While living on this earth marred by sin’s curse, we will always be in this awkward place of celebration and mourning. Some losses that caused us grief may be restored and replaced, while others may not or cannot be. And so in those times we will walk our road holding hands with joy and grief, sometimes talking to one more than the other.

In those moments of trying to string words together into cohesive prayers, I came before God naked. I had nothing to show. I felt like a peasant in rags before the high king in his royal robes. Who am I Lord, to stand before you? None of my good works could carry me to his throne or make me presentable in his presence. Only Christ’s righteousness brought me there.

We’ve been public about the lives and deaths of these babies not to draw attention to ourselves but because we want to acknowledge their lives. Though these babies never breathed the air we breathe, though they never cried, and though they never grew beyond such a tiny size, they are life. And life lost should always be a life acknowledged and grieved.

In her book Idols of a Mother’s Heart, Christina Fox sets out to help mothers recognize the idols they have stored away in the corners of their hearts. But she doesn’t leave us mothers there with a pile of idols to clean up on our own—she guides mothers how to turn from those idols and back to God.

In motherhood, there are many things I want control of. I want to control my child’s health and safety. I want to control their future happiness. I want to control their behavior. I want to control their salvation and ensure that they become believers. Yet I need to entrust those to God.

Does motherhood feel more fearful that joyful? It did for me, and here’s how God comforted me in my unending anxiety.

First time pregnant wife, do you know the guilt of having a messy home but being too tired and sick to clean it? It doesn’t need to stay this way. I want to offer you true change and hope from the Bible that I had to work through in those early months of pregnancy as a housewife.

We want hope that will help us persevere in the suffering that will inevitably come. But for our hope to do this, it needs to be set on something. Friend, which kind of hope do you have? Is your hope sure, or does it only lead to more pain and anxiety?