It’s true. I am “quitting” for a month. But never fear! I will be back September 7th!

I am working on new interviews for the Time for Mom Podcast, another workshop tentatively planned in October, and more encouragement.

See you next month!

Love,

Cheryl

Audio version read by the author.

“Mommy, I am confused by my legs.”

I sat there on the bed, in the middle of the night, rubbing oils into the knees of my youngest after being woken up by her screaming. “Growth hurts.”

“Why does it hurt?”

“Well, sometimes we grow so fast that our bodies can’t adjust. We still have to grow, but it hurts more. Maybe we need to try to remember to take your vitamins.”

“Can I take it now?”

“I’m sorry, but it doesn’t work that fast. You have to be taking it consistently for it to help.”

“Oh… I want it to stop.”

“It will, Honey. It will.”

Growth is awesome… unless you’re the one going through it. I have written about growing pains before (Listen Here, Here, and Here), but apparently, there’s even more to learn from growing pains.

My girls are growing by leaps and bounds physically and mentally. I had to make a three-inch adjustment on a sewing pattern for my youngest after only three weeks between conception and creation of a pair of pants. Three inches is huge in the sewing world! If my oldest grows into her feet and legs, she’s going to challenge her cousin for the tallest in the family title.

While my children are growing physically, I am hurting from growth of a different kind. We are in the middle of a lot of change. I recently stepped down from a church staff position so I would have more time to homeschool our girls and, theoretically, do the rest of the things: homemaking, sewing, helping my parents with their projects, and continuing with writing and podcasting.

I didn’t anticipate homeschooling to be a time of growing pain for me, but it is. It challenges everything from time management to controlling my temper. I am being challenged on literally every front.

Mom, my hat is off to you for homeschooling three kids.

Life is constantly changing. There is an ebb and flow of change. It never seems to stop, just vary in intensity. The optimist in me keeps looking for the final change, like climbing a mountain. Once I get past this big thing, I’ll finally be at the top and things will settle and there will be nothing but peace for the rest of my life.

In my head, I know that is a dream of a life-long fiction addict and not a real possibility. Growth is life-long and never ending on this side of Heaven.

While I may not understand the why of physical or spiritual growing pains, I have seen so many truths echoed in watching my children grow that apply to adults. Here are 10 truths that translate to growing seasons as an adult:

1. Growing hurts. Especially when it’s fast.

2. Sometimes you can’t do anything to make the pain go away.

3. Sharing your pain with someone helps, especially when it’s your mom.

4. The pain is always the worst when life is at its darkest (i.e. 11pm to 3am).

5. Nutrients help growing not feel so bad. So, take your vitamins and read your Bible.

6. When we are done growing, we may need a whole new wardrobe or find that we can’t stay where we were in life because we have grown.

7. When the pain subsides, we will be able to do more, go further, and reach higher than we could before we started growing.

8. Hurt doesn’t mean we did anything wrong. Sometimes it just happens.

9. God doesn’t always take the pain away.

10. God is always with you, even when it hurts.

Mamas, sometimes there is nothing we can do to help our kids or ourselves escape the pain that comes with growth. Sure, we can throw a pain pill at our kids or try some digital numbing for ourselves, but it’s not lasting relief. In the end, the only things that consistently help during periods of growth are time and nutrition.

As you go through your week, I pray that you are getting the nutrition you need to help make your own growing pains more bearable.

Love,

Cheryl

Email Me

Deeper reading:
All verses are clickable and lead to Bible.com/YouVersion.

Deuteronomy 8:3
Psalm 34:15-20
Isaiah 43:2
Matthew 4:4
Romans 5:3-4
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
James 1:2-4
1 Peter 4:12-19

This Week on the Time for Mom Podcast:

7/29/2026 — 103 | 4 Ways Moms Can Escape the Comparison Trap and Restore Peace

7/31/2026 — 104 | Low Self-Esteem? What the Bible Says About Your Identity - Devotion

Mom life is absolutely nuts this year and I find myself struggling to find the time to write. So, instead of a mom life comparison, we are going to compare three sections of the Bible.

Let’s start with Genesis 1:

I don’t know about you, but I love the poetry, imagery, and natural rhythm that God used in Genesis. Work and rest. Creation and affirming the creation.

Now let’s read Psalm 104:

Do you hear the echoes of creation in the Psalm? I tend to glaze over things and not think about what I am reading, but when I am reading to my girls, I start connecting Scriptures all over the Bible. These are some fairly obvious ones. There are countless more!

Let’s jump to the New Testament and Acts 17:22-30 when Paul reveals the identity of the “Unknown God” to the men of Greece.

The Bible builds on itself. There are references and imagery that reference older passages of the Bible. It’s all connected in amazing ways. From God hovering over the surface of the waters, to the dove that Noah releases, to the Spirit of God descending like a dove on Jesus – it’s deliberate connection. From the 10 Plagues in Egypt to what the Trumpets bring about in Revelation. And. So. Much. More.

As you read your Bible this week, think about what you are reading and try to think of where else you have seen something similar. Look for patterns, read to your children and let their young, developing, and untrained minds teach you about links in the Bible. Your kids will probably surprise you. I know mine do.

Until next week, may you seek and find the patterns God has left for us in the Bible.

Love,

Cheryl

Email Me

Deeper reading:
All verses are clickable and lead to Bible.com/YouVersion.

Genesis 1
Genesis 8:6-12
Exodus 7:14- Exodus 11
Psalm 104
Matthew 3:16
Acts 17:22-30
Revelation 8:6 – Revelation 12

This Week on the Time for Mom Podcast:

7/22/2026 — 101 | Sandy Cooper Interview - Failing Well in Motherhood

7/24/2026 — 102 | Does Being a Mom Matter? The Truth About the Little Things You Do - Devotion

Brace yourself for a whole lot of scripture today!

Have you found yourself being led one way or the other and you’re pretty certain— maybe absolutely certain— that it’s God leading you, but when you look at what He’s asking, you become afraid?

Today, we are going to look at two well-known stories from the Old Testament: Israel and the twelve spies and Jonathan and his armor bearer.

Let’s begin in Numbers 13, starting at verse one. I will be skipping the list of names of the 12 spies, but you can find them in the linked Scripture in the Deeper Reading section at the bottom of this devotion.

The Lord now said to Moses, “Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of the twelve ancestral tribes.” So Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He sent out twelve men, all tribal leaders of Israel, from their camp in the wilderness of Paran.

Moses gave the men these instructions as he sent them out to explore the land: “Go north through the Negev into the hill country. See what the land is like, and find out whether the people living there are strong or weak, few or many. See what kind of land they live in. Is it good or bad? Do their towns have walls, or are they unprotected like open camps? Is the soil fertile or poor? Are there many trees? Do your best to bring back samples of the crops you see.” (It happened to be the season for harvesting the first ripe grapes.)

So they went up and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, near Lebo-hamath. Going north, they passed through the Negev and arrived at Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai—all descendants of Anak—lived. When they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes so large that it took two of them to carry it on a pole between them! They also brought back samples of the pomegranates and figs. That place was called the valley of Eshcol (which means “cluster”), because of the cluster of grapes the Israelite men cut there.

After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.”

But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”

But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!” ~Numbers 13:17-33

The Israelites feared the challenge before them. They looked at the giants and the people of the land and became convinced they couldn’t defeat them. They forgot what God could, and promised, to do when they focused on the challenges. Instead of focusing on God and reminding themselves of everything He had already done for them, they became fixated on their own abilities to overcome the giants and well-established people already in the land instead of God’s ability and promises.

Let’s look at the next story found in 1 Samuel 14 starting in verse 4:

To reach the Philistine outpost, Jonathan had to go down between two rocky cliffs that were called Bozez and Seneh. The cliff on the north was in front of Micmash, and the one on the south was in front of Geba. “Let’s go across to the outpost of those pagans,” Jonathan said to his armor bearer. “Perhaps the Lord will help us, for nothing can hinder the Lord. He can win a battle whether he has many warriors or only a few!”

“Do what you think is best,” the armor bearer replied. “I’m with you completely, whatever you decide.”

“All right, then,” Jonathan told him. “We will cross over and let them see us. If they say to us, ‘Stay where you are or we’ll kill you,’ then we will stop and not go up to them. But if they say, ‘Come on up and fight,’ then we will go up. That will be the Lord’s sign that he will help us defeat them.”

When the Philistines saw them coming, they shouted, “Look! The Hebrews are crawling out of their holes!” Then the men from the outpost shouted to Jonathan, “Come on up here, and we’ll teach you a lesson!”

“Come on, climb right behind me,” Jonathan said to his armor bearer, “for the Lord will help us defeat them!”

So they climbed up using both hands and feet, and the Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer killed those who came behind them. They killed some twenty men in all, and their bodies were scattered over about half an acre.

Suddenly, panic broke out in the Philistine army, both in the camp and in the field, including even the outposts and raiding parties. And just then an earthquake struck, and everyone was terrified. ~1 Samuel 14:4-15

Jonathan foolishly attacked an entire outpost with only one person at his side, but he knew what God could do and walked in complete confidence that God would hand him the victory if it was God’s will.

God was present in both stories, but the outcomes looked very different because of the actions of the people involved.

