From Survival Mode to Sacred Work: Reclaiming Joy in Motherhood

If you’re reading this while the house is still half asleep…
or while you’re already knee-deep in breakfast and the day has barely started…

I want you to hear me:

You’re not crazy if life feels heavy even though you have everything you’ve ever wanted.
You’re not ungrateful for wanting relief from things that feel unbearable.
And you’re not a failure because you keep ending up back in survival mode regardless of what you do.

You’re Not Alone in This Feeling

The truth is, I’ve walked this path before.

I’ve stood in the kitchen at dawn, coffee growing cold in my hands, wondering why the life I prayed for felt like something I was merely surviving.
I’ve locked myself in the bathroom just to breathe.

And I’ve found my way through to the other side—not by accident, but by grace and intentionality.

So today isn’t a lecture.
It’s an invitation.

An invitation to reclaim your home, your heart, your calling.

A morning constitutional for your mind—a gentle walk back to what you know to be true but sometimes forget in the fog of exhaustion and noise.

I’m here as someone who has found the light switch.
And I’m here to show you where it is.

What follows are the truths I’ve gathered—
The ones that brought me back to truth and my prayer is they do the same for you today too.

From Tasks to Calling

If you wake up and dread the day because you’re thinking about all the things you have to do as tasks—folding laundry, cooking dinner, reading the same books to the children over and over again—it will feel like drudgery.

But if you wake up, knowing that the work you pour into your home has an eternal ripple effect and that you’re creating the memories your children will have forever, and that you’re shaping eternal souls, you won’t even need willpower to get out of bed in the morning and work hard all day long. You will naturally WANT to.

That shift—from being a slave to tasks to a steward of your calling—changes everything.

When you’re folding laundry, you’ll remember, this isn’t just laundry.
This is my daughter’s favorite dress for twirling.
This is the sleep sack my toddler drags to every room.
These are the clothes my husband wears to provide for us.

Every fold becomes an act of love—and an offering to the Lord.

Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”

My kids won’t remember how often I vacuumed.
But they’ll remember the smell of cinnamon pancakes on Sunday mornings…
The way Frank Sinatra sang through the kitchen right before Daddy walked through the door…
The soft light and smell of the same candle I lit every afternoon.”

These little things are not insignificant—they are the memories that will shape how your children remember ‘home’ growing up.

You Are a Homemaker—No Matter What

Regardless of whether you work outside the home as well as in the home—you’re still a homemaker… and the beautiful thing about this role is that you get to create the exact atmosphere you want!

You are an architect of memory.
A keeper of the home.

And that is not a small calling.

Where Mothers Lose Their Way

But here’s where it gets tricky—and where I see so many mothers lose their way.

I used to structure my whole day around tasks—clean the toilet, vacuum the floors, cook dinner.
And I knew exactly how long those things would take—down to the very minute.

But pouring into my children’s hearts?
That’s a bit more ambiguous.

Some days I found that 20 minutes was enough. Other days… it takes all morning.

So I’d put it off. I’d get all my concrete tasks done first.

And I think this is one of the hang-ups that many Christian mothers have—it’s not that they don’t understand their priorities but that it’s hard to prioritize their top priorities because usually the things that are the most important are not necessarily the things you can measure.

Because that quality time and stewarding the hearts of your family—that’s not concrete, is it?

Especially with young children—you don’t know how long it’s going take you to fill their little cups up.

You can prioritize maybe 20 minutes thinking that that’s enough, but on this particular day, maybe that’s nowhere near enough. And then you’re like, OK, well now I have all these other things that I know exactly how long they’re gonna take, and so I just want to get those done and checked off of my list.

I know this pattern intimately.

And I’m here to tell you: there’s a better way.

Proverbs 31 says, “She looks well to the ways of her household.”

That doesn’t just mean cleaning—it means spiritual and emotional stewardship.

You have to know your true priorities.
You need to know what you care about.

Mine are: discipling my children, serving my family with love, and keeping everyone healthy and safe.
Everything else is just a bonus.

This clarity changed my life.

Understanding Survival Mode

Now here’s what I need you to understand.

