While on holiday a few years ago I noticed a mother who was toddler-wrangling at the pool. She exclaimed to me that she couldn’t wait for her children to be older, like mine, so that she could relax. I smiled, remembering when I was the one in the pool with young children. I thought about how difficult it can be to find good parenting advice to enjoy the season one is in, rather than wishing it away.
Collective Wisdom
Mother and daughter authors Linda Green and Sarah Walton provide much-needed Christian wisdom and encouragement in their book He Gives More Grace. Through 30 devotional reflections that span the ups and downs of motherhood, the authors gently disciple women to raise their children in a godly way. Green and Walton provide godly insight, practical suggestions, and questions to reflect on, to help you in whatever season of motherhood you are in. Reading this book is like sharing a cup of tea with older friends who have sound collective wisdom.
He Gives More Grace
Linda Green and Sarah Walton
Purchase here
These hope-filled, positive devotions recognize the realities and pressures, joys and disappointments of motherhood and will give you a precious reminder of grace from God’s word to hold onto each day. They will help you to trust that God’s grace is enough for you and your kids. As the authors say in the introduction, “Our children do not need a perfect mother. What they do need is a mother who recognizes her need for a perfect Savior and understands that this is the greatest need of her children as well.”
As you focus on the work of Jesus rather than your own efforts, you will feel less pressure and more freedom and joy in all the ups and downs of motherhood.
God’s Grace Is Sufficient
Our need for God’s grace underpins the devotional content. “God’s grace: his abundance, overflowing, undeserved kindness, is our greatest treasure even on the best days, and our anchor and hope on the hardest ones (pp.15–16).” Isn’t that the truth? Parenting exposes our insufficiencies and continues to point us to our gracious God who gave his Son for us, despite us. God has mostly used motherhood to show me how much I sin, and how great his gift of grace is for me. As the authors write,
His grace cannot be earned; it can only be received by those who recognize their helplessness apart from Jesus. Like the nursing baby at our breast, the child who finds refuge on our lap, or the teen who pours out their fears late at night- when we run to, depend on, and cry out to our Father in heaven, he lavishes us with his all-sufficient, endless grace (p.16).
God’s grace is, thankfully, for all the seasons of motherhood.
Mothering Through the Seasons
Green provides wisdom that comes through mothering and grand mothering in the long term while Walton is mothering four children under 16. The authors share the good and the bad with authenticity, and at times, raw and painful honesty. This authenticity and honesty help to foster genuine connection between the authors and readers. Green and Walton encourage readers that lifelong positive relationships between mother and daughter are possible even after seasons of turbulence and heartache, even deep pain caused by mental health struggles alongside the rebellious teenage years that Walton journeyed.
While reading He Give More Grace, I did wish the publishers had included the author of each chapter at the start of each chapter, as I found myself wanting to know whose perspective I was reading. It was only once I had completed the book that I noticed the author of each chapter was written on the contents page. However, I’m not sure I would have referred to this had I known it was here. At times, I did wish the authors expanded on their thoughts or comments, or added further reading footnotes.
God Cares About My Mothering
“Finding and Enjoying Your Mom-Strengths” (Chapter 20), challenged me about the way insecurities make many mothers wish they were more like other, ‘better’ mothers, including their own. As Walton writes,
Recently, I shared with my mom my feelings of guilt about not having more of her strengths. She said something I will never forget: Sarah, God made you and me different, with different personalities, perspectives, strengths, circumstances, and children. Use the strengths He’s given you, rather than getting caught up in trying to fit into another mold. God knows what he was doing when he made you the mother of your children (pp.166–167).
Often, like Walton, I think that someone else would be a better mother than I am. However, this chapter reminded me that God has entrusted me as the mother to my children, just as he has entrusted you to yours. He knows our strengths and our weaknesses, and his grace is sufficient.
Big Picture Mothering
He Gives More Grace talks of big picture mothering, rather than season-specific details. This makes the book relevant for mothering in all seasons. While I occasionally did wish for some season-specific wisdom on topics like identity-formation, sexuality, church attendance and technology-use, I realised these are issues that are only relevant in my current mothering-season.
The authors continually encourage readers to look to Jesus for answers and wisdom, rather than to worldly wisdom. Each chapter begins with a Bible verse to frame the chapter and a “Grace in a Line” statement. These statements summarised the upcoming chapter content and provided a clear soundbite to takeaway. The end of chapter questions are a great addition and would be helpful to use in a mothering group or Bible study.
He Gives More Grace was a great encouragement, and I found myself talking about the book to many of my friends who are mums. I was reminded of the depth of God’s love for me and my children, and the need to rely on His grace moment by moment. The relationship between the mother and daughter authorship team caused me to reflect on the beautiful, supportive relationship I have with my own mother. I want to give the same support for my children, by God’s grace. My prayer is that God will help me invest in the relationships I have with my children now so that they will seek my support when they too are toddler-wrangling their own children in the pool.
