Latest / The Lila Rose Show / Zen and the Art of Motherhood: How to Make the Most of Time with Littles w/Emily Wilson | Lila Rose Show

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Zen and the Art of Motherhood: How to Make the Most of Time with Littles w/Emily Wilson | Lila Rose Show · The Lila Rose Show

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  Hey everyone, we're doing something new on the show.
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  We have the special four part series on motherhood that we
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  have produced with some of my favorite moms.
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  And we're talking about all things motherhood, from
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  spiritual aspects of how we raise our kids with faith, to
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  practical aspects of how we can love on young children or older
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  children, to really women finding the support that they
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  need to be the best mothers they can be.
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  And in today's episode, I'm sitting down with my dear,
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  lovely friend Emily Wilson Hussam, who is talking all
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  things motherhood herself. She just came out with the book
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  Sincerely Stoneheart, which many of you guys bought and
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  absolutely loved. Enjoy, share with a friend, and
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  stay tuned for part 2-3 and four to hear about the upcoming
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  guests for this series on Motherhood.
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  Emily, it's so good to see you again.
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  Thanks for having me right here in town.
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  It's such a joy always to hear your heart, to see your heart
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  and hear your love for all your listeners and all the women who
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  are listening to this on Hollow. Well, I feel very specially
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  connected to you because we both have 3, three children.
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  Hopefully we have more, Lord willing.
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  But you have two. Your two oldest are boys.
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  My 2 oldest are boys. And then around the same time, I
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  think they're a month apart. Yep, our girls are a month
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  apart. We have 2 little girlies now.
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  So so sweet. It's the best.
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  Yes, it totally is. And it's such a gift, and that's
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  what I think is so. It stands in such stark contrast
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  to the world that, as you've shared about for so many years,
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  is this idea that motherhood is a burden, right?
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  This is what the culture tells so many women.
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  Motherhood is a burden and it's a punishment and it's gonna ruin
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  your life when the God's truth is motherhood is this gift and
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  we get to receive it. Like what an honor to receive
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  such a beautiful, beautiful gift in our children, right?
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  And I think one of the most beautiful parts of the gift is
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  the purity of children's love. Do you ever think about how pure
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  your children's love is for you and how much they love just
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  giving love to you unhindered? It is it is truly the most
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  blissful thing when you when your little 1 is looking at you.
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  Like I think about Gigi and she's almost a she's almost a
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  year old Big Blue eyes. And in the morning she just
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  looks. She just looks with love at me.
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  She just wants me. She wants her mom.
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  She wants to be held, she wants to be kissed and cuddled.
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  And there's nothing more pure than that.
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  Just that look of perfect love from her.
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  She just total dependence. She just wants her mom and I.
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  I have the privilege of getting to respond to that.
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  I mean it is. It is mind blowing when I take a
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  step back and think about it. Right and to receive it right my
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  4 year old God love him. He's amazing all day long he
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  tells me I love you. I'm cooking.
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  He says, hey mom, mom he calls me mom, mom, hey mom, mom.
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  I'm like yes. He says I love you.
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  He just jumps into my bed. I love you mom, mom, I'm
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  buckling his his his car seat. I love you, mom, mom.
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  And to receive that level of pure love is just astonishing.
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  I don't deserve that kind of love.
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  I'm a broken, messy person. But to receive.
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  And so many of our relationships in life are affected.
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  They're affected by our woundedness and they're affected
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  by our rejections. And they're affected by so many
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  different things that we've been through in our lives that really
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  can complicate our relationships, right?
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  But their love is not complicated.
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  It is unhindered by rejection. It is unhindered by any, you
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  know, sense of brokenness that they felt and chips over the
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  years because they haven't gotten to that place yet or
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  they've been hurt in relationships or whatever.
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  They just want to love and love and love and love and love and
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  we get to choose to see, am I going to see the love that my
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  child wants to give me today as a gift, right?
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  I want to give them the gift of my love.
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  But to step back to receive that love in the midst of all the
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  tasks and all the things, it's like, oh, I'm going to be
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  intentional about receiving this little one's pure love today.
