Longing for Motherhood
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen me post about this book. I started reading it while on vacation, and it was so amazing. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is experiencing infertility or loss. Chelsea does an amazing job at bringing hope and truth to hurting women throughout the book.
One of my favorite parts of the book, was in chapter one. Chelsea talks about how women are a fortress. "We were created to be a safe place, a shield, a help, and a comfort. When we are modeling these characteristics to the world, we're saying something about God." --- Wow, How powerful is that? That we as women of Christ, have such an important job to be a safe place for others. She goes on to talk about our role as the helper, and that sometimes we can feel annoyed or frustrated by this role... but if you look at it in the original context, it is such a great honor that God has given to us. I loved her take on this. I think as sisters in Christ we should be striving to be a safe place for others & a refuge for those who are grieving.
Another part of her book that I love, is how she pulled out different verses from the Psalms that connected with "hesed" ( God's steadfast love, mercy, loyalty, or loving kindness). One verse that I particularly loved was Psalm 31:7, which says "I will rejoice & be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul."
Finally I appreciated her take on grief within the church. I know that I have touched on this in posts in the past, but I truly think that it is so incredibly important that we as a church body improve on how we deal with grieving people. I think that often times we are initially so great at caring for those who are grieving; we come around them in prayer, financially, and try to help fill needs. However I think we sometimes forget that grief is not a quick process of healing. I think of my dad when this comes up. We lost my dad's mom last year, and it has not been easy for my dad. He talked to his mom every single day on the phone. That void is not easily filled, when everyday you are reminded that you can't speak with someone you love again until heaven. There are years of pain and grieving of a lost loved one, and we need to remember to continue to love on people after the initial wave of loss has passed.
I also appreciated that Chelsea recognizes the huge gap that we have in the church for childless women. For some reason infertility & miscarriage are such unspoken subjects in the church & our culture, and I think it is a huge part of why so many women feel alone. I also know that many people are just not educated on the topic & then feel ill equipped to comfort their friends. As Chelsea said in the beginning of her book, women have this incredible role to be a safe place for others and I think that if we all worked on that it would be such a beautiful picture of Christ. We sometimes unintentionally alienate women who don't have children from the church, and I think that those women may be the ones who need the most love & truth poured into them. Longing for motherhood is a very lonely journey, so I encourage you to reach out to your friends who may be going through it and ask how you can pray for them. If you dont know what to say to your friends, feel free to look back at my old blog posts where I talk about that. If you personally are going through infertility or loss, I would love to help you connect with some other ladies so you don't feel so alone. I have a friend who is walking a similar journey to mine, and I greatly value getting her texts asking how I am.
This is just a very short summary of some of the topics, but this book has tons of great stuff in it! If you want to read this book, I highly recommend it. You can purchase it on Amazon at the link below.
https://www.amazon.com/Longing-Motherhood-Holding-Midst-Childlessness/dp/0802416128/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1522010085&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=longing+for+motherhood&psc=1
One of my favorite parts of the book, was in chapter one. Chelsea talks about how women are a fortress. "We were created to be a safe place, a shield, a help, and a comfort. When we are modeling these characteristics to the world, we're saying something about God." --- Wow, How powerful is that? That we as women of Christ, have such an important job to be a safe place for others. She goes on to talk about our role as the helper, and that sometimes we can feel annoyed or frustrated by this role... but if you look at it in the original context, it is such a great honor that God has given to us. I loved her take on this. I think as sisters in Christ we should be striving to be a safe place for others & a refuge for those who are grieving.
Another part of her book that I love, is how she pulled out different verses from the Psalms that connected with "hesed" ( God's steadfast love, mercy, loyalty, or loving kindness). One verse that I particularly loved was Psalm 31:7, which says "I will rejoice & be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul."
Finally I appreciated her take on grief within the church. I know that I have touched on this in posts in the past, but I truly think that it is so incredibly important that we as a church body improve on how we deal with grieving people. I think that often times we are initially so great at caring for those who are grieving; we come around them in prayer, financially, and try to help fill needs. However I think we sometimes forget that grief is not a quick process of healing. I think of my dad when this comes up. We lost my dad's mom last year, and it has not been easy for my dad. He talked to his mom every single day on the phone. That void is not easily filled, when everyday you are reminded that you can't speak with someone you love again until heaven. There are years of pain and grieving of a lost loved one, and we need to remember to continue to love on people after the initial wave of loss has passed.
I also appreciated that Chelsea recognizes the huge gap that we have in the church for childless women. For some reason infertility & miscarriage are such unspoken subjects in the church & our culture, and I think it is a huge part of why so many women feel alone. I also know that many people are just not educated on the topic & then feel ill equipped to comfort their friends. As Chelsea said in the beginning of her book, women have this incredible role to be a safe place for others and I think that if we all worked on that it would be such a beautiful picture of Christ. We sometimes unintentionally alienate women who don't have children from the church, and I think that those women may be the ones who need the most love & truth poured into them. Longing for motherhood is a very lonely journey, so I encourage you to reach out to your friends who may be going through it and ask how you can pray for them. If you dont know what to say to your friends, feel free to look back at my old blog posts where I talk about that. If you personally are going through infertility or loss, I would love to help you connect with some other ladies so you don't feel so alone. I have a friend who is walking a similar journey to mine, and I greatly value getting her texts asking how I am.
This is just a very short summary of some of the topics, but this book has tons of great stuff in it! If you want to read this book, I highly recommend it. You can purchase it on Amazon at the link below.
https://www.amazon.com/Longing-Motherhood-Holding-Midst-Childlessness/dp/0802416128/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1522010085&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=longing+for+motherhood&psc=1
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