I Don’t Want to Do Motherhood Alone

Okay, let's talk about motherhood.

One of the things that I know is surprising to people when I talk to them is the isolation that you can feel.

Maybe you've convinced yourself, like, maybe you, you're a little bit living in isolation right now, and you've convinced yourself, "I don't wanna burden anyone," or, "Everyone seems to have it all together, and I'm a mess at home," or, "I'll reach out when things calm down." That was a big thing for me, you guys.

I lived in too much isolation for a lot of time, for a lot of my life, because I, I don't like for people to see me when I'm weak.

In fact, I think I mentioned a few weeks ago on this show how I was struggling and sharing with the ladies in my small group, and a friend said, "Hey, next time text us when you're struggling," and I said, "Eh, I don't like to text when I'm struggling." You see, I'm still learning this lesson myself, and she was the one who said, "Just text us a, like, an emoji of a raisin," because I'd said I was a little bit shriveled up.

So raisins, raisins are shriveled up.

She's like, "And you can say, 'I don't wanna talk about it,' but- And raisin emoji.

Guess who said that? Our guest today, Lacey.

She's so fantastic, so you'll get to hear from her in a few minutes.

But anyway, that was kind of my struggle when I was leaning toward isolation.

I just wanted to, like, present myself to people when I had it more together.

And I think it's one of the enemy's greatest strategies to Christian moms is the temptation to be isolated.

But one of God's greatest gifts to us is His people, his, the other moms in our lives who are also walking with Him, who can remind us of the gospel when we forget, who can carry our burdens when we're weak, and help us as we follow Jesus and try to point our families to Jesus.

And, you know, one of the things that I love most is just having people close enough in my life not only to know when I'm a raisin shriveling up, but also who can just share the beautiful ways that God is at work in their lives because it feeds my faith and it reminds me if it's been a little while since I've had one of those big moments with the Lord, like it reminds me that He's involved in our lives, and am I paying attention, or am I too busy distracting myself? So, um, the two times in motherhood that I remember leaning toward isolation were, first of all, and I know I've talked about this on the miscarriage episode, but I remember after my miscarriage, I really shut the world out because I was angry at God.

I didn't know how to handle my feelings.

I, I did, I just pushed gospel community away, and the Lord had to teach me that He's a good father, and it was a long, slow, steady process out of that really painful season.

And then the second time that I remember probably leaning into isolation more than I should have was when I was pregnant with Dewey, who's now 11, who [laughs] is the only one of my children who can talk and say sentences.

We're not counting baby James.

Only one of my daughters who hasn't been on the show, she is my shy one.

I've asked her several times, and she sometimes is like, "Okay," and then the next day she's like, "I don't want to." And I'm like, "No pressure, you don't have to." She's the best.

Um, but she's shy.

Anyway, I was pregnant with her, and I was super sick, hyperemesis gravidarum.

You probably have heard that term from, um...

Well, I would think I was pregnant at the same time as Kate Middleton, and she had that.

So we both were having our royal babies at the same time, I'm pretty sure.