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  Do you think part of the reason it can sometimes be hard to slow
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  down and just really enjoy? Because it really what it comes
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  down to is when you talk about receiving love, it's like
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  enjoying the gift of the other person, like seeing them letting
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  all the crazy busyness of life slow down and just appreciating
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  and enjoying this beautiful little one that you've been
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  entrusted with. But it seems to be one of the
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  reasons, at least for me anyways, that I might forget to
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  do that in any given day, at least as much as I should be
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  doing it or would be good for my soul to do is I am distracted
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  and I am thinking about, you know, the modern mother today,
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  whether she's working or not, they're all we're all working
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  right? It there is endless To Do List
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  right there is getting kids ready in the morning.
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  If your kids go to school, getting them ready for school,
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  get them out the door. Just child care in general when
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  your kids are very young, it's very demanding.
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  It doesn't, it's not like you can pause it and just leave it,
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  right? Your, your child needs you.
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  You can't just put a pause on that.
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  There's obviously the feeding, the clothing, the caring for,
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  but then there's the kind of emotional needs of the child.
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  You know, there, there's endless things and there's like dealing
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  with the household, There's the financial considerations of like
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  making sure the family has money.
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  Like there's just, it's, it's a lot.
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  It's a lot. Much to carry.
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  It's a lot to carry. And so I think, I think anyone
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  listening and I'm going to speak for myself because I can at
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  least do that. This idea of like enjoying the
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  gift of the child, enjoying your child is receiving your child's
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  love. It's a very beautiful idea.
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  In practice, I think it can feel difficult sometimes to slow down
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  and do that because of just responsibilities.
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  Absolutely, absolutely. I'm not really into online
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  trends, but there's one that's been happening over time now is
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  you imagine that you're 70 or 80 and you get one more day to come
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  back to the present day, right? I'm 35 years old right now.
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  I'm not ashamed to say that. So if I'm 80 years old, I
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  imagine myself as my 35 year old self now.
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  And what I would do today, I'll get teary eyed talking about it,
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  how I would Live Today differently.
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  So these these women share online.
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  If I was 80 and I could go back to being myself today, what
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  would I enjoy, right? And they say I would play with
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  the kids and leave, you know, the mess in the kitchen.
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  I would love bedtime, right? A lot of times by the end of the
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  day for mom's bedtime can be hard.
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  You're like, Oh my gosh, I've given so much and they want me
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  to read another story and get another drink of water.
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  But if I was given this time 11 more day with my boys at a six
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  and four and my daughter at 11 months, like, what a treasure.
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  So trying to live from that place is what I've always tried
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  to do before this trend became a thing, really tried to think
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  about later on in my life, what will have mattered?
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  What will I, you know, look back and think, oh, I should have
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  done that more, right? So what I've done since my son
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  was young was really try to take time.
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  And what I mean by that is since he was young, for instance, I
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  would get him out of the car seat and if I had time, right,
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  sometimes you're not going different places, you're just
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  going back into the house. If he like put his head on my
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  chest, I would just stay there and I would remain there and I
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  would just abide in the Lord's love there and just not rush.
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  I'm like, we don't have anywhere to go.
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  I can just stand and hold him and let him be with me and be
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  with him just for a couple extra beats longer than I normally
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  would if I'm like thinking about the next thing.
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  So I've really tried to do that in my life, you know, with the
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  babies after I shower them, right?
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  And they're in there, there's what's better than like a little
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  snugly clean, clean child. And my older, he always asks
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  when I sit on your lap, right? And, you know, I want to get to
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  bedtime. I got to get, you know, to this,
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  that or whatever. And I say, yeah, buddy, you can
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  sit on my lap. And I have him sit on my lap and
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  I just take moments there. I just breathe with him.
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  I love him. And I've tried to be intentional
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  about that over the years. And it's been beautiful, you
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  know, just to just to really live in the moment.
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  You know, it's like kind of a trite thing.
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  I'll live in the moment. But it's like, really, what can
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  I do to love and receive this love in this moment more
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  intentionally and more fully? OK, I love that.
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  And that's such a good reminder for me, even just hearing you
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  say that. I think though there's like the
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  spiritual principle underlying it of you know, the the word
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  that comes to mind is let go or the phrase let go.
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  Obviously the other word is trust, because our our posture
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  with our Father in heaven has to be 1 of you know, it's like
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  consider the lilies of the field.