Throughout this life we are consistently faced with a choice to trust God or to not trust God. Sometimes choosing to trust reaps obvious and great benefit. Other times we are left wondering if there was a purpose behind our obedience. And then there are moments when we know what an act of disobedience will cost us and we do it anyway.

Unlike many of the stories in the Bible, I usually don’t see the cost of my obedience or disobedience in the moment unless it is a blatant act of sin. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a cost, just that I don’t see it. So many of the things God asks us to do or not to do create a ripple effect rather than a onetime impact. One simple act of obedience or disobedience can impact everyone around us, people we don’t know, and even generations, for the simple reason that you never know who is watching and who God would have you share what He has done with in the future.

While it is easy to get a piece of paper out and count the giants and fortified cities you would have to face while you obey God’s voice, it would be better to pray for courage and ignore the giants that are still a long way off.

When I was little, I had to walk to our barn and feed the horses. Our barn was so far away, and it was almost always in the dark. I would grab a flashlight and put my cat on my shoulder and walk to the barn, heart thumping at every deep shadow I had to pass.

As an adult, I discovered that the barn that had to be at least a quarter of a mile away from the house was only fifty yards or so, maybe. For a child, the distance was significant. To an adult, it’s nothing. Don’t let the giants that will eventually challenge your obedience deter you. Odds are that by the time you reach them, you will have grown in your faith and capabilities, and those giants aren’t going to be nearly as big as you thought when you first caught a glimpse of them.

In a world filled with giants and insurmountable challenges, be a Jonathan. Be Caleb and Joshua (read Numbers 13 for the list of names) and stand confident in what God can do because of what He has done.

God may be calling you into a new season, a new country, into a new chapter of life and it is scary. I have been there so many times. But I have also seen the growth of my faith and trust in the Lord even in reluctant obedience. Remember what God has brought you through. Remember who God has been in your life. Remember that He will never leave you nor forsake you. Remember that even if our obedience leads to physical death, we would be better off than if we stayed in this world. That is the confidence that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had in their God and the confidence we can have in our God.

Until next week, mamas, I pray that God gives you the courage to step out in obedience to the call God has placed on each of you.

Love,

Cheryl

Email Me

Deeper reading:
All verses are clickable and lead to Bible.com/YouVersion.

Numbers 13
Deuteronomy 31:6
1 Samuel 14:4-15
Proverbs 3:5-6
Daniel 3

This Week on the Time for Mom Podcast:

7/15/2026 — 99 | Perseverance, Persistence and a Year of Growth

7/17/2026 — 100 | Are You Correcting Out of Love or Control? Devotion

July usually marks a lot of change for my family.

• My husband and I will celebrate our 10-year anniversary this month.

• I launched the Time for Mom podcast July 2025.

• Time for Mom will have 100 episodes on Friday, July 17th.

• I am officially not a staff member at our church and a stay-at-home-mom for the first time since I came off maternity leave post COVID.

• The weather starts to get really hot. Fishing usually starts getting good as our river finally comes out of flood stage…

• I’m attempting a furniture flip. (Pictures in next month newsletter if I can finish it!)

• I’m making pants for me this month.

• My girls wanted matching pants and, oh boy, did Mom deliver! (Pictures will be in next month’s newsletter.

• Three new interviews will be published this month in Time for Mom.

• Oh, yeah, and did I mention I’m learning the art of canning our food and crochet?

So many things!

Would you believe me if I told you I’ve actually been saying no and reducing my weekly load? I have… It doesn’t feel like it though.

What does your July hold? I’d love to hear!

Leave a comment

If you haven’t listened to Time for Mom lately, you don’t want to miss two of the three interviews that have already been published:

97 | Emotional Regulation for Overwhelmed Moms with Special Guest Kelsey Redd

95 | Breaking Free from Comparison: Lose Weight Without Losing Yourself with Coryn Brown & Crysanne Clay

The third interview is with the fantastic Sandy Cooper and we have an amazing talk about what being a successful and good mom looks like. And if you haven’t met Sandy Cooper, you need to, she is AMAZING! Check out her Substack, Behind the Balance.

Now, who is ready for June’s top pictures? 🙋‍♀️

These judgmental balls of flush are about 4 times the size they are in these pictures. Fun fact!
When birds are born they “zip” the egg in half from the inside out. It can take 30 minutes or an entire day. When they do emerge, they are about as exhausted as a human newborn and are just as wet. Their feathers dry off in a few hours.

My mom has some absolutely stunning irises. Honestly, there aren’t even her prettiest ones, these are just the ones on my camera roll.

These little pretties are a small example of the mountain wildflowers we have, and I have to google what they are every time.

I love clouds. They are so pretty!

Sorry, these are the only two sunsets I caught on camera last month.

Recipe of the month!

Let me know if you make the Rhubarb juice or have any questions!

Until next month, I’ll meet you in the Time for Mom podcast and in the next Devotion!

Love,

Cheryl

My family has a lot of food issues. I remember praying over my children that they would have good teeth and be healthy. They are, but health doesn’t mean no issues.

When we started introducing our oldest to solid food, we thought she could eat anything she wanted to. We bought baby cereal puffs and yogurt bites and she gobbled them down, happy for snacks. It wasn’t until we started potty training that we realized there was something wrong.

This realization didn’t happen quickly, but my husband and I both felt like something was off. For the most part, our oldest had amazing bladder control, but bowel movements were another story. While the blogs said what we were experiencing was “normal”, it didn’t feel normal to have a child crying in the corner because she had to poop.

After several months of experimentation, a ton of prayer, food journaling, and several diet shifts, we found out my daughter is sensitive to gluten, dairy, and soy. We even went egg free for a while, but after extensive experimentation were able to rule that one out.

Those three things— gluten, dairy, and soy— were the root of months of pain and frustration. Our poor kid.

We didn’t expect our daughter to understand why she suddenly couldn’t eat so many things, but we did expect her to trust us. We tried to always explain what was in it, how it would make her feel, and that we were protecting her. We expected what seemed like blind obedience at first, but you would be amazed at how much a two-year-old can understand about foods.

She might’ve been sad that she couldn’t have the things that others were having, especially cheese, but she knew we loved her and wanted to protect her from harm even if harm tasted as amazing as a cheese puff.

Through the years, I have been so proud of her as she politely declines food because it is either harmful or unknown, or asks me if she can have the offered treats. My girls are remarkable and I am totally biased.

My daughter trusts us to keep her healthy and safe, not just because we told her to, but because she has seen that we desire the absolute best for her. Our youngest, on the other hand, is a strong-willed work in progress as we discover her dietary triggers.

Why am I telling you this food story?

Well, without realizing it, we humans tend to think sometimes that God is withholding everything we want from us. Instead of being a good Father, we get the idea that God is more like an evil, power hungry, genie who withholds things and takes pleasure from our whines. That is definitely not the God I have come to know and serve, but that thought still creeps in when I’m not watching for it.

The Bible says God gives His children good gifts (see the verse above) but that doesn’t mean God’s version of good gifts match ours.

My children think candy is an amazing gift because they don’t understand the backlash and how much gluten, dairy, and soy hide in candy. They might like dried fruit, but they would pick candy every time.

Just like we see so much more than our children do because we are older and more experienced, God sees infinitely more than we do. He directs our steps, asking us to trust Him even if everyone else thinks we are crazy. God’s direction is for our good and His glory, and it is also to benefit those around us. We can get really self-focused, wondering why God hasn’t given us the exact thing that we want, but He isn’t bound by our perspective.

Here are some examples:

• My husband and I wanted a house of our own, but God told us to move in with my parents instead. This has been a huge blessing as we face health problems and financial difficulty because of said health problems and would have lost a house of our own.

• I didn’t want kids, but God softened my heart and gave me two girls. He knew I needed my girls to grow and refine me as well as deepen my understanding of God as my heavenly Father. I am thankful He changed my heart.

• My family was everything to me when I got married. So when God told me to move to Montana, 10 hours away from my family, I was devastated. I cried a good amount of the 7 months I was engaged (my poor husband). Now, all of my family has moved away from where I was living. God was placing us, we just didn’t know it.

God’s gifts and direction don’t always yield good results in the moment, but the older I get the more I can look back at those moments and see a glimpse of the good God had for me. I see the fruit of it as years go by, not immediately. On the contrary, I am often the picture of stubbornness, rejecting God’s gifts at first, but God is generous and even more persistent than my three-year-old when she wants something.

When God offers that gift we didn’t want, the direction we didn’t ask for, or the leading that is equal parts peace and turmoil as we begin to grieve the life we are leaving - I want to reject it.

God is always there, reminding me of all He has done, all He can do, and all He will do. I am never quite sure what the end result will be of God’s direction because His ways are definitely not my ways, but He still asks for my trust in the hard moments.

God knows it’s hard to trust Him when He asks us to do hard things, but He still asks us to trust Him with the why and the results. One of the amazing gifts in the Bible is the ability to look back on those times when God asked His people to do hard or impossible things based on trust in Him and see how God brought His people through.

• Israel and the Red Sea.

• Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah in the fiery furnace.

• Nehemiah and the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls.

• Noah and his family taking refuge in a boat they couldn’t close or steer.

• The widow baking Elijah bread with her last bit of flour and oil.

