Show Notes
On today’s first podcast we are talking about where our peace comes from.
Hello, welcome to the Peaceful Nest Podcast, where I hope you find the beauty and everyday motherhood.
I am Jenna Jury your host mother of four, author of the Peaceful Nest Blog. My desire is to help each mother know who they are in Christ and to find value in their motherhood journey no matter what season they may be in right now.
I am so excited that you are here today. Let’s get started.
Today we are going to be talking about where does our peace come from.
This is a question that I have thought about quite a bit. As you know, whether you’re new here, or whether you’ve been a reader for a long time, the focus of my blog is on creating a peaceful home. Most moms want their home to be a safe haven for their children and their family and for themselves.
So, our desire tends to be creating a peaceful place for our families to reside in to come home, and when they’re feeling stressed and worried, a safe haven. But how do we do this when the pressures of the world threaten to come in all the time?
This is a question I ask myself constantly because if I’m writing about it. I want to make sure I’m sharing with you all the things I have learned in my own motherhood journey that have helped me become more peaceful but also share with you my struggles and what I am having difficulty doing as a mother when it comes to creating a peaceful home for my family.
So, the question is. Where does our peace come from?
Does it come from the world? Or Does it come from having the nicest things? Does it come from never arguing and does it come from having no conflict within the walls of our home or even on the outside of our home? Or does it come from somewhere much deeper as a mom? When we first became moms, we had so many people telling us what it would be like to be a mom. How a mom should be. What a mom should do, and then we have these pictures of motherhood, whether it’s on the TV, in the books we read in society, in the famous people around us, what type of mom do you want to be? What about your mother?
How is she as a mother? Are you modeling yourself after her, after your grandma? Or are you trying to be something completely different? These are things that come up when we are when we first become mothers. So, in our search for creating a motherhood journey that is peaceful and joyful and loving, it can be easy to lose ourselves in the idea of what a mother should be
But what should a mother be?
What does God say? A mother should be? We are here to steward our children, to show them love and compassion, but it’s so much more than that. You are more than a mother. You were formed, fearfully and wonderfully formed in your mother’s womb. God created you with a plan and a purpose. And that plan and purpose was not to feel stressed and worried all the time.
So, this brings us back to what the world says about motherhood.
In today’s society, moms are feeling pressure from all kinds of sides. We feel the responsibility of rearing our children to be a certain way. Make sure they are loving. Make sure they are inclusive. We also are told to make sure they are smart and in all the activities and then on top of that we have the burden of housekeeping, making sure our house is picture perfect and that we’re keeping up with the Joneses. This is how moms start to feel if they are looking to society to tell them who they are as a mother.
What type of food are you feeding your child? Are you breastfeeding? Or are you formula feeding? Are you using cloth diapers or are you using disposable diapers? These are all questions that moms get asked by society, whether verbally or just by the image that society creates for moms.
So as a mom. When you first become a mom, if you look to society to tell you who you are supposed to be, you will become confused, and it will become really difficult to figure out who God created you to be as a mom. And in today’s society as well, it can be very easy for us to take on more responsibilities than we can juggle.
Sometimes this is because of necessity. The price of living has gone up. The economy is not at its best right now, and so moms are feeling pressure to not only take care of their children and the household, but also provide and help provide for their families. This goes for moms who may be single or moms who don’t have the extra help from their spouse. These are pressures that can build up in us as we go on our motherhood journey.
These are things that can make it extremely difficult to figure out who we are as a mom and also create a peaceful home that we want for our families.
When we take on too many responsibilities then we try to do everything on our own.
After I had my fourth child. I went to the doctor, it was, I think maybe, her four-week checkup. Maybe it was her two-week checkup. I was feeling real… after having children…. Sometimes I feel kind of sad and overwhelmed and really, I wouldn’t say postpartum, but really, you know those hormones that you feel after having a baby?
If you are not going through this severe postpartum, these normal baby blues are what they call them. I was experiencing some baby Blues and so this is a doctor I have been with since I was a kid. She knows me. One of the best things about living in a small town is being able to grow up with your physician who knows your history.
She knows everything, she’s been with me through all of my children, the birth of my children.
Also, when I was a little girl, she knew me. And she knows my family. And so, after she checked out my child… well, I want to back up a little bit. My 4th… our 4th living child. We have five children. One has passed away and is in heaven, but we have 4 living children. After having our 4th living child, Miss L, she was diagnosed with a heart condition.
It’s mild, but at the time we were unsure of what was really going on, so I was feeling the stress and the overwhelm of the appointments and just worrying about her, worrying about losing her. After already losing our first child and then almost possibly losing our second child and then now our 4th living child was born with a heart condition. And so, I was just feeling the strain of being a mom. And she assessed my child, our child, and she reassured me that she was growing perfectly fine, that she was doing amazing and that she was right on track with what she was doing. We would figure out what was going on with her heart and everything would be fine.
She turned and she looked at me and she said,” Jenna. I know you and I know that you like to take everything on yourself. You think you need to do everything on your own, please, please do not do that. Do not do that to yourself and do not do that to your family. You have family that will help you. Do not take on all the responsibility and try to do it all.”
This came as a shock to me because I thought I was hiding the fact that I like to do everything on my own. But I was wrong, obviously, because my doctor, who I don’t see all the time, knew that I was trying to do everything on my own. This really helped me put into perspective my responsibilities, what was really important and what I could let other people do.
It helps to have somebody else tell you, “You don’t need to do everything on your own.” Mama, you do not need to do everything on your own.