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  He says, and I, you know, I crown them in splendor.
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  You know, the sparrows have what they need.
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  I take care of, I take care of the good green earth.
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  I will take care of you. Do not worry, do not worry, do
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  not be anxious. So Holy Scripture is always the
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  Lord is always talking about don't be anxious, trust in me,
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  do not be afraid. All of these things right.
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  And so for the another to reflect the love of God to their
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  child and receive really the love of God from their child,
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  you know, we need to be in a position of, of really it's a
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  it's an act of trust. Because what is behind that rush
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  through the day, that inability to slow down and be still and
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  to, you know, play with your child even or to just listen to
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  your child or to have that extra hug with your child.
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  What prevents it is, it is the rush.
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  It's, it's the preoccupation with all of the things that need
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  to be done. And they're all good things that
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  need to be done, right. It's not like there's, you know,
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  the, the average mom, she, we're not wasting our time like eating
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  chocolates and like watching Gilmore Girls.
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  I mean, that might be nice once in a while, but you know, it's
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  busy, important stuff. But it's like, OK, it's going to
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  work out. Like God will work out the
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  dishes and the laundry and the everything else.
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  And I'll obviously probably do it later.
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  Like that's how God will do it, but it's going to get done and
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  or sometimes it's going to wait till the next day, whatever, But
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  I'm going to make sure to make this time to be present with my
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  little one, to love them, to be loved by them, because that's
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  that's the work of God, right? I mean, that's like it's but
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  it's easy to forget it. That's what's so crazy about the
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  way we live in the modern world. It's so easy to go through a day
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  and you're like, did I have, you know a time today where I really
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  looked into my little one's eyes?
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  They looked back at me. There was rest, there wasn't
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  rush, there wasn't anxiety, there wasn't To Do List.
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  And it was just enjoyment of the other that they are seeing that
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  they are loved. How often does that moment
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  happen? If we're not intentional, they
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  can just fly by and then we're, we are 70 years old.
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  Like, wow, is I doing, you know, to really try to live like that
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  is a very intentional thing in the midst of everything you
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  listed out that we carry, we carry so much.
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  So to take those extra beats to say, I'm just going to be here,
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  right? And we've talked about this
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  before on your podcast, when sometimes I'll say out loud, I'm
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  so grateful for this moment in time to remind myself it is a
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  moment and it's going to go away.
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  And they're not always going to be 6, four and 11 months.
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  To be grateful for that moment is incredible.
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  And also to be grateful for the gift.
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  Do you ever think about how patient your children are with
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  you and how forgiving they are for all the ways that we mess up
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  as moms, right? All the things, you know, the
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  pressures, right? And things like that.
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  But we do mess up and we make mistakes.
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  And I've loved seeing the Lord's like the gift of the Lord's love
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  alive in my children, especially my oldest.
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  Your oldest is how you know you learn you're getting your sea
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  legs and mothering, but how his whole life as he's grown up,
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  we're learning how to do the whole thing together life and
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  he's been so patient and he was all he's always been like so
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  forgiving when I've messed up or whatever it might have been just
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  to still love me and just to still be there.
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  It's such a reflection and such a gift to me to see this is the
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  way the Lord loves you, Emily, right?
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  This is how patient and forgiving the Lord is with you
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  when you make a mess when you mess up the whole thing.
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  I've seen that like, like reflection off of my son's heart
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  from the heart of the father and that's been so amazing.
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  Do you ever think about like, do you feel like that with your
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  oldest, like just being patient with you as you learn to be a
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  mom you know of of all of your children?
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  Yeah. And the fact that he will keep
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  coming back for, you know, he, he always wants.
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  It's not like he stops wanting to be loved.
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  Yeah. And and there's always that
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  invitation to be with him, to love him.
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  He's always eager for love. And I think that's such a
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  humbling. Right?
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  A humbling gift. Yeah.
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  And it is. I mean, the purity in that is.
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  So it's just. It is it, it can.
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  That's why Jesus says, you know, you must become like a little
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  child to enter the Kingdom of God.
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  Like this is the model of what it looks like to to love and be
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  loved, what children teach us. And we can apply that, of
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  course, to our relationship to God.
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  It can teach us how to receive God's love and come before God
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  like a little child, like our kids come before us.