• Naaman bathing in an unremarkable river to be healed from leprosy.

• Paul urging everyone to stay on a sinking ship because God told him to.

The acts of people trusting God and God bringing them through both remarkable and unremarkable circumstances in the Old and New Testament are abundant and waiting for you to discover.

Life can be really hard as things change and shift, but you don’t have to do this life alone. God is right there holding out His hand with an invitation to trust in the God who has no beginning or end. Just like my children trust us when they don’t understand, we can trust God when we don’t understand and He is far more trustworthy than any earthly parent.

Until next week, I pray that you trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. ~Proverbs 3:5-6

Love,

Cheryl

Email Me

Deeper reading:
All verses are clickable and lead to Bible.com/YouVersion.

Deuteronomy 31:6
Psalm 32:8
Psalms 103
Proverbs 3:5-6
Proverbs 3:12
Isaiah 30:20-21
Isaiah 55:8-9
Matthew 7:11
2 Corinthians 1:3-7
Hebrews 13:5
James 1:5
James 1:17-18

This Week on the Time for Mom Podcast:

7/8/2026 — 97 | Special Guest Kelsey Redd, Intentional Motherhood Podcast Host

7/10/2026 — 98 | Stuck in the Mom Role? The Truth About How God Sees You - Devotion

Six years ago, my husband went from being able to eat anything he wanted to having a gluten, dairy, and beef-free diet. It was a rough transition.

The food we needed to buy was much more expensive. Recipes were confusing (what on earth is xanthan gum anyway?)

If I messed up, that wasn’t $1 here or there, it was $5 or more invested per recipe, usually more. I was overwhelmed by my husband’s sudden health issues and, on top of that, had to learn a whole new style of cooking and shopping. There have been a lot of hard-won lessons about life and cooking over the last six years.

I used to watch a cooking show with a guest chef whose dough recipe was literally locked in a safe. The chef had scientifically perfected his dough, and apparently it was pretty spectacular. That is how I thought I had to approach gluten-free baking: If it was perfect and precise, it would be amazing.

Instead, what I found is that ruined doesn’t necessarily mean inedible. I have made many things that didn’t turn out right. Sometimes they needed to be used in a different recipe. Other times, they looked ugly and maybe a little burned around the edges but were delicious.

My husband can follow the exact recipe I am using, and have very different results. Instead of obsessing over following the recipe and making it look like the pictures, I do my best and then adjust what needs to be adjusted. As a result, I often have ugly meals that still taste good. The art of pretty food eludes me. Thankfully, my family cares more about taste than appearance.

Gluten-free baking recipes are extremely temperamental. Temperature, elevation, and humidity all play a disconcertingly large role. What works for me in the winter, has to be adjusted for the summer. What works on a rainy, cold, and damp day will need to be adjusted on a hot and dry day.

Sometimes I need to add more moisture and sometimes I need to add more flour. Sometimes I need to cut the oil in half or omit it completely.

There have been times I had to bake a cake for an hour longer than the recipe called for and other times when it was done 10 minutes faster than it should have been and is a touch extra crispy...

Gluten and dairy-free baking have been a wild ride of rolling with the punches, learning to trust my instincts, writing down what I did so I can duplicate it, letting go of failed attempts and turning them into something that may even turn out even better than the original idea!

Parenting is no different. We have our “recipes” in the form of parenting books and guides, our trusted bloggers, and (mostly) helpful family members, but nothing with our kids seems to ever happen the same way twice. What works for one child at age three worked on the second one at two, and now I’m just guessing because they are such different little people. What worked for my kids a month ago is starting to not work now because they change mentally as they grow physically.

You never know what you’re going to get with a child day to day and sometimes moment by moment. You have to roll with the punches.

There is no perfect parenting recipe because there is no child exactly the same as another. You’re trying to do the best that you can to raise your child how you believe God is calling you to raise them. Unfortunately, that can mean messy results, and you get to try something different the next time.

Sometimes this means letting them stay up until midnight so you get some meaningful connection with your children. Other times it means enforcing nap time because they’re screaming in your face and you know it’s because they are tired and not because they really hate you.

Being a mom is incredibly hard because, no matter what you do, you’re going to have to do something different later. What you’re doing now isn’t going to work in the next season with the same efficiency as it has where you are now.

The most beautiful part about parenting is that we get to grow and learn together. Our kids get to watch us fall and get back up. They hear us admit our mistakes and ask for forgiveness. Our kids get to see us do life and they learn so much watching us and how we react to the situations we are faced with.

We will all fail our children at some point. We will fail to be the mothers we want to be. We will fail to be the mothers we think our children need. But for all that failure, you were hand-picked by God to be the mother of your child. You have something to give your child that no other woman on the planet could. Maybe that means you hold your child and apologize for losing your temper again and it’s only 8 in the morning. Maybe that means taking a deep breath and teaching your child how to clean up glass after they broke your favorite baking bowl. Maybe it is how you see who your child is and can be when no one else can.

God trusted you with your child and gave you all the ingredients you need to grow together, not everything you need to be perfect. Like my dad says, “No child comes with instructions tattooed on their butts. That means you have to figure this thing out as you go.”

If you’re feeling discouraged because what you’re doing is not working or what did work suddenly doesn’t, take heart. It’s just time to tweak the recipe a little bit. Take a step back and observe. Read the mood. Read whether your child is tired or not. Figure out where they are developmentally and adjust your recipe. And always pray for revelation and ask for so much wisdom…

Your results will definitely vary, but ultimately, they’re still going to be amazing people. They just need more time.

Until next week, mamas, remember that perfection is a misconception. You are doing amazing work.

Love,

Cheryl

Email Me

Deeper reading:
All verses are clickable and lead to Bible.com/YouVersion.

Deuteronomy 6:7
Proverbs 2:6
James 1:5

This Week on the Time for Mom Podcast:

7/1/2026 — 95 | Guest Interview! Coryn Brown & Crysanne Clay - Her Healthy Body Podcast Hosts

7/3/2026 — 96 | What You Don’t See… 8 Lessons on Judgement - Devotion

My mom has chickens and guineas for snake and bug control. While these two fowls are highly effective for keeping the grasshopper population down, they are not without their downsides. Today we are talking about chickens. Chickens are arguably one of my least favorite fowl, although I enjoy the eggs and meat they provide. But a living, breathing, clucking, cawing, clawing, rooting, stinking chicken? Not a fan.

There are three things that I dislike about chickens: they are extraordinarily destructive (they have destroyed my garden a few times), they are mean to each other, and they are so stupid.

A few weeks ago, my mom had a few hens go broody which means that there were eggs accumulated on the nest and two hens decided to try to hatch them. Mom has a rule: once a bird sits on a nest, that bird gets to hatch the eggs. I understand, respect, and totally agree with this rule because I value life.

The thing with chickens is that they just don’t agree with that rule. My mom has a hen that hatched out a nest last year, but this year is a completely different story. She abandoned her nest twice in favor of stealing the smaller hen’s chicks which hatched first. While eggs are more resilient than I ever thought considering the strict temperature, humidity, and rotation guidelines online, the developing chicks will still die if a hen abandons the nest and they get cold for too long. We had to remove the eggs. Once the eggs are removed, you have some options: you can incubate them or you can throw them away, but you risk losing what life inside has developed which is what my mom just can’t stand, because life is precious.

Since my parents adopted their fowl as a way to combat the all consuming grasshopper plague we get every summer, I’ve learned more about eggs than I ever thought I’d need to. First, just because an egg is cold and has been abandoned or mishandled, doesn’t mean it’s dead. Second, watching a chick develop in the egg and hatch is so incredibly cool! Even though I don’t care to own the birds, I can still wonder at the creation of new life.

The first thing we do when we rescue eggs from their own species, or if a predator gets into a nest, is check to see if the eggs are viable (which means alive and developing). You hold a light source up to them on the fat end in a dark space and it shines all the way through. The light reveals whether the egg is just filled with lifeless liquid or you see what looks like blood veins and a dark blob. When I first checked the eggs, the dead ones were obvious and abundant. For whatever reason, half the nest had never developed.

There were other eggs in which you could see the blood vein-looking webs had developed and there was something dark but it swirled around when I tried to see what it was. There were other eggs that were more dark than light but with no movement. Not a good sign. You see, when an egg is developing and normal, you can see fluttering when you shine a light into the egg fairly early in development. Until we were sure the eggs were dead from the hen’s abandonment, we put ones that weren’t bad into the incubator and waited. A few days later we checked again. This time, instead of seeing things swirling in the egg when we held the light up, we saw fluttering. We saw life! There were chicks in those eggs that had just been too cold to move during the first inspection.

So, in a few days to a few weeks, my mom is going to be the proud hatcher of chicks— and by proud, I mean unwilling.

Why am I telling you this chicken story?

There are so many times in this life when things don’t happen like we want, think, or plan them to. The older I get, the less often anything happens how I want or plan it to happen.

There are times when things seem completely hopeless and maybe you want to give up entirely. And yet there are other times when life is amazing, full, and beautiful.

We tend to take these bad situations and give up on them. Nothing good could possibly come from our pain, depression, grief, or suffering. But what if that’s not true? What if that is only true when you reject God?

