Michelle Medlock Adams - They Call Me Mom: 52 Encouraging Devotions for Every Moment

They Call Me Mom is spit-out-your-coffee hysterical and equally poignant. Michelle and Bethany hold nothing back in these highly relatable devotions about their lives as mothers. Full of Gods love and encouragement, this book is one youll binge read in between making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for your kidsits that addicting!

S ARAH P HILPOTT , PhD, farm mama of three, award-winning author of Loved Baby, and blogger at allamericanmom.net

If youre a mom looking for wisdom, advice, and spiritual support, read this book. With gut-level honesty and laugh-out-loud humor, Michelle Medlock Adams and Bethany Jett reveal their own teachable moments and insights from the best and worst days of motherhood. This is a book youll want to give to every mom you know!

C AROL K ENT , speaker and author of He Holds My Hand

A beautiful and thoughtful devotional from Michelle Medlock Adams and Bethany Jett, bathed in spiritual truths yet honest that even one of Gods greatest gifts to women has its difficult moments. Highly recommended for all moms who recognize this incredible motherhood thing is full of joy and sadness, peace and chaos, successes and, well, the other stuff. This devotional reminds us that all these are the plans of our Savior, and they are all for our good. Oh, and if youre the perfect mom, this might not be the devotional for you!

M ICHELLE T ESORI , cofounder of the Tesori Family Foundation

They Call Me Mom: 52 Encouraging Devotions for Every Moment

2019 by Michelle Medlock Adams and Bethany Jett

Published by Kregel Publications, a division of Kregel Inc., 2450 Oak Industrial Dr. NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49505.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout written permission of the publisher, except for brief quotations in reviews.

Distribution of digital editions of this book in any format via the internet or any other means without the publishers written permission or by license agreement is a violation of copyright law and is subject to substantial fines and penalties. Thank you for supporting the authors rights by purchasing only authorized editions.

The persons and events portrayed in this book have been used with permission. To protect the privacy of these individuals, names and identifying details have been changed in some cases.

The authors and publisher are not engaged in rendering medical or psychological services, and this book is not intended as a guide to diagnose or treat medical or psychological problems. If medical, psychological, or other expert assistance is required, the reader should seek the services of a health-care provider or certified counselor.

are based on content first published by Guideposts, a Church Corp. Used with permission.

Published in association with Cyle Young of the Hartline Literary Agency, LLC.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked CEV are from the Contemporary English Version. Copyright 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked ESV 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.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-0-8254-4616-0, print

ISBN 978-0-8254-7591-7, epub

Printed in the United States of America

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For my precious daughters,

Abby Leigh and Allyson Michelle:

Im so honored that you call me Mom, and Im so excited that you two are now experiencing this amazing thing called motherhood.

Love you more!

To Jeremiah, Jedidiah, and Josiah:

You are the three best gifts a mom could ever wish for.

I love you millions and millions and more.

M om is the best title well ever have the honor of holding, yet its also one of the hardest jobs well ever have the pleasure of doing. Thats why we need our #momtribe to support us, pray for us, and cheer us on as we care for those precious gifts from God.

It was our greatest desire to be realno pretensesin this book, because being a mom means were real, sometimes raw, and usually running on caffeine.

We hope youll enjoy a good laugh as we share our crazy, idiotic mom moments, relate to our biggest mommy fails and challenges, and be inspired to run this mommy race with a bit more pep in your step.

Within these pages, youll find inspirational messages with Scripture verses and applications, as well as sidebars featuring practical, helpful information. We hope you find it all useful.

Its our goal that you feel supported, encouraged, and loved as you read each entry, because we are in your corner and we prayed over this book from the planning stages to the moment we hit Send on this manuscript.

Lastly, remember: they call you Mom, but God calls you chosen, empowered, treasured, and more than enough.

And us? We call you friend. Hugs!

The Greatest Showman soundtrack gets my pulse racing and my blood pumping. When little P. T. Barnum sings A Million Dreams, I feel the words soar through my soul, and when I look at my kids, I see that same starry-eyed look reflected in their faces.

The look of a dream chaser.

What dream do you chase?

Does your heart stretch out its fingertips to grasp the elusive tail end of a fantasy so big that it doesnt seem like reality could ever be possible?

Do you ever read a book or watch a show and resonate strongly with a character because you want to be her or wish you knew the things she did? Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if youd taken a different path?

Sometimes you dont know what your dreams are, and sometimes theres a tiny niggle in your heartan unspoken unrestwhen you just know that youre meant for greater things. You were meant to make a difference.

Sometimes its fear of failure that keeps us from stepping out of our comfort zones.

In Ephesians 4:1 Paul begs that we live a life worthy of our calling, because we have been called. Indeed, God has a purpose for our lives. Granted, that purpose is not always revealed right away. Sometimes we are in the training-pants part of our journey while we prepare for our big-girl panties.