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  Absolutely. How do you approach the conflict
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  part? Because I know, at least for me
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  about other moms listening. I know for some it's easier than
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  others. But when there's conflict with
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  my kids, like they're fighting with each other or, you know, I
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  don't have, we both have very young children.
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  I'm going to guess when they get older, they'll be tough stuff
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  that they're going to navigate or things that I don't agree
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  with that they might get, you know, be touched, you know, get
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  into involved in some way, who knows?
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  But when my kids are little, it's like fighting or just they
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  have their own, you know, a temper tantrum or they have
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  something that they want that they can't have because it's not
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  good for them. Or, you know, they have to do
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  nap time or, you know, it's the endless, there's endless
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  examples, right? And maintaining peace as a
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  mother in the middle of conflict, I think for me is, is
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  difficult because it hurts me. It like hurts me when my little
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  my 2 little boys, they don't fight often, but they do fight.
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  And it's just hard sometimes to navigate that.
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  What is your take on, you know, there's a whole gentle parenting
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  stuff, obviously, and then there's also, you know, more
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  authoritative parenting, I think Christian parenting.
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  There's elements of both. Yeah.
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  For sure. And what it what what what it
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  comes to. But yeah, what are some ways
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  that you try to receive the gift of motherhood in how you
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  approach? I mean discipline might be one
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  word or conflict. With your little one,
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  absolutely. My whole goal is to mother like
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  Mary would have and Mary, even though her son was Jesus, I feel
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  like if she was, you know, with me today, she would try to
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  encourage me to mother from a place of peace.
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  Like you said, that word peace is so such an integral part of
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  the way that I try to mother. I try because peace will be a
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  natural fruit If I'm rooted in Jesus, like if I'm actually
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  rooted in the Lord, rooted in prayer, rooted in the Eucharist,
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  in the sacraments, I will live from a place of peace, right?
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  Like you said, I'm not going to worry.
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  I'm going to be surrendered. I'm not going to be agitated.
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  I'm not going to be, you know, anxious for anything like it
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  says in Scripture. I want a mother from a place of
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  peace. And so that is always my goal is
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  to come. Like just kind of imagine it
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  like a wellspring, right? Coming forth from your heart
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  like this is a wellspring of peace.
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  When it comes to conflict like that, three things that I try to
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  focus on with the kids are respect, love and listening
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  ears. There's a three big ones for us.
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  Respect of the other. OK, so I enter into conflict and
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  I'm like OK, is everybody respecting each other here?
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  Sometimes the answer is a big no love.
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  How can we love each other better in this moment?
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  And how can we give our listening ears to one another
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  and to my mom as they call me. So those 3 core tenants, like
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  really help them just, it can, you know, as a small child,
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  things can just be overarchingly confusing of how we behave and
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  how we make choices. So those 3 pillars that I've
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  brought into my family and into the way we solve conflicts and
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  the way that I try to, you know, solve conflicts with them has
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  been really helpful. And it helps them to see like,
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  you know, like kind of teaching them what respect is from
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  situation to situation, right? It's hard to define what respect
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  looks like without kind of concrete circumstances to them.
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  But focusing on those three things have made it really
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  tangible for them to see within conflict.
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  And I think all of those come back to the point of peace,
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  right? Peace leads to respect, love,
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  and listening ears for one another.
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  And that's kind of the tree that I try to kind of embrace in our
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  family and our day-to-day life. But it starts with your peace,
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  which is, I think, the secret that can unlock so much of what
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  we're discussing about the gift of motherhood or how we approach
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  our kids, our disposition with our kids, how we deal with
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  whatever tough stuff might come our way.
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  And maybe the word, you could use the word spiritual
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  self-care. But there's also physical and
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  emotional self-care that we need to do as mothers to be able to
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  show up in our households with that piece.
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  What are some of the things that you do for yourself, care as a
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  mom? And yeah, the things that you
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  think most women could implement if, again, we were intentional
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  about, yeah, we have to care for ourselves so we can care for
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  other. People myself care looks like
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  letting Jesus take care of me. So the way that I've looked at
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  self-care, I've kind of transformed the whole thing.
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  It's like, Oh no, if I'm going to mother from a place of peace,
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  it's not me caring for myself. It's letting Jesus take care of
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  me. So time spent in scripture,
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  right is not me caring for myself.