There are so many stories in the Bible where things were going really bad, usually due to people ignoring God’s words. Even in those times when life was horrible and there was suffering and everything seemed hopeless, God was working in the background to bring good out of the bad. Nothing that the Israelites did was a surprise to God. He took the time to warn them of the consequences of their actions hundreds of years before it happened. Check out Deuteronomy if you’re curious about what I’m talking about, especially the blessing and curses section near the end.

Let’s check out some examples of how life was awful until God did what God does best: bring good out of nothing.

Joseph had dreams of his family bowing to him and instead he was sold as a slave to Egypt. He went from slavery to imprisonment. What he saw happened, but it wasn’t until many years later when God used what was meant as evil to put Joseph in the perfect position to save his family— God’s chosen people— from starvation.

400 years later, Pharaoh refused to free God’s people and God’s power came down in an undeniable display through the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea.

Fast forward several hundred years again and God’s people had become so corrupt that He allowed pagan nations to destroy almost everything and carry His people off to exile. While that was horrible and hopeless in the moment, God never stopped working in the background. He used His exiled people to plant seeds of His love in the hearts of those other people groups.

Esther, an unwilling Jonah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, and Nehemiah to name a few of the Old Testament heroes God used in hopeless situations not only to save His people, but to be lights in a dark world.

There is one ultimate example of how everything can be hopeless but God still uses it for the good of His people: the death of Jesus on the cross.

Have you ever found something that you were so excited about only to have it die, literally, in front of you?

Jesus told His followers what was going to happen, but it didn’t make them feel any less hopeless when they watched him die. When the earth shook, when the temple curtain was torn… it wasn’t just lifeless or hopeless, it was so far beyond both of those words.

Only Jesus didn’t stay dead. He rose from the grave. He defeated death, hell, and the grave.

God used the hopeless situation of Jesus’s death to deliver salvation not only to His people but to the entire world.

What situation in your life seems hopeless today?

Is it hopeless or is it just not happening on your timeline?

Is it hopeless or is it being used in a way you did not plan?

Is it hopeless or is God doing something and you just don’t know what it is yet?

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that life is easy when God is your God, because life really does just suck at times. The older I get, the harder life is. There is more to grieve and so much sorrow and suffering. But when I stop and I do what the Bible says and remember who God is, what He has done, and what He has brought my family and all of His people through, I can see hope in the darkest of times.

As you meet the many and often never-ending challenges in life — maybe financial, health, environmental (physical or mental), relational, or maybe you’re exhausted and don’t know what to do— stop. Think about what God has already done in your life and in the life of your family. If you can’t think of anything, go back to the Bible and think of what God brought His people through and how He used the dark times to show what was life and what was already dead. The Israelites were told to raise their Ebenezers, which were stones that were supposed to remind people of what took place in that specific area. The altars that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob built are an example of this. So, raise your Ebenezers. Set up your reminders where you can see them. Write them down. Share them with your children. Talk to your family so you can remember what God brought out of a hopeless and lifeless situation.

You don’t have to sit in the dark. There’s a light shining, looking for life and that light is God. He’s still there and He’s still revealing the hearts of everyone and everything in this world including you and me.

What is He going to find when He shines His light into your heart? Is He going to find someone who is lifeless? Is He going to find someone who can’t see beyond hopelessness? Or is He going to find someone who is learning how to see beyond what this world is into what God would have it be?

Until next week, mamas, I pray that you will remember what God has done in your life so you will know what He is capable of in the future.

Love,

Cheryl

Email Me

Deeper reading:
All verses are clickable and lead to Bible.com/YouVersion.

Genesis
Exodus
Deuteronomy
Esther
Daniel 1-4
Jonah

This Week on the Time for Mom Podcast:

6/24/2026 — 93 | Where Did I Go? Finding Your Identity in Motherhood

6/26/2026 — 94 | What You Can’t See... 8 Lessons on Judgement - Devotion

This is Father’s Day week, and we usually like to honor fathers or at least try to. There are many different kinds of fathers in this world. Some are good, some are bad, all of them make mistakes, and I think all of them are trying to do the best that they can.

At the end of their life, they can’t look back and see the impact their words and actions had on their children unless we tell them. Today’s devotion is a testament to the power of a father.

Growing up, my dad was the biggest and strongest man I knew. He had enormous hands and could do anything! My favorite thing that we did was cuddle. I would sit on his lap while we watched whatever was on the five TV channels we received with our antenna. He was almost always home for dinner even though he worked long days in the raging 120° summer heat or the bitter cold that was rarely above freezing to provide for our family. On the weekends we either did one of the side jobs we had as a family or did a project at the house. Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of extras, but we had enough. My mom bought milk only when it was on sale. Chicken and pork were rare treats as we relied heavily on the meat my parents harvested during hunting season.

What we did have was each other. We were a family. We loved each other, worked together, and did everything as a family. My siblings and I took turns traveling with Dad when he had his weekly business trips. Later, I saw my mom doing Dad’s work while my dad walked her through what to do while he recovered from neck surgery after a severe car wreck.

A little later, my parents made the difficult choice to train to get a grocery store and leave my teenage siblings and I in the care of family so they could provide a better future. They did.

As a teen, I watched my dad own and manage a store. He tried to call out what he saw in people rather than letting them sit in their mediocrity. He gave people a chance that many wouldn’t have. I got a lot of lectures in the office of my parents’ store in my teen years. So many lectures.

In preparation for writing this, I spoke with each of my brothers and asked them what Dad did and said that shaped who they are and helped prepare them to be men in a crazy world. One brother attributed all the time my father had him go with him while he was working on long drives and long hours. The time spent with Dad— observing, working together— that’s what turned him into a man. My other brother counted everything that my father did turning him into a man. It was a journey that took a few years before he saw what Dad did and said was wisdom and for a reason.

As the only daughter, my father poured into me ten years of people skills. Remember all those lectures in the office? I was applying his principles on a daily basis when I married my husband and what Dad taught me in those years has continued to serve me and help me serve.

My father taught me how to get along with people, how to talk with people, and how disagreements don’t have to end relationships if you are respectful.

My dad showed me how to love people where they are, and how to be a witness for Jesus with kindness instead of words.

The crazy thing about parenting is that it’s a lot like a long-term financial investment. You pour your resources into something hoping to see it grow. What you see instead is a constant up and down of gains and losses until years later you find out that all your hard work really did pay off because you had the patience to keep investing. Both of my parents have spent almost 40 years pouring into the lives of my brothers, myself, and now their grandchildren. They might not get to see the fruit of what they have done in all of us, but they are trusting that we will grasp their teaching, even if it’s not in their lifetime.

That’s the weird thing about parenting: what we teach our kids isn’t necessarily for our lifetime, it’s for their lifetime - however long that is.

This is a small sample of the words Dad has imparted to us during his lifetime - which is still going.

• Numbers don’t lie, people lie about numbers.

• Two wrongs don’t make a right.

• Think about it from their perspective.

• When correcting someone, start with a complement, then the negative, and end with another positive.

• Apologize to your brother.

• You have two eyes, two ears, and one mouth. That means you should listen and watch twice as much as you speak.

• If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it.

• If you see something that needs done, should be done, or might need done someday, stop and do it.

• Finish what you start.

• Everything worth doing takes time to do right.

• God can’t steer a parked car, so get off your butt and start doing things.

• Work at it like it depends on you and pray about it because it depends on God.

• You’d be amazed at what you can see and hear if you just shut up and listen.

• Watch first, listen second, and then ask your questions if you don’t understand.

• Do what I’m telling you and then ask why.

• You can’t believe everything you hear.

• There are things worth fighting for.

• It’s always better to walk away than to say something you’ll regret later.

• Learn how to do things my way and then you can show me how to do it better.

• Always give people the benefit of the doubt.

• You can learn to do anything.

• Good job.

• I love you.

My parents have always been an inspiration to me, even in the times I didn’t agree with them. We are shaped by our parents. The words and actions of fathers shape their children. Most incredibly, the love of a father shapes his children as he depends on God to guide him in what to do or not to do.

There’s no such thing as a perfect father, but the best father I know did his best to raise his children to love God, love their family, and work hard.

My dad isn’t perfect, but he’s the best dad I could have asked for. Thanks for all those long talks, cuddles, and willingness to teach me.

I love you.

See you next week, mamas!

Love,

Cheryl

Email Me

Deeper reading:
All verses are clickable and lead to Bible.com/YouVersion.

Deuteronomy 6:4-7

This Week on the Time for Mom Podcast:

6/17/2026 — 91 | The Value of a Father and How to Support Him as a Wife

6/19/2026 — 92 | Feeling Unqualified, SAHM? What Moses Teaches Us About Flaws - Devotion

Audio version read by the author.

Splinters are the worst! My kids hate splinters because they are almost always deep enough that I have to use a needle to get under that first layer of skin. Cue the screams. Blood curdling screams… And I haven’t even grabbed the needle yet. Due to my children’s dread of Mommy’s needle and my aversion to hearing them scream, we have come to an agreement: if it doesn’t hurt when they are using the wounded area, I won’t poke them with the needle.

