50 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:42,040 Speaker 1: why I wrote, when mothering is hard and no one sees, 51 00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:43,920 Speaker 1: I want to give you the eyes to see the 52 00:02:43,919 --> 00:02:46,760 Speaker 1: glories in the midst of your grit, the majestic, in 53 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:49,800 Speaker 1: the midst of your mundane. God, in his infinite grace, 54 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:52,040 Speaker 1: has revealed it to me, and I long to reveal 55 00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:54,680 Speaker 1: it to you too. Long before the chaos of our 56 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:58,040 Speaker 1: ordinary days, before the barking dogs and the bickering children, 57 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:00,799 Speaker 1: and the filled to the brim hamper, God looked out 58 00:03:00,919 --> 00:03:03,200 Speaker 1: over all he had made and said, let us make 59 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:07,160 Speaker 1: mankind in our image. There's a chance you've read that 60 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:09,920 Speaker 1: verse many times, but I wonder if you've seen it. 61 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:14,080 Speaker 1: That small word us It holds a weight that changes 62 00:03:14,120 --> 00:03:16,840 Speaker 1: everything because right viea. In Genesis one, we get the 63 00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:21,080 Speaker 1: very first glimpse of a family, father, son, and Holy 64 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:25,400 Speaker 1: Spirit existing together in a holy, eternal relationship. But it 65 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: doesn't stop there, because it's out of that first sacred 66 00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:33,080 Speaker 1: family that God designed and ordained. Our own. Your family, 67 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:36,840 Speaker 1: however loud and messy and exhausting it feels today, is 68 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:41,040 Speaker 1: not an accident. It is eternal and deeply intentional. And 69 00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:43,920 Speaker 1: the work you're doing to love and serve right smack 70 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:46,640 Speaker 1: dab within the walls of your own home was designed 71 00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:50,600 Speaker 1: to ripple over into eternity. The enemy has always known this. 72 00:03:51,120 --> 00:03:53,680 Speaker 1: He's always understood that the family is sacred, which is 73 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:57,640 Speaker 1: precisely why he works so hard to make you forget it. 74 00:03:58,240 --> 00:04:00,880 Speaker 1: And that same enemy whispered to you eve in the garden, 75 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:04,880 Speaker 1: planting seeds of doubt about God's goodness and provision, whispers 76 00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:08,640 Speaker 1: to her daughter, still to you and me, and this day, 77 00:04:08,800 --> 00:04:12,640 Speaker 1: in this age, I bet you recognize his voice. This 78 00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:16,159 Speaker 1: isn't enough, You aren't enough. No one sees what you're doing. 79 00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:20,159 Speaker 1: None of this matters. But the enemies lies are not 80 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:24,039 Speaker 1: the last word. They never have been, because the same 81 00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:26,680 Speaker 1: God who fashioned eve in the garden, who prophesied a 82 00:04:26,760 --> 00:04:28,960 Speaker 1: savior through the seat of a woman, who sent his 83 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:32,159 Speaker 1: own son to be born into an ordinary family in 84 00:04:32,200 --> 00:04:37,360 Speaker 1: an ordinary town. Yeah, that God sees you. He ordained 85 00:04:37,440 --> 00:04:40,640 Speaker 1: this role, he calls his sacred, and he is present 86 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:46,200 Speaker 1: in every unseen, unremarkable, extraordinary moment of your motherhood. Let's 87 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:50,440 Speaker 1: pray Lord on the days when motherhood feels unseen and 88 00:04:50,480 --> 00:04:54,239 Speaker 1: desperately hard, remind us that you see it all. Bring 89 00:04:54,279 --> 00:04:56,440 Speaker 1: to our mind the beautiful truth that you designed this 90 00:04:56,520 --> 00:04:59,120 Speaker 1: family out of the overflow of your own eternal love. 91 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:03,320 Speaker 1: When the enemy whispers that none of this matters, let 92 00:05:03,440 --> 00:05:06,880 Speaker 1: your truth be louder. Give us the eyes to see 93 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:10,080 Speaker 1: the sacred hiding in the small, the eternal loven into 94 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:16,400 Speaker 1: the ordinary, the miraculous present in the mess in Jesus name, Amen, friend. 95 00:05:16,200 --> 00:05:18,640 Speaker 2: It is not too late to join us for our 96 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:21,919 Speaker 2: summer book club featuring the book When Mothering Is Hard 97 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:24,880 Speaker 2: and No One Sees by my friend Selene Roberts. It's 98 00:05:24,920 --> 00:05:27,520 Speaker 2: happening now through the end of July, and we want 99 00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:30,760 Speaker 2: you to join us. Head to the homepage of our website, 100 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:34,360 Speaker 2: Million Prayingmoms dot Com to find out more and use 101 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:37,880 Speaker 2: the code book Club twenty for twenty percent off your 102 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:42,320 Speaker 2: order from our mom Shop. Until next time, friends, the 103 00:05:42,400 --> 00:05:46,799 Speaker 2: Lord bless you and keep you. Make his face shine 104 00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:50,760 Speaker 2: upon you, and be gracious to you. May the Lord 105 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:53,599 Speaker 2: look with favor on you and give you peace.