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  It's being there with the Lord Jesus be with me, you know, like
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  that invitation and that prayer. Jesus take care of my heart in
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  this moment so I can care well for the hearts in my care,
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  right. So you know, Scripture is such a
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  beautiful way to, you know, have your Bible at home, open up the
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  Lord's word and in his reading his word, let him take care of
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  your heart, right and just walking with him on the journey.
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  Let like trying to find him in everything is one of the ways
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  that you know, I've tried to let the Lord take care of my heart
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  because so often we just want to muscle through it ourselves and
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  in in motherhood. One of the gifts of motherhood
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  is that you realize you can't be your own savior.
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  You're like I cannot save myself.
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  I cannot do this by myself. True like your invitation of the
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  Lord, like help me, help me. Let me write prayer.
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  Yeah, so true. So like that is a gift to
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  realize boy, oh boy, and my human frailty is intense and I
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  need the Lord's love and I need him, you know, his saving power
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  every single day is just an incredible part of the gift.
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  So I really see self-care and you could put this on in like a
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  tote bag. It would get kind of cheesy, but
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  it's like Jesus care, like allowing Jesus to care for you
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  is you opening up yourself to, you know, to a wellspring of
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  that piece of that rest. You ever meet a mom at rest?
• 17:49
  You know, like we have a lot of responsibilities, but you meet
• 17:52
  these mothers and I try to, you know, I'm trying to be like them
• 17:55
  and emulate them in that way, who are just really unaffected
• 17:59
  by the world, undistracted by everything going on.
• 18:03
  And they're so focused on the mission that God has for them
• 18:08
  with the unique souls that God has given them.
• 18:11
  Whatever is going on in the world, yes, it matters in the
• 18:14
  grand scope of things, but my eyes are fixed.
• 18:16
  My eyes are fixed on my children, on my home and my
• 18:19
  family and cultivating that because this is what God has
• 18:22
  given me, right? You know, he asked Moses, what's
• 18:24
  in your hand, you know, in Scripture?
• 18:27
  And it's this thing of God asking you, what have I given
• 18:30
  you? That is what I'm asking you to
• 18:32
  cultivate and take care of with all of your heart.
• 18:34
  And I'm going to take care of you in the sense of self-care is
• 18:37
  really Jesus care for your heart.
• 18:40
  I love that there have been so many times when I've been
• 18:44
  looking for an OBGYN or a pediatrician or a family doctor.
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  When I wonder, is this doctor pro-life?
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  So how do we find pro-life doctors?
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  I am so thankful to my friends over at Presidio, they have
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  launched pro-life providers.com. pro-life providers.com is a
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  your body for easy absorption and digestion.
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  When I remember to take my vitamins, I feel it.
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  I am feel less brain fog, especially when I take the
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• 20:11
  IA girlfriend of mine said this to me a few weeks ago or a
• 20:15
  couple months ago. She used the word stay at home
• 20:17
  mom energy. OK, which was meant in a really
• 20:21
  positive way, like the stay at home, like, yeah, it's I'm
• 20:25
  exhausted. But meaning like ideally, right,
• 20:28
  the stay at home mom energy is no matter how much busy stuff
• 20:32
  she's doing, she's like still at peace.
• 20:36
  There's this calm about her even in the middle of whatever storm
• 20:39
  she's in. And this idea of Jesus care.
• 20:42
  I really love that phrasing. That's so fun.
• 20:44
  But it's so it's so true because we cannot do it without God.
• 20:46
  We just cannot. And I've noticed the days where
• 20:49
  I am rushing through on my own strength versus the days when
• 20:53
  I'm making regular acts of surrender throughout the day,
• 20:55
  that Lord, I need you. I give everything to yours.
• 20:57
  Jesus, I surrender my life to you.
• 20:59
  Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus, I surrender everything to
• 21:01
  you those days. It's not that it's easy, but
• 21:06
  there is an anchoredness. There's a rootedness that is
• 21:08
  palpable and it does show up in all of the interactions that you
• 21:12
  may have that day. So I, I'm curious for you, like
• 21:15
  what are there concrete things? You mentioned reading Holy
• 21:19
  Scripture and actually sitting down and taking time to let
• 21:21
  Jesus talk to you through his word.