I explain infection to them every time, knowing that while many of their splinters are shallow enough that the splinter will come out when the skin peels, there will eventually be one that gets infected. When that happens, it’s going to hurt worse than it would have. I’m not a fan of splinters in my own skin, but I know that if I get right in and dig it out, it won’t fester and since I’m the one using the needle, it really doesn’t hurt. A young child definitely doesn’t understand that it would hurt a lot less if she would dig it out herself, nor does my littlest have the motor skills to do that safely.

Words hurt. Sometimes a little and sometimes a lot, depending on who they are from and if they hit a sore spot from someone else. Words get under our skin and fester like so many splinters. Some are easy to ignore because of the truth we use to combat the lies. They lie under the surface but are easy to reject. Sometimes we need talk things through with our loved ones, and they help us reject the lies being spewed by others by speaking truth.

Sometimes words go deep into our souls. They sit and sink deeper and deeper until not only have we accepted the words as truth, but now there are areas and friendships that have been irreversibly damaged. The words of a stranger are easier to ignore unless they hit a sensitive area that we already struggle with, but the words of a friend can cut us so deep and so fast. If you’ve had any relationships in your life, you know what I’m talking about.

The human spirit can endure a sick body, but who can bear a crushed spirit? ~Proverbs 18:14

When words hurt someone, there are two natural reactions: withdrawal to keep from getting hurt worse or defensiveness that usually comes in the form of returning the hurt. While these reactions are natural, neither is healthy if you want to heal from the wound or save the friendship.

Withdrawal yields anger, bitterness, confusion, and resentment to name only a few of the emotions. Defensiveness yields self-justification, anger, bitterness, confusion, and resentment not to mention now both parties involved are nursing wounds from people they thought could be trusted. Both reactions tend to come with another thing that is insidious: gossip. We say we are venting— that we need to talk things out and process so we can have a proper reaction— but all we are doing is slandering someone we call our friend.

Rumors are dainty morsels that sink deep into one’s heart. ~Proverbs 18:8

Relationships are hard. No two ways about it. I have had friends tell me I was toxic. Friends move away. Friendships die without any explanation. Friends die. Friends (and family) hurt me so deeply I have never recovered. The most harsh judgements my husband and I have endured have come from friends and family.

At the same time, I have had friends walk with me when I didn’t think I could go on. Friends step in and help when I couldn’t do what needed to be done. Friends pray for me and with me when I needed support. Friends believe in me and encourage me when I was ready to quit. Friends help heal wounds I never thought I could heal from.

In short: Friendships are amazing, but because people are involved, you’re going to get your feelings hurt at some point. Just because hurt is inevitable doesn’t mean that friendships aren’t worth investing into. Quite the contrary, relationships in general are one of the most valuable things you can invest your time and energy into. My relationship with my husband started as a friendship and, twelve years later, I couldn’t imagine life without him. But this isn’t the marriage edition of this 2-part series. You can read that devotion HERE.

Sometimes you can’t restore a relationship. In the instance when I mentioned that a close friend called me and my family toxic, there was no desire for reconciliation on the part of that friend. Maybe that friend was right— to them I was toxic and they needed to exit the friendship. That friendship ended quickly and never recovered. It has been ten years and that relationship still hurts because I chose to love a friend, to be a friend, and it was not reciprocated.

Sometimes friendships are one sided, much like an unrequited crush. There may be people that you want to be friends with, that you genuinely like, who just don’t return the effort into building a friendship. It doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with you. It doesn’t mean anything is wrong with them. It’s okay to be acquaintances.

How in the middle of the ever-complicated waters of relationships can you restore and maintain friendships, heal hurt, and be a friend?

• Assume your friend has the best intentions. Sometimes friends make a passing comment, and it hurts. Most of the time, they meant absolutely nothing by their words, but it stirs up old wounds and traumas that they knew nothing about. It’s not easy, but it helps prevent so much hurt if we just assume they had the best intention rather than the worst. After all, don’t we call them our friend? Other times a friend may need to call us out on faults and stupidity, and it hurts, but it’s more like the needle digging the splinter out that a festering wound. I have had some amazing friends speak truth into my life that hurt. I needed to hear it, but it didn’t stop the hurt. (Proverbs 27:5-6)

• Choose to trust. Trust that their intention wasn’t malicious. Choose to trust that they aren’t evil people out to get you. They are friends! Not enemies. I can sit on my butt and ruminate about what my friend might have meant by their words and tones, but if I stop and choose to trust that they meant what they said and they said what they meant, suddenly, I have no reason to be hurt. I have to do this constantly with my husband because there are so many health issues and he might look angry, but what I am seeing is overwhelm. He might look hurt, but what I am seeing is physical pain and has nothing to do with my historically sharp tongue. I have to choose to believe him.

• Think about them and what’s going on in their lives before you judge their words. Sometimes there are other factors and you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That doesn’t make it right. But if I get bit because I’m playing with a dog’s food, it’s easier to understand why I’m being bit than when I’m trying to pet a dog and get bit. Understanding circumstances makes it easier to forgive and forget. Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. ~James 1:19

• If you are hurt or they are hurt by you, let tempers cool but don’t wait for years to address the hurt. Our memories play tricks on us. We tend to remember how situations made us feel as life goes on, not as they really happened. (Psalms 4:4 & Ephesians 4:26-27)

• Remember the heart of your friend, who you know them to be. If what you heard doesn’t match who they are, you may be overreacting or have misheard them. There have been times when I have been hurt by things that were said and I resented it for TWO YEARS! When I finally worked up the guts to talk with the friend because what I remembered happening didn’t match their heart and I was tired of walking on eggshells, we were able to restore the relationship. Turns out, that friend was trying to help but thought if she told me the truth, it would hurt me worse. We’re good now, but we wouldn’t be if I hadn’t finally talked it out with that friend. Give them a chance to explain what they really meant. “Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish.” ~Proverbs 18:13

• If at all possible, talk things out face-to-face, never over text. Phone calls and video chats are only allowed if face-to-face isn’t possible. Too many things can be misunderstood when you can’t see the person you’re talking to. Text is only allowed for scheduling conversations. It’s tempting to do everything over text, but you will both be wondering what was really meant by the conversation.

• Sometimes friendships are seasonal, not forever. It breaks my heart to think of all the people I once knew well and now don’t have much of a relationship with. I am not that great at maintaining long distance friendships since I always feel like I am inconveniencing people, but that speaks more to my own insecurities and lack of self-worth than it does to the truth.

Before we wrap up, there is a caveat I needed to mention. These are general relationship principals that work most of the time, but there are toxic relationships, one-way relationships, and abusive relationships— physically, mentally, and spiritually. Sometimes we really are the problem, but there are times when you need to get out of a relationship. If you’re wondering what to do, I would encourage you to find someone to council with whether it’s a professional counselor or a trusted advisor or older friend. Find one or more people who can speak into your life and help you sort out truth from lie.

Until next week, mamas, I pray that God gives you the wisdom you need as you build, rebuild, and repair relationships in your life.

Love,

Cheryl

Email Me

Deeper reading:
All verses are clickable and lead to Bible.com/YouVersion.

Psalms 4:4
Proverbs 4:23
Proverbs 12:18
Proverbs 15:1
Proverbs 15:4
Proverbs 18:8
Proverbs 18:13
Proverbs 18:14
Proverbs 18:19-21
Ephesians 4:26-27
James 1:19
Colossians 3:12-15

This Week on the Time for Mom Podcast:

6/10/2026 — 89 | The Mirror and Scale Are Lying! Love Your Mom Bod and Boost Your Self-Esteem

6/12/2026 — 90 | 5 Biblical Lessons from Growing Pains - Devotion

I had to run at this little guy because my blind dog decided to completely ignore his existence and deer can get a bit touchy when dogs get close. As you can see, I am terrifying… So scary. He stared at me from about 5 yards away until I got bored.

May is such a pretty month. It’s not quite as volatile as other spring months but still holds plenty of adventure! We have snow.

We have gorgeous flowers!

And storms that are highly photogenic even if I don’t have the greatest phone camera.

May is a month that holds a great amount of change for nature and for people. We had family graduating, family getting married, family changing locations, and a whole lot of things that just stayed the same.

Did anything change for Time for Mom? Nothing unless you count the two guest interviews that were released last month!

First, the lovely host of the Confidence for Christian Women came onto Time for Mom in April. The interview I did for her podcast was released in May! Click on the links to listen!

88 | INTERVIEW| Advice for Overwhelmed Moms: Ditch Mom Guilt, Trust in God & Focus on What Matters — with Cheryl Davis

If you missed Nicole’s interview on Time for Mom, you need to listen to her episode: No Purpose in Motherhood? Let’s Find Your Dream Again Special Guest Nicole Naicker.

The second guest appearance was on Her Healthy Body. I had so much fun with all of these ladies - Coryn & Crysanne, a mother-daughter duo who are dedicated to helping women live healthy lives. Be on the lookout! My interview with them is going to be released in June. 🥳🥳🥳

207: Why Investing in Your Marriage Makes You a Better Mom with Cheryl Davis

Now on to my favorite part: more pretty pictures!

I just love sunsets. The colors, the calm, the evening cool… It’s just so life giving.

