Navigating the Challenges of Motherhood with Grace

This spring brings a major shift in my motherhood: my youngest will graduate from high school. It’s a finish line that marks the end of this stage of parenting. I’ve seen it coming for a while and I’m filled with multiple emotions—joy for my son as he enters the next stage of life; sorrow as I anticipate not seeing him at home every day. I’ve reached the destination we all journey toward, yet I’m filled with uncertainty about what lies on the other side.

When I first embarked on this journey, I felt overwhelmed by all that I did not know. I felt inadequate in the face of so much that was new and unknown. I lacked wisdom for challenging parenting decisions and feared not getting them right. Since then, I’ve encountered many difficult circumstances in my motherhood and anticipate more to come. Yet, I can look back and see God’s grace at work and His faithfulness to meet me in all my troubles.

Wherever you are in your motherhood journey—whether in the early, middle, or empty nest years—God meets you where you are. He provides His grace. We see this in the lives of three mothers in the Bible. In each of their circumstances, God provided what they needed and gave them His grace.

God Sees and Knows

In the story of Hagar, we see a soon-to-be mother whom God saw in her struggle. As Sarai’s servant, she became part of Sarai’s plan to bring God’s promises to fruition (Gen. 16). When she fled from Sarai’s anger and into the wilderness, God met her and showed her His grace. There she called God El Roi; “You are a God of seeing . . . Truly here I have seen him who looks after me” (Gen. 16:13). When she later found herself in the desert again and thought she and her son would die, God saw her. He heard her cries. He met her needs once again with His grace: “Fear not, for God has heard” (Gen. 21:17).

When we struggle as moms, God meets us where we are with His abundant grace. He is El Roi, the God who sees. He sees our fears, sorrows, and uncertainties. He knows our cares for our children. He hears our cries for help and delivers us. The greatest proof of this is in God’s deliverance of us from our sin at the cross, where He provided His own Son to pay the punishment we were due. Through faith in Christ’s work for us, we are delivered from sin and now belong to God: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:31–32).

The same God who saw Hagar in the wilderness sees and hears our cries for help.

God Delivers Because of His Covenant Love

In the book of Ruth, we meet Naomi, who had lost everything in the land of Moab. Her husband died, followed by her two sons. Her grief was heavy; she could not imagine life would ever bring joy again. God provided for her in her daughter-in-law Ruth, who left her people to join Naomi on her journey home to Bethlehem. He then provided for her in the grain fields a loving husband for Ruth and a grandson for Naomi. A frequent theme to their story is God’s hesed love. Such love is more than mere kindness; it is God’s covenant commitment to His people.

God meets mothers in desperate circumstances with His hesed love. For moms in challenging situations, for those of us in hard parenting seasons, we can trust in God’s steadfast love for us. A love that is faithful. A love that delivers and provides. A love that keeps its promises. A love that never fails.

The same God who delivered Naomi in her grief and showed hesed love to her and Ruth is faithful in His love toward us.

God Equips Us for Our Calling

Young teenage Mary one day encountered the angel Gabriel, who told her she would bear the Savior of the world. I remember well the insufficiency I felt as a new mom; I can’t imagine what it was like for Mary to hear such news. Her song reminds us how God works in our lives by His grace:

For he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation” (Luke 1:49–50).

God doesn’t call us as mothers because we already know what we are doing. He doesn’t choose us to raise the children He entrusted to our care because we are capable or wise. Rather, He equips us for motherhood out of His abundant grace: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3). He gives us all we need to raise our children. He provides wisdom, strength, and endurance. This is good news for moms.

The same God who showered His grace upon Mary showers the same upon us.

Each of these mothers in Scripture encountered God’s grace in their lives, revealing His faithfulness. Moms, wherever you are today, trust that God will meet you there with His grace.