Disobedience, nagging, interruptions, sibling squabbles, an attitude of entitlement, or just toys carelessly left all over the floor—there are plenty of opportunities to feel anger in motherhood. And when anger rises up in us, it’s tough to respond slowly and gently. Fortunately, God’s Word gives us hope and help. In this episode, Emily reads a collection of verses to meditate on when we feel angry as moms. When we fill our minds and hearts with the truths of Scripture, we can remember these words when anger tempts us to sin or despair. Next time you’re doing dishes, driving to work, or making lunches, we pray these verses encourage and transform you. The God of all sees your frustrations—he knows you and loves you deeply.

Note: We understand that anger covers a wide spectrum of responses and feelings. Please keep in mind that some instances and experiences of anger may require professional counseling, pastoral care, or a medical doctor. If you find yourself in a situation that feels much larger than the topics we cover in this series, we encourage you to seek help from professionals who are trained to care for you best in this struggle.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Read alouds aren’t just for our little ones. We can find great encouragement and joy in having the word of God read over us and explained. So in this special episode, Emily and Laura invite John Piper to read and reflect on what he considers to be the greatest chapter in the Bible, Romans 8. As he walks us through this incredible passage, John Piper connects its themes of suffering and loss to motherhood, encouraging us that no matter how deep the waters of our suffering, God’s unshakeable love is deeper still.

When we say, “The gospel changes everything,” we mean everything! Even the way we think about makeup. Whether you’re a mom who loves it or hates it, wears it or doesn't, exploring our thoughts and feelings about makeup opens a window into our beliefs about beauty and identity. Join Emily and Laura in this episode for some fun conversation and gospel application as they consider how we can rightly enjoy beauty and be good stewards of our bodies, while ultimately finding our identity in Christ.

Whenever we ask the R|M community for questions, they range from lighthearted and practical to thought-provoking and theological, which makes the AUA show something special. In this one-hour episode, Emily and Laura answer listeners’ questions from how to survive motherhood without family support and how to protect children from negative influences, to how they maintain privacy for their families on social media and what their quiet time looks like. We hope as you listen, you’ll see how the gospel applies to everything and how we have freedom in Christ to serve our families in unique ways.

Moms have a lot of work to do and the exhaustion of our responsibilities in the home, the church, and the community, often leave us wanting to lean into despair and defeat.. But God uses the work before us to show us his sufficiency and unending love in our weakness so we can lean into grace. In this episode, Emily and Laura interview Debbie Martens about God’s faithfulness and grace in motherhood. Debbie is a wife, mom of seven, and grandmother of five who is actively involved in her local church and community. We’re called to be faithful to God in the work before us, but even when we fail, God is faithful to teach and sustain us in every season of motherhood.

We experience daily hardships in motherhood that weigh on us—difficult decisions, potty training, sleeplessness, and more. But sometimes we experience deeper, more profound suffering that makes us cry out, “Why God?” In this episode, Emily and Laura offer gospel encouragement for those in the midst of deep suffering. Suffering is different for everyone, but scripture offers unshakeable hope in every situation. Since God didn’t excuse himself from suffering, one day—through Christ—our suffering will give way to joy.

You crafted the perfect Christmas list for your kids—a blend of beautiful, educational, practical, and personal. All will be well when they open their pre-approved number of acceptable gifts. That is, until the gift-giver enters the scene and breaks all the rules. In this episode, Emily and Laura flip the gift-giving conversation to ask, “Mama, what’s going on in your heart?” When we remember God’s love to us through Christ, we can see the gift-giver through the lens of grace as we consider our response. Let the richness of Jesus's birth set a tone of gratefulness in your home this gift-giving season.

There’s no formula for raising godly children. Instead, we follow the Christ’s example by offering our kids God’s expectations and grace as we disciple them. In this episode, Emily and Laura interview Elyse Fitzpatrick about faithfulness in the early years of motherhood. Elyse isa wife, mom, and prolific author of many books that apply gospel truths to daily life. While we’re called to faithfully nurture, train, and discipline our children according to God’s word, only Jesus can transform their hearts and teach them to love his design. Let’s give our kids the greatest example of faith by being sinners who run to Jesus with them.

Interactions with the grandparents in your life may leave you feeling thankful and energized, but they may also leave you feeling frustrated or misunderstood. One thing that all moms need in both easy and hard relationships is grace. In the second episode of our “Grandparents & The Gospel” series, Laura and Emily focus on how we can be the instruments of the gospel in our interactions with our children’s grandparents. When we understand how Jesus extends the most grace to us, we are free to offer unconditional love to some of our very closest neighbors, Grandpa and Grandma.

Grandparents can be some of the most loving and helpful relationships in the lives of our children, but they can also be some of the most complicated. Navigating different expectations, values, and family cultures can cause miscommunication and even estrangement. In this episode, Emily and Laura ask the question, “Why do Grandma and Grandpa get under our skin sometimes?” which is really a way of examining our own hearts in light of the gospel. What we worship determines how we respond to happy and hard relationships, and only when we reorient our eyes to Christ’s sacrifice can we approach these issues with grace.

Regardless of how long it’s been since having a baby, we can easily tie too much self-worth to our external appearance. Our confidence can be sky high one morning when we see that “number we’ve been waiting for,” and drop to the ground when it we see a friend who looks better-than-before-baby. But what does the gospel say about how we should view our MomBods? In this special “welcome back” episode, newly postpartum moms Emily and Laura discuss common cultural mindsets about body image, encouraging themselves and others to believe the truths presented in scripture. God isn’t shaming our postpartum bodies, and we shouldn’t either.

When urgent needs and love for our littles abounds, it’s easy to become all-consumed by the role of motherhood. Without even realizing it, we can start to define ourselves by how we’re doing, letting our joy be found in the relative success of earthly ability instead of the secure anchor of the Savior. In this episode, Emily and Laura revisit the concept of identity and motherhood, encouraging moms to define themselves in Christ. As sinners, our success can’t be found in any earthly role or relationship, but only through our eternal hope in the Savior himself.