We saw some stunning mountains in May. They made our local Montana range look a bit like hills. Oh well… The top picture in the collage is the Sawtooth Mountains by Stanley, Idaho. They are WAY more impressive in person.

The bottom two in the collage are the Wallowa Mountains. Again, you need to see them in person to fully appreciate their size and beauty.

What’s the point in being at a lake if you can’t put your feet in it?

That’s all for Time for Mom!

Until next month, I’ll meet you in the Time for Mom podcast and in the next Devotion!

Love,

Cheryl

P.S.

Here is my children’s favorite musical selection for you: The Davis Music! (as they call it)

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Springtime is beautiful and it always brings more of one unexpected thing: splinters. As soon as the weather warms up and my children start to play outside, they start getting tons of splinters. Mostly shallow, but it doesn’t take much to reduce my children to a puddle of tears when these dreaded things are at play. Splinters are worse than shots, worse than an amputation! Okay, maybe not, but there is still a lot of screaming and crying involved to remove the offending slivers from delicate skin.

Splinters are hard because some will be fine and others will get infected, and my kids would rather face infection than a needle – mostly because they’ve never faced infection. No one wants the thing that causes hurt removed. No one wants to see Mommy coming at them armed with a needle and tweezers. But Mommy knows that an untreated splinter can be worse than her needle.

Sometimes we have to dig out the nasty things even though it will hurt in the process. If it’s too deep, it won’t heal on its own. Once the thing causing the pain is removed, then the true healing can start. The point between getting the wound and healing the wound is often the most painful part of the process.

Words can bring life or death (Proverbs 18:21) and words shared between a husband and wife cut quicker and deeper than words from a stranger. The easiest person to hurt is the one who loves us the most. We get comfortable. We get careless. We see our loved ones as safe and blast them with our out-of-control emotions instead of using all those regulation techniques we try to teach our children. Instead of chopping wood, punching some dough, or aggressively cleaning, we let loose our tongues and wonder what happened.

The sad truth is that if you are human, you will undoubtedly hurt your spouse with something you say. Maybe you meant to hurt them, most likely you didn’t, but I would be lying if I said I had never deliberately used my words to hurt my husband in a moment of anger. I have. I have also regretted it when I saw the hurt come across his face because I had accomplished what seemed like an okay idea in the moment. When this happens— and it will— you have to confess your mistake, apologize, and ask for forgiveness. If you don’t, your words will fester and become like an infection in their soul. If you know or even suspect you hurt your loved one, get out that metaphorical needle and open the conversation. You don’t have to give things said or even unsaid an opportunity to fester. If your spouse is angry with you, they may need to calm down before you talk things out. This waiting period is pure torture, but the end results are far healthier than pushing your spouse to talk when they need to do a little emotional regulation themselves. Ask me how I know… (We will circle back to this.)

The easiest person to get hurt by is the one that we love the most.

When you love someone, you are vulnerable to them. They can hurt you more deeply than any internet troll ever could. But by opening yourself up to love and being loved, you have the opportunity to be accepted for who you are in a way that most relationships just don’t allow. Because I love my husband, Eric, I care about what he says, what he thinks, and his opinions more than anyone else. I care about what my parents and siblings say and think as well, but my husband is the most important.

This level of vulnerability makes it easy to get hurt, even without intention, because you care about your loved one’s opinions. Most of the time, when my husband says or does something that hurts me, he is completely unaware. Eric isn’t malicious. He is actually far more cautious about what he says than I am. Sometimes it’s a matter of my emotional state when a comment is made. Sometimes, it’s another scar or wound that neither one of us knew was an issue. Sometimes I am just tired and pretty much everything can be taken the wrong way.

Not so long ago, this happened. My husband made a comment that hurt my overly sensitive feelings. It shouldn’t have. I knew he didn’t mean it the way my brain decided to take it because my husband wouldn’t have said something like that on purpose. For some reason, knowing that didn’t stop the hurt, but because I knew my husband’s heart, it made it easier to pull him aside later and talk it out.

The Bible has two verses that I love to use for instances when I am hurt and maybe even a little mad:

And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. ~Ephesians 4:26-27

and

Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent. ~Psalms 4:4

These two verses encapsulate how I need to handle things and Eric needs to handle things. Eric will always take the time to calm down, even overnight if he needs to (Psalms 4:4). I need to talk things out almost immediately (Ephesians 4:26-27) because my imagination runs wild and I have a difficult time taking captive every thought .

I can’t let things that bother or hurt me go unconfronted. If I do, my mind goes crazy, accepting what was said as truth. Sometimes I have arguments with the person that hurt me and suddenly they have said so many hurtful things… only I have been having the conversation in my imagination. The offending person isn’t guilty of the things I had them saying in my imaginary conversation. The longer I wait, the more hurt I will be until all that hurt explodes out of me in an epic confrontation that leaves all parties worse off than before.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had this happen so many times with my husband, Eric. It didn’t happen much while we were dating because we were still on our best behavior, reciting sonnets to commemorate our love for each other. No, we didn’t really do this. Still, while we were dating, we were very much in the building phase so we were on our best behaviors all the time, completely twitterpated, and obviously would never get mad at each other…

Once we were married and in consistent face-to-face contact (long distance relationship here), we had the opportunity to let more of our freckles and warts show to our spouse. We started finding triggers we didn’t know we had, wounds we never thought to warn each other about, and got to put into practice those relationship books that we read during the dating and engagement phases.

All that advise that we got to put into practice is what I will leave you with today:

• It’s not about who is right and who is wrong, it’s about mending the relationship and restoring trust, love, and respect.

• Tell them what you heard and ask if that’s what they meant – no accusations, just humility and respect for your spouse. Give them a chance to explain what they really meant. “Spouting off before listening to the facts is both shameful and foolish.” ~Proverbs 18:13

• Take the first step towards reconciliation, even if you’re the one who is hurt.

• Remember the heart of your loved one. If what you heard doesn’t match who they are, you may be overreacting or have misheard them.

• If you are getting angry, pause and calm down. Continue when tempers are cooled.

• Have fight rules. Things you and your spouse aren’t allowed to do when you are working through disagreements. Examples: My husband isn’t allowed to walk away and never complete the discussion. If he needs to Psalms 4:4 the conversation and calm down and think things through, he can, but I need to know if he needs a full night and isn’t avoiding things. I have to approach disagreements with respect in mind because disrespect and accusations make my husband shut down. Some people say no yelling or breaking things. Others say if they have to fight, they fight naked and the first person to laugh loses. There are no rules but the ones you make.

Until next week, may your marriage be filled with kind words like honey— sweet to the soul and healthy for the body. But if not, remember that a gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare.

Love,

Cheryl

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Deeper reading:
All verses are clickable and lead to Bible.com/YouVersion.

Psalms 4:4
Proverbs 4:23
Proverbs 12:18
Proverbs 15:1
Proverbs 15:4
Proverbs 18:8
Proverbs 18:13
Proverbs 18:14
Proverbs 18:19-21
Ephesians 4:26-27
James 1:19

This Week on the Time for Mom Podcast:

6/3/2026 — 87 | Slow the Summer Down! A Gentle Reset to Break Comparison and Mom Guilt

6/5/2026 — 88 | 4 Practical Ways for Moms to Reduce Spiritual Growing Pains - Devotion

(This devotion was originally published March 25, 2025.)

Do you have kids? Children are amazing. There are many upsides to having children (beyond the child tax credit), like their little giggles, smiles, and glares that make it almost impossible to keep a straight face.

Our girls added a whole new dynamic to our marriage. We thoroughly enjoyed our first four years of married life. They were easy for Eric and I (I know this isn't always the case for couples), but when our oldest was born everything started to change. From having to share my body with more than my husband to all of my time and attention being split between my husband and our children, marriage became harder. In the middle of navigating the dynamic shift, we were also trying to survive an unexpected chronic illness that struck my husband in the same time period.

Marriage takes a lot of intentionality, and we did the best we could. We took time for hugs and kisses, snuck in a lot of conversations while the kids were asleep, and occasionally asked my parents to take the kids for more serious conversations. After five years of constantly being Mom and Dad and only being Eric and Cheryl in the wee hours of the morning and at night, it was time to take our intentionality to the next level.

So, we planned, and we Googled. We held a budget meeting to make sure we could swing the financial side of our plan. We made sure Grandma and Papa were available and even had a backup babysitter, just in case. Finally, we made a reservation for an overnight stay in a nearby town with about a month to prepare.

Anticipation built as the day approached. I started planning our meals so we wouldn't have to eat out. We picked a few games too advanced for our girls (any Dominion fans out there?) and even grabbed our copy of Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage. Unfortunately, the hotel didn't have a DVD player, but they did have a jacuzzi tub in the room!

Finally, it was time! We kissed the girls, gave them hugs, and left them in Grandma and Papa's capable hands for a long overdue time with just us, no children. For about 20 hours, we didn't have to be on constant call. We could talk about anything without having to worry about the little ears and their ever growing understanding and curious minds. We could stop for a hug and not have a child clinging to one or both of our legs. I could sleep an entire night without being disturbed by one or several instances of crying and the long "Moooooooooom!" that tended to break up my nights.

