A Prayer to Help the Moms in Your Life Find Joy - Your Daily Prayer - May 6

A Prayer to Help the Moms in Your Life Find Joy
By Rachel Wojo

Bible Reading:
"Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart." - Psalm 97:11

Listen or Read Below:

My daughter Taylor was born with a rare neurological condition that affected every part of our family's daily life. Feeding her was never simple. It required patience, persistence, and a whole lot of prayer. There were seasons when the weight of caregiving felt like more than I could carry.

One evening, while I was feeding Taylor, she made a face over a bit of green beans. Her little brother Michael watched the whole thing and then said, "Mom, I don't think Taylor likes green beans."

I asked him what kind of beans he thought I should feed her instead. He thought about it for a split second and said, "Jelly beans."

I laughed so hard that tears slid down my cheeks. In that small moment, joy broke through from a little boy’s kitchen table talk.

Psalm 97:11 says joy is sown for the upright in heart. It's not delivered in one big package when life finally calms down. That would be lovely. But joy comes more like seeds that are planted. God scatters them into ordinary moments, and He knows we need them most. 

Many moms are living in the tension between hard and beautiful every single day. They're managing schedules and trying to prevent meltdowns. It’s easy for joy to feel like a luxury.

It’s taken me years to understand that joy doesn't always arrive when we go searching for it. But it shows up kind of sideways. Maybe it’s in a child's ridiculous answer or a quiet moment after the chaos settles. 

I’ve found joy in the realization that God is still present in the middle of it all. Joy isn't the absence of hard. It's the evidence that God is sowing something good even when the soil looks barren.

Sometimes the moms around us need someone else to help them see it.  Not through minimizing the struggle or rushing to the bright side, but someone who sits with them in the mess and gently says, "Did you catch that? That was joy right there."

Light is sown for the righteous. Joy is planted. It's already there, growing beneath the surface of the hard days and the long nights. When we pray for the moms in our lives, we're asking God to open their eyes to what He's already doing, helping them notice the jelly-bean moments on a green-bean day.

You might not be able to take away the hard things a mom in your life is walking through, but you can be the person who helps her find the joy that God is sowing in the middle of it.

Let’s Pray:

Father, I lift up the moms in my life to You right now. There are some who are barely hanging on. Parenting can sometimes make one feel invisible. I lift up the ones who have forgotten what it feels like to laugh without guilt. You see what they carry.

Lord, help them find the joy You've already planted in their lives. I’m not asking you for a surface-level happiness that disappears when things get hard. Give them the kind of joy that comes from knowing You're with them. Open their eyes to the small moments they keep rushing past. 

God, show me how to be someone who points them back to what You're doing, even when life feels like too much. Help me be a voice that speaks life into their weariness.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

If you're looking for a meaningful way to encourage a mom this season, I'd love for you to check out my prayer card set, 31 Prayers for a Mom's Heart. These cards were born out of my own journey through the beautiful chaos of motherhood and are designed to meet a mom right where she is. Whether she's overwhelmed, carrying guilt, or simply needs to be reminded that God sees her, these cards will meet her there.

Share your reflections on today’s devotional in the Your Daily Prayer discussion on the Crosswalk Forum.

Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Drazen Zigic 

Rachel Wojo is an inspirational author, public speaker, and podcaster known for her popular blog, rachelwojo.com. Through her biblical approach and personal life experiences, Rachel empowers women to discover strength and hope in everyday situations. Despite enduring the loss of her mother, adult special needs daughter, and father, Rachel remains resilient. She has authored the uplifting book,  Desperate Prayers: Embracing the Power of Prayer in Life's Darkest Moments  and a new beautiful, spiral-bound prayer journal, Praying the Promises of God,  Rachel is crazy in love with her husband, Matt, and cherishes her motherhood with six children on earth and two in heaven.

Related Resource: Even Christians Struggle with Addiction and Forgiveness

This week on The Jesus Calling Podcast, we welcome writer Jonathon M. Seidl, who transparently shares his struggle with alcoholism. Jonathon opens up about how he turned to alcohol as a solution to his problems, the breaking point moment when he realized something needed to change, and the real, raw, honest circumstances that led him to healing.