• 21:23
  But are there specific practices that you have found help prepare
• 21:28
  you for the gift of motherhood or receive that gift of
• 21:30
  motherhood in in the day-to-day with your self-care?
• 21:33
  For sure, yeah. 1 little thing that I do is every task that I
• 21:38
  do, I try to, you know, I go through seasons where I do this
• 21:41
  more often than others. But I say for your glory, Jesus,
• 21:45
  one of my least favorite tasks is putting all the laundry away.
• 21:48
  It's like we all have our thing that it's just like, I don't
• 21:50
  like this task in life. This is like one of my things
• 21:53
  like, oh man, I got to put the laundry away.
• 21:55
  And in that moment, instead of seeing it as a burden, I say out
• 21:58
  loud for your glory, Jesus. And I go and I do it.
• 22:01
  If I there's all kinds of pots and pans and whatever and I got
• 22:04
  to clean so many different things.
• 22:06
  I say out loud for your glory, Jesus, to remind myself, why am
• 22:11
  I doing all this right? What is this all for?
• 22:13
  It is to bring glory to God. It is to like, like I said,
• 22:18
  embrace the mission that he's given me and when I remember
• 22:22
  every single thing can be done for the glory of God, it
• 22:25
  transforms my whole entire day to take my son to school.
• 22:29
  I homeschool him. He's at a homeschool hybrid.
• 22:32
  When it's time for teaching for your glory, Jesus, that it is
• 22:35
  all pointing back to that is one of the little practices that I
• 22:38
  do. What about you?
• 22:40
  That is it. I love that one.
• 22:41
  I love that phrase. You've got some good ones in
• 22:43
  this. I mean, I remember that Jesus
• 22:45
  care one. I love that one for me, I think
• 22:48
  in this in this season right now, it's making time for at
• 22:52
  least right now, it's 20 minutes of time where I am just with me,
• 22:56
  my Bible and Jesus. And you know, obviously if it's
• 23:00
  before the Blessed Sacrament, that's even better.
• 23:02
  That's not always possible. And this can be hard in between
• 23:06
  work and you know, schedules with little ones.
• 23:08
  Obviously nap time's a great time or if we have our sitter,
• 23:11
  she's helping out. But when I and it can be really
• 23:15
  hard to make that time happen in the middle of things.
• 23:17
  And I understand, like some women, like the baby won't nap
• 23:20
  and then there no one naps at the same time, like there's a
• 23:23
  million things. But you know, sometimes it's
• 23:25
  after they go to bed, quite frankly, or before they go wake
• 23:28
  up. But anyways, finding every woman
• 23:30
  is going to be different, finding that time.
• 23:32
  But having set aside time, that is a sacred time.
• 23:34
  It's a sacred as I need to physically eat breakfast and
• 23:37
  shower. And now some of them is
• 23:38
  listening, like I'm not eating breakfast or able to shower.
• 23:41
  So like, how about the prayer? But you know, you, you take you
• 23:44
  do a little better each day. You try to, you know, talk to
• 23:46
  your husband hopefully. Or if you, you know, are, you
• 23:49
  know, solo momming like you're, you're that brave single mom.
• 23:52
  You, you know, you kind of tell God, this is the best I can do
• 23:55
  with the schedule I've got now. But either way, you, you're
• 23:58
  still setting aside even a few moments.
• 24:00
  Maybe it's on your commute and you're listening to hollow app.
• 24:02
  Like whatever it is, you have made an intentional decision
• 24:06
  that I'm going to open myself up to a conversation with Jesus
• 24:09
  Christ, my Lord, the Savior and my love of my life.
• 24:12
  Holy come, Holy Spirit, Father in heaven, God, the whole
• 24:14
  Trinity, you know, is going to be there in order to tell him
• 24:18
  what's on my heart. Because sometimes it's literally
• 24:21
  a bit of an offload. Like this is what's top of mind
• 24:23
  for me. This is what's maybe bringing
• 24:25
  anxiety to the surface here. This is where I need your help
• 24:28
  with. Or maybe it's just like, love
• 24:30
  me. I need your love.