Why did we feel the need to spend all that time and effort to get away overnight? Well, we missed being able to focus on each other. When children are introduced, they always seem to need something even if it's just a watchful eye. There have been many hard conversations since our oldest girl was born when Eric or I were feeling disconnected from the other. Those are not fun conversations, but they are a natural side effect from learning to be a family.

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I don't know about you, but I started to see a pattern to maintaining and growing our marriage and maintaining and growing my relationship with the Lord.

When I first really became a Christian in my early teen years, the Bible I was raised with took on a new and exciting light. I'd always loved the story side of the Bible, but now there was so much more to it. The promises, wisdom and character of God held within its sacred pages began to come alive in a way it never had before. I read the Bible, memorized scripture, and went to church a few times a week. It was cool, it was new, and it was fascinating. Being a Christian was easy.

But when my dad got sick, I was just trying to survive. I didn't distance myself from God, but I didn't know how to handle things, so I reverted to what I knew. I worked at my job, at home, and I studied and read books, but I wasn't reading the Bible. Things got better for my dad, but the shiny newness of my faith was gone. Years passed and I went through periods where I was in God's word and going to church or small groups and other times when I wasn't.

I had to get married and move away from everything I knew before I began to be consistently intentional about my relationship with the Lord.

I finally read the Bible from cover to cover in a year. I didn't realize how many of the books of the Bible were written in overlapping time periods and actually built on each other. Who knew!

I started journaling regularly – writing out my prayers, observations in the scriptures or verses that leapt out. All of a sudden, God's voice became a whole lot easier to hear. I actually felt his presence for the first time during worship at church. I worked up the courage to go to church with or without my husband as he often had to work. I was asked to volunteer and said yes, which opened up a whole new world for me. There's a lot that goes into church that I was completely unaware of.

For the first time, I was as close to God as I dreamed was possible.

Then we lost our first baby in a miscarriage, my heart broke, but God revealed just how precious I to him through the loss of that baby.

Our first daughter was born during COVID, and God's peace has never been stronger.

Eric got sick and we hit our knees, depending on God because the doctors were failing us.

Things started to get better and busier as our child got older and we added a second baby. But it became harder for me to be intentional with spending time with God – in His Word, praying, journaling, it all got harder. I stopped trying, convincing myself I was too busy, too tired, and too overwhelmed to make time for God. I didn't forget about God, but my relationship stopped growing. The passion I had for being in his word and praying in my journal faded. Hearing God's voice and feeling his presence became more and more rare.

When Eric grew ill again, I had a foundation of faith that kept me from crumbling. I saw what God could do firsthand. I had experienced his provision, and I basked in God's love when we were in times of plenty and times of hardship. Just because I hadn't been intentional in my relationship with God, didn't mean I forgot God, I had just stopped relying on him.

My situation didn't grow easier, but I knew how to ease the burden of our circumstance. God was always there, waiting for me to remember that I needed him. And when I cried out, he met me where I was, wrapping us in his presence, and assuring us that it was going to be okay with the comfort of his peace which defied all understanding.

Staying intentional with your relationship with God can be hard and other times being intentional is really easy. There will be seasons when it feels like your soul is crying out to God whether you're awake or asleep and others when you may neglect to pray for a few days or weeks. Unlike a spouse, God doesn't grab you by the hand and say, "Honey, we need to talk." But God does give gentle reminders by his Spirit that he is still there and waiting for you. Some of these are very subtle and others are much harder to ignore.

The Hebrew word 'Zahkor' means 'Remember' and it appears 169 times in the Old Testament. 'Zahkor' appears 15 times in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is Moses' farewell speech to the Israelites. Their life is about to change dramatically from being 100% dependent on God for everything while they wandered the wilderness, to entering the promised land, to being in a position where they could provide for themselves, and temptation would arise to stop depending on God. The entire book of Deuteronomy can be summed up within one sentence: Remember God and what he has done for you when life becomes easy. Comfortable, plenty of wealth, no longer slaves, enjoying plenty of food, and enjoying the land God gave them, they forgot God in only one generation (Judges 2:10).

Here are seven simple things you can do to be intentional with your relationship with God:

1. Set aside time to read or listen to the Bible every day. You can even listen to the Bible on YouVersion during the menial and mindless tasks of your day. — Psalm 63:1, Luke 5:16, & John 15:1-17

2. 'Never stop praying. ' 1 Thessalonians 5:17 — Philippians 4:6-7

3. Write down what you learn in the valleys of life, so when you are in a season of rest, you can look back and remember what God did and praise him. — 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Psalm 77:11-12 & Psalm 103:2

4. Share what God has done and who he has been while you were walking through those hard times. — Luke 8:39, Psalm 71:14-17, Psalm 105:1-5 & Matthew 5:16

5. Meet with other believers or a good friend and hold each other accountable. — Hebrew 10:23-25

6. Read books by amazing people in the faith. Here are a few suggestions to get you started: Corrie Ten Boom, Elizabeth Elliot, C.S. Lewis, and Joni Eareckson Tada.

7. Share with your kids what God has done. — Deuteronomy 6:6-9 & Proverbs 22:6

Some of you are in valleys that look dark and hopeless and some of you are in a season of rest, so today I leave you with a quote from Charles Spurgeon:

You are making a difference in the lives of your family. Take heart, Momma, God is with you.

Love,

Cheryl

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Deeper reading:
Verses are clickable and lead to YouVersion.

Deuteronomy
Judges 2:10
Psalm 63:1
Luke 5:16
John 15:1-17
1 Thessalonians 5:17
Philippians 4:6-7
1 Thessalonians 5:18
Psalm 77:11-12
Psalm 103:2
Luke 8:39
Psalm 71:14-17
Psalm 105:1-5
Matthew 5:16
Hebrew 10:23-25
Deuteronomy 6:6-9
Proverbs 22:6

This Week on the Time for Mom Podcast:

5/27/2026 — 85 | Overwhelmed by Your To-Do List? Part 2: Finding the Solution

5/29/2026 — 86 | SAHM Priorities and the Dreams God Revives - Devotion

Scams are everywhere these days. I get five to fifteen scam calls a day. There are scam emails, scam ads, scam sales, scam websites… and as if that isn’t enough, there are also in-person scams. We are surrounded by lies and deception at seemingly every turn.

A friend recently got scammed. This friend is intelligent, skeptical of most things, and knowledgeable enough to make me scratch my head as to how they got taken in by this seemingly obvious lie.

This particular scam was two people posing as police officers, one being aggressive and the other being more understanding. This is a tactic commonly called good cop/bad cop. These scammers told my friend that there was a warrant for their arrest for failing to appear in court for jury duty. My friend needed to post bail in very specific and to me elaborate ways of sending money through various apps like PayPal, Apple Pay, Venmo, and crypto currency machines. Again, this was not face-to-face but over the phone. The scammers sent pictures of the warrants, the serving paperwork that showed a delivery signature that was obviously not my friend’s signature. These scammers told my friend that they had to go to the bank and pull money out that was just under the limit banks are required to report. They also said my friend was under a gag order so they couldn’t tell anybody what was going on and they had to stay on the phone at all times. As if that wasn’t enough, they made my friend drive to a town over an hour away to where these cryptocurrency machines were so the money could be transferred into cryptocurrency which allows scammers to grab the money and disappear without a trace. They just kept coming up with more ways to scam money until my friend couldn’t come up with any. Once the scammers realized they couldn’t get any more, they told my friend that they were going to kill them and their family and hung up.

Now you are probably reading this wondering how someone fell for this scam, but there are some things you should know:

• It’s easier to see the truth if you’re not the one being targeted by lies. Don’t judge my friend.

• The aggressive nature of these scams causes survival instincts to kick in: fight, flight, or freeze, and the scammers are prepared for all three responses.

• When survival instincts are at play, logic and reason are not.

• All they needed was one piece of truth to sell their lies: the local sheriff department phone number.

We like to think that we are not susceptible to these “obvious” lies, but what if we are?

The first “scam” was recorded in Genesis 3.

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

“Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

Why Eve added that she couldn’t touch it, I don’t know, but she did.

“You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

The serpent used truth to deceive.

The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

They didn’t die immediately, but death entered the world through this scam. Our separation from God started with a half-truth.

When we are being scammed by the enemy of our souls, he likes to use the same tactics over and over because they work. He knows how to appeal to our flesh and twist God’s words. He doesn’t use variety. In the story in Genesis, the serpent invites Eve to question God’s heart by catching her in her own over embellishment of what God had said. The serpent appeals to pride which is the foundation of so many of our sins, telling her she will be like God.

Contrast the first scam to what the devil tried to pull on Jesus when He was at His weakest:

Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.
Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.”
But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone.’”
Then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please. I will give it all to you if you will worship me.”
Jesus replied, “The Scriptures say,
‘You must worship the Lord your God
and serve only him.’”
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say,
‘He will order his angels to protect and guard you.
And they will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’”
Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”
When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came. ~Luke 4:1-13 (Emphasis mine.)

The devil tried to appeal to pride, use the discomfort of hunger, greed, which is just another form of pride, and eventually twisted God’s words found in Psalms 91:11-12 to goad Jesus into proving His identity. But Jesus knew something that Eve should have known: God’s heart and God’s words. Each time Jesus responded to the devil he used God’s words found in Deuteronomy! Jesus used the foundational teachings of Torah or the Pentateuch, not some logical argument. Deuteronomy repeats most of the laws God gave the Israelites. It was and is a foundational book for all Jews and maybe, just maybe, it should be foundational for modern Christians. The next time someone tries to tell you that the Old Testament is obsolete, remember that Jesus used the Old Testament to rebuke the devil and that is also what He used for His own teachings.

