Motherhood Begets Confidence
And favorite content this week
I recently rejoined a nonprofit board of directors that I’d served on a couple of years ago, before I had my daughter. Something about being back on a team I was on previously made me reflect on how much I’ve changed since then.
In particular, I realized that I am so much more confident now than I was before I had my daughter. It was a surprising realization, because motherhood—for me, at least—has been fraught with feeling like a failure a lot of the time. Doing something so new yet so important really taxed my perfectionism and brought me to my knees, literally asking God for help over and over again.
And yet, I am more confident now.
I know what I need in order to manage my home, care for my daughter, love my husband, and (with my partner) run my business. I know more clearly what I want my life to look like; more importantly, I know more clearly what God wants my life to look like. I am not afraid to ask for what I need from God and from other people, and I am not afraid to celebrate the wins, big or small.
Becoming a mother (and I imagine this is true for adoptive mothers as well as those of us who became mothers through pregnancy) is such a monumental shift. It changes us—in biological ways, science is starting to show us.
Motherhood has made me a leader. It has revealed strength I didn’t know I had and gifts I didn’t know God had given me. It has brought me pain and suffering and joy and clarity and peace.
God made me a mother. And mothers are fierce, strong, powerful women.
Content I Liked This Week:
I really appreciated this article by Andrea Stanley for Marie Claire about “soft ambition.” Many women are rejecting hustle culture, and I am here for it.
Along similar lines was this brief essay for In Kind Magazine featuring Marcella Kelson on ambition and motherhood.
This article by Rita Koganzon for The Point Magazine put into words some of what I despise about a lot (not all) of contemporary (and older) young adult fiction. We’ve moved from the likes of L.M. Montgomery and Louisa May Alcott, who wrote about growing in virtue and developing character, to books that portray adolescent girls as nothing more than boy-crazy or to what the journalist calls “misery porn.”
Books I’m Enjoying (or Not):
I did finish Momfluenced. I am probably going to talk more about it in the future, but for now, suffice it to say that I am not providing an affiliate link to purchase it on Amazon because you should not purchase it. It was mean-spirited, closed-minded, contradictory, and poorly researched.
I just finished Hey, Hun: Sales, Sisterhood, Supremacy, and Other Lies Behind Multilevel Marketing (this one is an affiliate link), and it’s eye-opening and horrifying. So hard to put down—I recommend it and am putting
’s other memoir on my TBR.