• 24:31
  It can be any sort of immediate primal, like movement of the
• 24:36
  heart, right? Like The thing is, the Lord
• 24:38
  already knows all your thoughts, all your, all your feelings.
• 24:40
  He already knows everything. So it's like, what is that like
• 24:43
  deepest need that you have of expression that you can tell to
• 24:45
  your father in heaven. So anyways that I think that for
• 24:48
  me has been really essential to life is having that time where I
• 24:55
  am able to just make that, you know, it, it it my little act of
• 24:59
  worship and saying here I am with all of the complications.
• 25:03
  And then like the the kind of final word of it is I trust in
• 25:07
  you, like I give you everything I trust in you.
• 25:09
  It's access to render. It's I love you.
• 25:13
  It's thank you for loving me. You know, you know, you God, you
• 25:16
  are amazing. Like you're telling him he's
• 25:18
  great because he's like, you know, most perfect, most loving
• 25:21
  perfect, he's all love, all perfection.
• 25:23
  But I think you know, and sometimes they can be scheduling
• 25:26
  it, it's going to be key. Or other times they're just like
• 25:28
  taking what you can get, but making that little space for a
• 25:31
  conversation with God, because I think you can go throughout the
• 25:34
  day and make aspirations, but like just a little, a little
• 25:37
  date, a little appointment. And I found when I asked my
• 25:41
  guardian Angel to help me with that.
• 25:42
  And I'm like, guardian Angel, I really need help making sure I
• 25:45
  have this moment with Jesus that's like set aside for him.
• 25:48
  It usually works out because he's, he's real.
• 25:51
  Guardian angels are real and they're like helping us with our
• 25:53
  human affairs. Yeah.
• 25:54
  So that's. That's a wonderful thing, Yeah.
• 25:57
  Just like a place of peace for you to be refreshed in the
• 26:00
  Lord's love. Yes, it's amazing and essential.
• 26:03
  Yes, I know we started talking earlier at the beginning about
• 26:07
  just this pure gift of the motherhood isn't just
• 26:09
  experiencing the love of our children being like the best
• 26:11
  thing. What is one more thing that you
• 26:13
  would say is one of the best things about being a mom that
• 26:17
  maybe we can forget as mothers because we're so busy?
• 26:20
  Being someones home is such an honor.
• 26:23
  And we've see so many videos and I don't know if it happened to
• 26:26
  you, but when a baby is born, right and they're crying and
• 26:29
  they're crying and they're crying and they're crying and
• 26:31
  then they like come up to mom's face and they just stop like
• 26:34
  because they think I'm home with my mom is home.
• 26:38
  And I'll never forget one time we were at Baby Beach and Dana
• 26:41
  Point. Some of your listeners might
• 26:42
  have been there, but we were at Baby Beach and Dana Point and I
• 26:45
  was pregnant with my second and my older son, maybe he was like
• 26:48
  1 1/2 two. And he was falling behind me.
• 26:51
  And I looked back at him and he got a little turned around and
• 26:53
  he couldn't find me. I could see him, but he couldn't
• 26:56
  see me. He's looking around, looking
• 26:58
  around. So I'm just watching him.
• 26:59
  And then when he he laid eyes on me, this relief washed over him
• 27:04
  that I had never seen in my life.
• 27:07
  And it was this feeling of, oh, I'm home.
• 27:10
  When I'm with my mom, I'm home. And because, you know, in those
• 27:15
  early days, as much as my husband has helped out, I'm the
• 27:19
  refuge and the peace and what the baby wants.
• 27:21
  I have all the babies, food that's made from my body, which
• 27:24
  is such a gift. But to be refuge and to be
• 27:28
  safety and to be home as a person for someone I can't like,
• 27:35
  it's such an honor. It leaves me speechless when I
• 27:37
  just think about it, you know? Did your baby stop crying when
• 27:41
  they came back? When they just like.
• 27:43
  Knew you were just. I remember Gigi was born lost
• 27:45
  and she was wailing, but she's when she started to nurse then
• 27:48
  she was happy. Yeah, it's.
• 27:49
  Because yeah, it's oh, this. Home.
• 27:50
  It's home. That's.
• 27:51
  Where I find comfort, this is where I find comfort food.
• 27:54
  This is where I just find all of those good things, right?