Some days as a stay-at-home mom I feel like I’m just barely holding it together with a cold cup of coffee and spit up on my shirt.

The house is loud. Somebody is always crying.

And I think to myself: “Why do I feel so heavy when this is all really very normal?”

This is the life I always dreamt of, actually, and I am truly so blessed.

But why doesn’t it feel like that?

I’ve found the answer.

Survival mode isn’t just feeling burnt out.
It’s a form of bondage that keeps mothers from walking in the joy God intends.

When we don’t take our thoughts captive, they take us captive.

We fester in irritation, which grows into anger.

Anger becomes fear.

Fear becomes anxiety.

And anxiety becomes despair.

This is the burnout spiral. And it all starts in the mind.

You don’t fall into burnout overnight.

You think your way there one destructive thought at a time.

This is the architecture of collapse.
And it is built thought by thought.

Rebuilding What Was Broken

But here’s the good news: what can be built can be rebuilt.

We serve a God who cares deeply not just about what we do, but how we think.

You don’t need to tolerate that storm of intrusive, hopeless, anxious thoughts that run counter to what the Lord thinks.

You are called to take them captive.

You’re not a slave to your thoughts—you’re a steward of them.

So let me say this plainly:

You don’t need a stricter schedule or a better routine.

You need to see your work for what it is—a ministry—kingdom work.

You need to remember Who you’re doing it for.

This is the shift that changes everything.

Somewhere along the way, we started believing that the more we suffer, the more godly we must be.

But there’s a fine line between Christ-like sacrifice… and silent martyrdom.

One leads to life.

The other leads to burnout.

I’ve learned to discern the difference.

Joy Is Cultivated

Listen:

Motherhood isn’t meant to be endured like a drill.

It’s meant to be enjoyed.

Joy isn’t a passive emotion that comes and goes—it is cultivated.

Joy is a discipline.

Peace and joy isn’t found in the quiet moments.

It’s shaped through the chaotic ones.

This is what I’ve discovered on the other side of survival mode.

You weren’t made to just survive motherhood.

You were made to thrive in it.

This isn’t about fixing yourself.

It’s about becoming the woman God designed you to be.

And I want to help you see what that looks like in your own life.

Because, do you know what your kids will remember about you?

Not the spotless house.

Not the perfectly executed chore chart.

They will remember if their mother was joyful…

They’ll remember the sound of her laugh—how it filled the kitchen when the pancakes burned.
They’ll remember how she got down on the floor, sat cross-legged reading stories.
How her eyes lit up when they told her about the bug they found, the dream they had, the story they made up.
The way she hummed while folding laundry.
The way she twirled in the kitchen with the baby on her hip.
The way she looked at their father when he walked through the door.

They’ll remember the feeling that they were her great delight—that she had chosen this life, chosen them, and would choose it all again a thousand times over.

This is the life you prayed for and the memories you and your family will have of these fleeting years.

The Sacred Work of Everyday Life

So light the candle.

Fold the laundry.

Rock the baby.

Kiss the husband.

Make the meal.

And know this—these are not small things.

They are the sacred work of building a kingdom.

And one day, the house will be quiet and as clean as you’d like.

You’ll walk from room to room without stepping on toys.

And you’ll look back at pictures of the life you’re living right now and think…

“Those loud, messy days were the ones that shaped the woman I prayed to become.”

Reclaiming Your Home—Right Now

You don’t need to escape your life to find peace in it.
You don’t need to wait for things to be easier to begin again.

The path I’ve walked—from survival to thriving, from heaviness to joy, from chaos to peace—is not a secret path.

It’s not reserved for women with easier children or cleaner homes or more natural patience.

It’s a path lit by Scripture, paved with intentionality, and walked by grace.

And it’s waiting for you.

If you’re ready—if something in you is saying yes, I want this, I need this—I’ve poured everything I learned into a free workshop called From Survival Mode to Peace-Filled Homemaking in 7 Days, where I walk you step by step through how I rebuilt joy, peace, and purpose in the middle of everyday motherhood.

Today, right here, in the middle of the ordinary—in the kitchen with the dishes piled high, in the living room with the toys scattered like confetti, in the quiet moment before the baby wakes—you are reclaiming your home.