Lonely Mama,

I see you. Yes, you, not just the cute little bundle(s) you’re shuttling around.

I know you need help. You need to feel seen and not just used. You need to have human interaction, and yet, you need so much alone time (like, the bathroom or shower, right?). You need time for spiritual nourishment. You need to rediscover who you are, because right now you feel like a milk machine, a shuttle, a cook, a housekeeper, a peace keeper, a make-the-world-keep-going-er. It seems like all you do is chores and wipe noses and a million loads of laundry (that will remain unfolded until you get a chance to do it – likely while someone’s asleep). You flail and flail and flail…and are just trying to keep your head above water. And you don’t know why.

Why can’t you get your act together when every person online has perfectly prepared, healthy meals. Tidy houses. Cute, clean, matching clothes for their children. Date nights (what are those?) and fashionable outfits (isn’t mashed banana in style?). Why can’t you seem to make a meal plan, set a schedule, do daily Bible study, keep calm and remain patient? Why don’t you feel like what you’re doing is enough?

Because, Mama, you’re listening to the wrong voice.

Here’s what Satan wants: to devour you (1 Pet. 5:8). He wants to destroy you; kill your spirit so that you no longer fight off his advances. He wants you to feel like you’re not enough – and you know how he does that? He lies to you. Because that’s what he is! A liar and the father of it (John 8:44). And so he whispers lies to you…telling you that you ought to be doing what so-and-so is doing. Telling you that you ought to get caught up in the latest trend…telling you to focus most on your child’s physical needs and less on their spiritual needs. He tells you that a smart child or a popular child is the most important thing. A well-adjusted child, that’s the aim. He tells you that you need to busy your schedule with a thousand things so that you feel overwhelmed and aren’t able to give God what He deserves – your very best. He tells you you’re tired, so tired, and you ought to sleep in instead of worship. He tells you that so-and-so will be critical if you’re late, so you might as well not show up. He tells you your husband doesn’t understand – that you ought to put your children first instead of your husband – and you ought not to pay much attention to him, anyway. He tells you to be critical of others; to be harsh and unloving when people cross you. He tells you that you have no friends anyway, so why be friendly?

But those are lies, friend. Lies.

You are enough. Your child doesn’t need all the things – your child needs your focus to be on Jesus. And when it is, you have this promise: “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you (James 4:7).”

Being a mama is hard. Being a new mama is super hard. Being a postpartum depression mama is sometimes unbearable. But here’s what I know: Jesus knows, Jesus cares, and Jesus has been there.

In His hardest moment on earth, Jesus was forsaken by His closest friends. He knew it was coming, and He told the disciples, “Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone (John 16:32a).” But do you know what the next words out of Jesus’ mouth were?

“And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

This is our lonely mantra, mama. I am not alone because the Father is with me. We can face anything. We can overcome our depression or defeatist nature. We can overcome satan and his schemes. We can overcome the world, because Jesus already has. When you feel Satan’s whispers growing louder and louder, shout back “I AM NOT ALONE BECAUSE THE FATHER IS WITH ME!” You know what? Satan is terrified of our God. He preys on the weak and the lonely and the frail because he’s the literal worst. But our God? Our God cast Him into the depths of hell. Our God struck him on his belly that day in the garden. Our God has always and will always reign supreme, and Satan knows. And he shudders.

So when you feel alone, and you feel discouraged, and you feel like all you wanna do is give in: you are not alone. The Father is with you. Be of good cheer – Jesus overcame this sinful, depressing, disheartening, awful world. And one day, Jesus will come back and we will be set free from all the things that hold us back and seek to destroy us.