You are not Superwoman even though we think we are Superwoman. Even though we think we are super moms, we are not super moms. We are awesome moms. But we do not have to do everything on our own. So, when we try to do everything on our own and we try to find peace in the world. And we start trying to get peace in ourselves. That’s when we get led to burnout. That’s when we start not feeling our best as mothers, not being capable of doing what God has called us to do as moms.
So, can we obtain peace on our own?
I believe that people can live peaceful lives and not rely on Christ. If you’re thinking of peace from the world standards. If you’re thinking about peace, there being a lack of war, a lack of conflict and everybody getting along, then yes, you can have a peaceful life. But if you’re thinking about peace in the way that God gives it, the peace that surpasses all understanding, then no, you cannot get peace. From the world, or from yourself, that type of peace only comes from God.
Lack of war, lack of conflict, people getting along. These are all great concepts, concepts that many people should strive for. When possible, I believe that we can live together in unity. God tells us that we can live together in unity, but this type of peace is not the peace I’m talking about. When we are creating a peaceful home environment for ourselves and our families, it’s important to start where our peace actually comes from. In Philippians 4:6-7, it says” do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
The Peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
This type of peace is the peace that nobody can understand. It transcends all understanding. It’s not possible to understand God’s peace.
God is peace. It’s not possible to understand where this peace comes from. We know it comes from God, but how can you have this type of peace when everything in the world is just feels like it’s crumbling down? This peace of God, it’s different than the typical piece that we think of. This is the peace that will guard your heart, joins you together with God. It allows you to know that you are in the palm of His hand.
What does it mean to surpass all understanding?
This is peace that does not make any sense. In times when your heart should be in turmoil, your mind is full of worry and anxiety. When a lot of people would be spiraling. You can have the peace of God. Peace that surpasses all understanding. It is possible. When we want to create a peaceful and calm home for ourselves and our family,
Let’s start with remembering where that peace comes from. It comes from God. You can go to him with your anxieties and your worries. You can cast your cares onto him, then the peace you desire for your family. It can begin to happen. We might not understand it. We might not know exactly where it’s coming from. Maybe we don’t even know when it will happen, but it can happen. Because this peace, this peace is God. In John 14:27. It says, “peace, I leave with you, my peace, I give to you not as the world gives. Do I give? You let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
This peace is God.
He is the God of peace, and it is possible to have this peace in your life and in your home. If we try to find this peace outside of God, it will lead us to burnout. It will lead us to try to do everything on our own, but we don’t have to try to do everything on our own.
As mothers we can go to God with our burdens with our troubles with our anxieties.
Whatever we may be feeling in the moment, he will give us that peace that surpasses all understanding. You have to actually give it to him though, because if we go to God and we say here God here are all my anxieties and then we get immediately up and grab those anxieties back. He’s not able to give us his peace. It’s not, it’s not going to happen, and when we leave to try to do everything on our own and trying to obtain peace within ourselves, peace apart from God and trying to do everything apart from God, it will only hurt our motherhood journey.
It will only hurt the peace in our home, to the point where…. It may be subtle.
You know you may not feel it right away. It might just be little things. You’re no longer going to the word of God. You’re no longer going to God in prayer. Instead of praying to God, you are trying to do it on your own. You’re taking on too many responsibilities. You’re snapping at your children because you’re taking on too many responsibilities. These things start out subtly. They don’t happen overnight. And when those happen, eventually they build up and they build up and they build up to the point where it is hurting you, it is hurting your motherhood journey. And then it’s hurting the peace that you have in your house.
But if you want a peaceful home, it starts with God.
And it starts with resting in God. How do we rest in God, and why is it important to rest in God? When we find our rest in peace in God, he will restore us. He will renew our souls and our hearts. God will give us His peace. He will give us what he knows we need when we come to Him for our rest. We have to rest in God.
As mothers we have so much on our minds and our plates and our hearts, and if we do not rest we will… Eventually it leads to burnouts, and we will stop and join our motherhood journey. You start listening to God by going to him with devotions, going to him with prayer, going to him… getting into the word of God and figuring out what it is that He is saying to you as a mom.
But you also rest in God by not taking on too many responsibilities.
Saying no. The things you know, it’s just not like during this season in your life. Making yourself and your self-care a priority because when you take care of yourself as a mom, you are taking care of your children. when you don’t take care of yourself as a mom. You are not taking care of your children the way that you can.
We believe that we need to sacrifice ourselves and our self-care often because we are moms and our children come first. But here’s the thing. We cannot pour from an empty cup. I know you have heard this before. If we are not resting in God. And allowing him to fill our cups up, we have nothing to pour out into our children and into our homes and into our spouse. So, it starts with knowing where our peace comes from. It starts with resting in God, we can’t find peace from anywhere except through Christ. This is important if we truly want to create a peaceful home for our children.
I hope you have enjoyed this podcast today and I look forward to being with you next week.
You can read more on becoming a peaceful parent at the peacefulnestblog.com. You can follow me on Instagram and Facebook at Creative Homeschoolers on Instagram and the Peaceful Nest Blog on Facebook. Tune In next week, when we will explore the question is God’s peace possible in today’s society?
If you are new to the Peaceful Nest Blog, welcome!
Be sure to read my top posts on parenting:
- Why Consistent Parenting Matters
- 12 Habits of Immensely Peaceful Moms
- 63 Mom Hacks That Are Pure Genius
- Connect With Your Child and Build Up Their Heart
- 14 Ways to Say Goodbye to Angry Mom
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