A gentle devotional for busy moms on cultivating the lovely in everyday life. Find encouragement through Scripture, motherhood, and faithfulness in the middle of full, ordinary days.
You know those weeks where everything seems to stack at once? Work deadlines, meals to cook, laundry that never quite gets finished… and little hands still reaching for you in between it all. I’m working on a very large event at work that is demanding quite a bit of my brain power, and I’m finding that I’m lacking in my responsibilities on the home front. You know that menu plan that I share each week in the newsletter? Well, I’m not sticking to it all so well. You know, those Easter homeschool lessons that I decided to add to our homeschool plan, ya, maybe we’re not getting through as much as I anticipated.
I’ve found myself standing in the kitchen, half-working, half-mothering, feeling like I’m not fully doing either one well.
This quiet tension keeps rising up in my heart…
These days with my kids are short.
But this work matters too.
Lord, how do I hold both well?
In the midst of that tension rises another thought, how do I cultivate lovliness in our home when my heart feels stressed and maxed out? Today, we’re going to chat about that. We’re going to explore little aspects of cultivating lovliness in our home amid busy schedules and life. Welcome to Healing Home. I hope you are encouraged and inspired by your time here.
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This week has felt especially full. I’m so glad that spring has made an appearance once again after we descended into winter last week with a full-on blizzard. However, now that spring has sprung, it seems like our schedules are more full than ever before.
We have a beautiful stream that runs through our property, and for the first time, we discovered that there is a beaver dam and lodge. The boys have been fascinated by it, and watching the world come alive in spring brings so much loveliness to my heart and mind. Sometimes stepping out of our front door and breathing in the majesty of God’s creation is one of the easiest ways to cultivate lovely moments in our lives.
The Struggle: Wanting to Be Faithful Everywhere
I want to be faithful to what God has placed in front of me.
Faithful in my work.
Faithful in my home.
Faithful in motherhood.
But the reality is… some days just feel stretched thin.
There isn’t always a margin.
There isn’t always quiet. There definitely isn’t always that picture-perfect “peaceful home” feeling we sometimes imagine. I’ve reminisced many times over the last 8 years since starting my blog that my home really isn’t all that ‘healing’. So am I just a fraud?
As I prayed this last week for God to honor the work of my hands and redeem my time, I’ve been reminded once again that peace was never meant to come from having a perfectly calm day.
Maybe it’s something we cultivate right in the middle of the full ones.
Scripture: Fixing Our Eyes
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
— Philippians 4:6–8 (ESV)
As moms, we can usually deal with ‘busy’. Busy isn’t the problem—it’s the quiet anxiety underneath it.
That feeling of “I’m not doing enough.”
But Paul gently redirects us. He doesn’t tell us to stop caring—he invites us to bring everything to God. Every pressure, every thought, every moment we feel stretched thin. And God gives peace. A peace that guards our hearts and our minds—even when the day still feels full.
And then comes this gentle invitation: Think about what is lovely. Because while God is guarding us, we’re also invited to choose where our thoughts rest.
So in the middle of a full week…We pray. We trust. And we slowly begin to fix our eyes on what is lovely.
Cultivating the Lovely
Cultivating the lovely doesn’t mean waiting for a quiet house… or an easier season.
It means noticing what’s already here. Or perhaps it means cultivating something lovely in the middle of chaos. I love hanging laundry on the line to dry. When we originally moved here, I stated that the ugly laundry line would have to go. I had never hung laundry to dry. I still think it’s an ugly piece of our yard, but I’m so grateful that it didn’t go because it’s a pocket of peace to bring laundry out, listen to my kids’ joyful play, and experience the beauty of creation while my hands are busy hanging laundry.
There’s so much mess in the life of a mom and homemaker, but the mess can remind us that this mess means people are being fed and loved. If I don’t intentionally look for it, I will miss it.
But that word ‘cultivating’ is also important. It means there is an action we must take. We are the ones creating our homes for our families, and we have the power to cultivate the environment of our homes.
During 2020, unlike many people, I found myself busier than ever before. My job increased hours, and I was away from home a lot. I started working on cultivating the lovely when I was home in an attempt to decrease all the anxiety and fear that was permeating our culture at the time. Each week, I brought home a bouquet of little white flowers from a grocery store near my job. I spread them around the house during what seemed like such a chaotic time. I remember intentionally trying to cultivate the lovey in our home.
I don’t have any flower bouquets to put out this week in an attempt to cultivate the lovely, but I can fluff the pillows, put away Lego magazines, and be grateful for a space to call home. Cultivating the lovely is rooted in gratitude and embraced with action.
Scripture: Faithfulness in the Small
“Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.”
— 1 Corinthians 4:2 (ESV)
That word faithful gets me so often at times. I think faithful rhythms look less like a perfect routine and more like a steady heart. I can’t tell you how often this week I’ve told myself to just do the next little faithful thing. Don’t worry about the big picture. The big picture too often overwhelms and distracts from being stewards of the present moment.
One of my favorite YouTube videos from last year was the one on doing the next faithful thing. I’ve thought about that mantra on a weekly basis and really tried to press into that small but mighty idea of doing the next right thing that God places before me.
Faithful in the email I need to send.
Faithful in the child asking for my attention.
Faithful in the meal I’m making.
Today, I’m actually in the kitchen with my kids, and we’re making my sourdough resurrection rolls together for our homeschool this week.
It’s a little messy.
There’s flour on the counter and on the floor, which actually is probably the thing that drives me the most batty. There are a lot of little hands helping more than I probably planned for.
But it’s good.
We’re wrapping the dough around the marshmallow and then talking about how it represents Jesus being laid in the tomb, and how, when it bakes, the inside becomes empty—just like the tomb on Easter morning.
This is faithfulness too.
Not just getting everything done, because in the end, we never truly check everything off on our task lists; but slowing down enough to let these moments matter.
Because cultivating the lovely isn’t always found in big, quiet spaces.
Sometimes it looks like flour-covered counters, a warm oven, and telling the story of Jesus in the middle of a very full week.
And maybe that’s exactly where the lovely is.
Holding Both Realities
I don’t think the answer is choosing one over the other. It’s not work or motherhood. It’s learning, by God’s grace, to live fully present in both, even when it feels imperfect.
To trust that He sees it all.
The work. The interruptions. The quiet sacrifices no one else notices.
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”
— Colossians 3:23 (ESV)
Even the busy week.
Even the divided attention.
Even the ordinary moments that feel like they’re slipping through your fingers.
It all matters to Him.
Closing Encouragement
So if your days feel full right now, if you’re trying to be faithful in a lot of places at once, this is your gentle reminder: You don’t have to wait for a slower season to find beauty. You can cultivate it right here.
In the noise.
In the mess.
In the middle of a very full life.
Because the lovely isn’t missing… Sometimes it just needs to be noticed.
Let’s keep tending to what is lovely, even here.
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