• 27:57
  We've all grown up in different homes, and some people's homes
• 28:00
  weren't what they should have been and they didn't receive the
• 28:03
  safety and the love. But I'm talking about the purest
• 28:06
  form of home, like being at home in the heart of the Lord, right?
• 28:09
  Where it's peace and refuge and safety and comfort in every way,
• 28:13
  shape and form. That's what I am so honored to
• 28:16
  be for a person and to be entrusted with their soul and to
• 28:21
  just have them want to, you know, be home with me.
• 28:24
  Wherever we are, we're home together, right?
• 28:26
  We have a home. Yes, we have a physical home,
• 28:28
  but when we're together, when I'm with my babies, we're home.
• 28:30
  And it's such a glorious thing. I love that there's that there's
• 28:34
  there's. I did this with Gigi like a
• 28:36
  couple weeks ago where I don't know if you've probably done
• 28:39
  this, but if you, you put your head in their lap, like if you
• 28:41
  get on their level, you're playing with them and you put
• 28:43
  your, your head in your baby's lap or your little one's lap,
• 28:45
  they will, it's, it's like this irresistible urge.
• 28:48
  They will like lean down and snuggle you.
• 28:50
  So you should try it. Mom's, if you're listening,
• 28:52
  you've got little, little, especially when they're little.
• 28:53
  I don't know if they're like a 10 year old, they're going to do
• 28:55
  that. But if they're little, they will
• 28:57
  do that. And it's that it's just like
• 28:59
  primal, like this is, this is my person, this is my home.
• 29:02
  And it's so, it's so beautiful. We're home.
• 29:05
  It's a little. Piece of heaven, your honor.
• 29:07
  Is and what a what a gift? What a gift.
• 29:11
  Let's do a little prayer if if you would, if you don't mind
• 29:13
  praying for us, Emily. And yeah, let's also pray for
• 29:17
  all the moms listening to to be able to, with all the craziness,
• 29:21
  be able to enjoy their motherhood as the gift it's
• 29:23
  meant to be and have that moment of that receiving, giving back,
• 29:27
  the love and feeling that very tangibly.
• 29:29
  So I hope everyone listening gets to experiencing that in the
• 29:32
  next day and remember that that's that's what the gift of
• 29:35
  motherhood is about. God wants us to experience that
• 29:37
  love and not be so worried and stressed with all the craziness
• 29:40
  of our life. Absolutely.
• 29:41
  Let's pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
• 29:45
  Holy Spirit, Amen. I just invite you to take a
• 29:50
  couple of deep breaths as we find ourselves in the presence
• 29:55
  of God. Lord Jesus, we thank you for the
• 30:01
  gift of motherhood. We thank you for the honor that
• 30:05
  it is to have souls entrusted to our care as mothers.
• 30:11
  Lord, I ask that you help us to be mothers who mother from a
• 30:15
  place of peace, of rest, of confidence in who you created us
• 30:23
  to be as mothers. The unique gifts that you've
• 30:26
  given each of us, both in the strengths that we bring to our
• 30:30
  mothering, but the unique gifts of our children.
• 30:34
  Lord, help us to slow down, to take a few beats, a few extra
• 30:38
  beats here and there, no matter the ages of our children, little
• 30:43
  ones, teenagers, help us to try to be present to the moments
• 30:50
  that are so fleeting, so quick to pass.
• 30:54
  Help us to look our children in the eyes to see the glory of who
• 30:59
  they are, the image and likeness of you.
• 31:04
  Thank you Jesus, thank you for this gift that is sanctifying
• 31:11
  and is drawing us to a deeper sense of reliance on you as
• 31:15
  Savior, you as friend, and you as love.
• 31:22
  Mother Mary, we ask that you pray with us and for us, but you
• 31:26
  would lead us ever closer, closer to your Son as we pray.
• 31:29
  Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is of thee.
• 31:32
  Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy
• 31:35
  womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray
• 31:38
  for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
• 31:41
  Amen. In the name of the Father, and
• 31:43
  of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
• 31:47
  Amen. Thank you, friend.
• 31:49
  Thanks for having me so good. I feel ready.
• 31:51
  I'm like, let me go back to my children now, look them in the
• 31:54
  eyes. Yes.
• 31:55
  So good. Lovely.
• 31:56
  Thank you.