So how do we keep from falling prey to spiritual “scams”?

But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. ~2 Timothy 3:14-17

1. You have to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. If all you know of the Bible are bits and pieces you saw on a bumper sticker or coffee cup, it is easy to believe someone who has twisted scripture to fit their own agendas because it seems like truth.

2. Have a relationship with the Author of truth: God. If you are living an active spiritual lifestyle, it can be harder to be deceived because you are in constant communication with the Lord. Right up until the moment your pride comes before a fall…

3. Stay humble - ask for the Lord’s help. Jesus gave a wonderful prayer to repeat, meditate on, write on our heart, and use to draw closer to God.

Our Father in heaven,
may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins,
as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one. ~ Matthew 6:9-13

Know the truth so you can teach your children to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16)

Until next week, mamas, may the Lord protect your heart, soul, and body from the scams against you.

Love,

Cheryl

Email Me

Deeper reading:
All verses are clickable and lead to Bible.com/YouVersion.

Genesis 3
Proverbs 16:18
Matthew 4:1-11
Matthew 6:9-13
Matthew 10:16
Luke 4:1-13

This Week on the Time for Mom Podcast:

5/20/2026 — 83 | Stop Being Overwhelmed by the To-Do List - Part 1

5/22/2026 — 84 | The Cost of Compromise - Devotion

Have you ever been in a position where you knew life was going to change and you needed to change with it?

My family is in a transitional season, much like nature is in Montana. My kids are changing developmentally (more on that in this week’s Time for Mom podcast episode), one kid is gaining and losing teeth, I’m quitting my job, the business my husband and dad started is seeing new customers, a car is dying… There is just a lot of change, and I am not a fan. But I am a fan of being obedient to God, and quitting is one of those crazy obedience things that isn’t a logical decision but an act of trust in the Lord. Since we know this economic transition is coming, I am trying to prepare and learn to live on as little as possible. We do a decent job of living within our means, and trusting God to provide, but this coming season feels like it’s going to take us to a whole new level of trusting the Lord.

We do not know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future.

In preparing for this life change, my brain decided we need to do things a little more like my Depression era Grandma did, and how my mom has done things. Some of these changes are easy, and some seem like they are foolish, but yield surprising results.

Have you ever looked at what you can do with scraps? Not just fabric scraps which can be turned into adorable, useful, or decorative items, but food scraps like used coffee grounds, citrus peels, eggshells, and chicken bones. What I often see as garbage or at best compost, held a lot of uses to someone like my grandma and could often transform a meal or be transformed into something useful and often healthy.

Currently concocting on my kitchen counter is strawberry vinegar made from the tops of strawberries and a pineapple drink called tepache that uses the pineapple skins! Next up is apple cider vinegar and fruit juice from scraps. This is just scratching the surface of what generations before us have done to make food stretch.

When I was thinking about turning what is usually scraps and garbage into things that are useful and healthy, I started thinking about how God asks for our best, for our first fruits, to be first in our lives and how often that is not what we do.

I find that it is very easy to put my phone first instead of God. It’s more comfortable to tithe with my leftover finances instead of giving to God first. I have found that it is easier to make excuses and give God the scraps of my life instead of the best of my life.

God is amazing. He convicts me of giving Him the scraps, but He still uses, transforms, and multiplies what is freely given.

God doesn’t have to have our first fruits, our best, but shouldn’t we give it to Him anyway? After all, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to Him.” ~Psalms 24:1

I’m as flawed as anybody. I like doing things my way. I like doing things how society has programmed me because I am used to it, but that doesn’t make it right.

When I accepted Christ into my life, He called me to walk a different path from the rest of the world – to be separate from the world that I live in, and part of that separation means I need to give my best to God first and not discard what little is left at the end of the day.

Part of the purpose of giving the first of the harvest and flocks in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, was choosing to trust God for the rest of the harvest through being obedient to His commandments. Isn’t that what we are called to do? Trust in the Lord with all that we are and have? To lean not on our own understanding? (Proverbs 3:5-6)

I’ve written about how God has provided in amazing and uncanny ways that have absolutely nothing to do with money (read that devotion HERE). If we limit our view of provision to money alone, we will be sorely disappointed because God doesn’t function within the confines of money. Money is a minute way that He can provide, and in my experience is the least likely way He will provide for our needs.

Giving and tithing to God as the Bible teaches is not about giving out of our abundance. It’s about giving out of trust in our God and He is faithful to provide for us. It has absolutely nothing to do with God needing what we have to give (remember everything is His anyway) and everything to do with the condition of our souls and hearts and whether or not we trust God as our loving Father.

God has proven to be faithful and trustworthy even when I have not been. My husband has always strived to err on the side of generosity and has had to lead me in that because I am a hoarder and I hold tight to all that is “mine”. In the last 10 years of marriage, I have learned that the tighter I cling to things – money, possessions, even food – the more unhappy I am. Whereas when I open my hand, surrender my possessive nature and give freely back to the Lord and to people, I am not burdened by anxiety and worry because I am trusting that God will provide for us.

If you feel like the tax collector Jesus talks about in Luke 18:9-14, with nothing left to give but your sins, inadequacies, pain, trauma, and tears, don’t worry. When you trust God with what you have, He can turn even the scraps into beautiful useful things. Trust God with what you have, not with what you wish you had.

Until next week, may the Creator of all things reveal His provision in your life.

Love,

Cheryl

Email Me

Deeper reading:
All verses are clickable and lead to Bible.com/YouVersion.

Exodus 23:19
Exodus 34:26
Psalms 24:1
Proverbs 3:9-10
Matthew 6:19-34
Luke 6:38
Luke 18:9-14
1 Corinthians 1:24-29
2 Corinthians 9

This Week on the Time for Mom Podcast:

5/13/2026 — 81 | Why Am I Overreacting? Stop Mom Guilt and Find Peace

5/15/2026 — 82 | I Am Not My Own - Devotion

Being Sunday, maybe you’re headed to church where you get more, “Happy Mother’s Day” greetings a craft from your child’s Sunday School, and then back to home where you cook lunch, clean lunch, and try to remind yourself you should be resting.

By the time the sun goes down (or at least your children go to bed) you’re tired. You’ve had a full and relatively normal day, so what makes Mother’s Day special?

Mother’s Day is SUPPOSED to be about celebrating the Mom and giving her the “day off” which usually results in way more work for Mom in the early years. What Makes Mother’s Day special to me isn’t necessarily the obligatory gift my husband got me - he bought me socks that I’ve been wanting in case you are wondering. Ever try Darn Tough socks? They are EPIC!”

What makes Mother’s Day special for me is the reminder that my kids are a blessing - not being served by my family.

Those sticky hugs and kisses, arguing with a child who insists nudity is perfectly acceptable dress code, Sunday school crafts, the attempts by little ones to make it special are all reminders that I have two reasons to be thankful on days like today: my girls.

I hope you are able to celebrate today and that it is special for you but if not, please hear me:

Momma, you are amazing. God made a special woman. You may not feel precious, valuable or special when you are breaking up fights and getting cheerios out of your own hair, but you are incredible.

Mom News:

There isn’t much!

The live Time, Faith & Motherhood Chat may be scheduled on a different day this month. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it! The time will still be: 1pm PST - 2pm MST - 3pm CST - 4pm EST

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Here’s some pictures!

God gave us one final snowstorm in April! Our Elkhound loved it!

Our pretty sunset for last month!

Until next month, I’ll meet you in the Time for Mom podcast and in the next Devotion!

Love,

Cheryl

Email Cheryl

Remember to catch up on the Time for Mom Podcast!

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My child, listen when your father corrects you. Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction. What you learn from them will crown you with grace and be a chain of honor around your neck. ~Proverbs 1:8-9

Did you know Mother’s Day is this Sunday?!? Crazy right?

I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t be here without my mother – literally or figuratively. She raised me along with my dad. They guided and disciplined me. Told me no on many things and yes on others. They filled my head with their wisdom and maybe a touch of exacerbation when I just wasn’t listening. So today, in honor of my mom, I am sharing some of her words with you.

These are listed in no particular order. Some of these are from when I was a child and others, she told me once my husband and I had our own children.

What words of wisdom has your mother given you? Please comment with a story or saying that has helped you over the years or maybe one that made you laugh.

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Until next week, I pray that God brings the words of your mom, grandma or mother figure to mind as Mother’s Day approaches. And remember, someday your words will be grace and a chain of honor around their neck.

Love,

Cheryl

Email Me

Deeper reading:
All verses are clickable and lead to Bible.com/YouVersion.

Proverbs 1:8-9
Proverbs 17:6
Proverbs 22:6
1 Peter 4:8

This Week on the Time for Mom Podcast:

5/6/26 — 79 | Count Your Blessings - The Benefits of Multigenerational Living

5/8/2026 — 80 | Children Bear Our Image, so We Bear God’s Image - Devotion