Pondering the love inside a Mama’s Heart
by Jennifer Greene-Sullivan
While I was still teaching high school, my mornings were often chaotic and stressful. I found it hard enough to get ready on time for myself, but when you add two little girls and their morning antics to the mix, I began to dread our daily routines. The clock felt like an enemy, and the daily commute felt like a finish line I was always losing.
Yet as I have gotten older—and, I pray, more mature—I have begun to see early mornings differently. Now that I am home in the mornings with Chris and Liam, I don’t rush to and fro to make a commute. I rise before the boys, preparing lunches, laying out clothes, walking the dogs, making coffee, and reading God’s Word—all before 6:30 a.m.
This new perspective on mornings feels sacred to me.
After Liam is dressed and his hair is brushed, we sit together. We work on his AWANA memory verse for the week, we have a short Bible lesson, and then we pray. That hour from 6:00 to 7:00 a.m. has become so purposeful. There are days when Liam doesn’t want to cooperate—because he is nine, after all—but those mornings are few.
Just this week, he and I were talking about why it is important to hide God’s Word in our hearts—because it is our sword, our offensive weapon in spiritual warfare. He stopped, looked up at me, and said, “Mama, we read the Bible together five days a week. That’s what you’re doing.”
He looked amazed that he had figured out such an obvious fact.
“Actually, Son, we spend purposeful time with the Word six days a week,” I replied. “You’re forgetting Sunday, when you’re immersed in His Word several times that day.”
What Liam doesn’t know—at least not fully—is that I am simply repeating what was given to me. My mama often gave us Bible lessons before school when I was young. She led children’s church and toted us all over the state for summer Church Kids’ Day Out. She would load our minivan to capacity, read our Bible lesson, pray with us, and then whisk us away on some adventure.
She planted seeds of relationship with the Father in her three children—and in so many other children along the way.
Recreating my own version of that with Liam feels like sacred time with the Lord and with my last baby. While packing his lunchbox today, I knew deep in my spirit that I was created to love my family and care for my children and husband in the way God planned and purposed for a wife and mother to do.
I smiled while putting gluten-free food into sandwich bags because my life may seem mundane to some, yet my work and my love for my family are sacred in the eyes of Jesus.
Scripture echoed in my heart:
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” — Proverbs 22:6 (ESV)
I am a God-fearing mama like my mother and like my grandmother. Thank You, Jesus, for a legacy like that. I may not have riches or gold, but I have the love of God in my heart while I serve my family.
My children and their relationships with Jesus are my legacy—for nothing is gained without the love of and relationship with my Savior, Jesus of Nazareth, Lord of my heart.
As I stood there this morning in the quiet hum of our kitchen, I thought of the command Moses gave to parents long before any of us were awake with coffee cups and bookbags:
“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” — Deuteronomy 6:6–7 (ESV)
That is exactly what these mornings have become—talking of Him when we rise and hiding His Word in Liam’s heart one ordinary Monday-Friday at a time. The kitchen island has become our little altar; a place where my coffee cup sits beside open Bibles while a nine-year-old learns that Jesus wants to meet him before the school bell ever rings.
Challenge: Guarding Sacred Mornings
If you are a mama reading this, I want to challenge you gently:
- Claim one small window of time—even fifteen minutes—and dedicate it to the Lord with your children.
- Open the Bible before the day opens you. Let them see the Word in your hands, not just hear it from your lips.
- Speak His truth in ordinary places—at the kitchen island, in the car line, while tying shoes.
- Remember that faith is formed by repetition, not perfection.
- Trust the slow work of God. Seeds grow in quiet soil.
Sacred motherhood is not glamorous; it is faithful. It is lunches packed, verses repeated, prayers whispered over sleepy heads, and most importantly, heaven sees it all.
Prayer for Mothers
Father, thank You for the holy calling of motherhood.
Help us to see the sacred in the simple—in lunchboxes and laundry, in early mornings and late-night prayers. Write Your Word on our hearts so we can write it on the hearts of our children. Give us patience when we are tired, gentleness when we are rushed, and wisdom to point our families to Jesus in every ordinary moment. May our homes be places where Your voice is heard first. Let our children remember not perfect mothers, but praying mothers who loved You out loud. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
#FaithfulMamas #GenerationalFaith #HideTheWord #John146 #Proverbs226 #ChristianHome #KitchenIslandFaith #EverydaySacred #MotherhoodMatters
The Aging English Major 