Candace Nassar (00:01.026)
Well, welcome everyone. Today I’m talking with Emily Shook, author of Majoring in Motherhood, subtitled A Crash Course in the Gospel Truth for the Hardest, Messiest, Most Glorious Job in the World. Emily was a philosophy major at the University of Oklahoma, turned stay-at-home mom of six kids. Yes, you heard that right. She’s also a blogger and her writing has appeared on desiringgod.org.
Emily (00:25.086)
Yeah.
Candace Nassar (00:30.38)
Y ‘all, her book is a laugh out loud, funny perspective on what motherhood has taught her. And it’s also genuinely introspective and profound as she applies the gospel to our daily challenges as mothers. So I am so excited to talk to Emily today. Welcome.
Emily (00:50.557)
Thanks for having me.
Candace Nassar (00:51.702)
Yeah, it’s great to have you. So I’ve been looking forward to this interview because I just loved your book and I can’t wait to talk about it. But before we start talking about that, why don’t you just introduce yourself to our listeners and tell us a little bit about your background and your family.
Emily (01:08.777)
Yeah, so as you said, I’m originally from Oklahoma. That’s where I grew up. But yeah, I currently live (my family kind of all migrated down to Texas) in North Dallas. My husband is from Pittsburgh. So I dragged him down here too to the heat. And he’s like, why are we here? It’s so hot. But yeah, we’ve lived here for 12 years now. That’s about how long we’ve been married. We got married and kind of moved down here.
Candace Nassar (01:25.591)
No way.
Emily (01:37.373)
Yeah, my background is in philosophy. graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in philosophy. College is kind of where I realized that I wanted to be a writer. And philosophy was kind of a route to just kind of deepen my worldview, my perspective. yeah, and so.
Yeah, we have six kids. We just had our sixth in March. And yes, my husband, when we were dating, he was like, “I want a big family.” And I thought, I said, “Me too.” But we had sort of different understandings of what “big” was. So I wanted at least four. And he was like, maybe 10. Or as many as God will give me. That’s what he would say. And so we kind of compromised at six. But yeah, and we have kind of an interesting fact.
Candace Nassar (02:19.393)
my god.
Candace Nassar (02:27.083)
Wow.
Emily (02:29.584)
We have five boys and one girl. Yes.
Candace Nassar (02:33.695)
My goodness. You have a basketball team.
Emily (02:37.253)
Yes, we do. They’re not, I don’t think they’re gonna be tall enough for basketball, but there are definitely just balls everywhere. I gave up on the no balls rule in the house, you know, so there’s just balls all over the place and it’s very active. And I tell my daughter, okay, you’re gonna have your own bathroom and a nice wedding someday. Just in there. But yeah. Yeah.
Candace Nassar (02:48.334)
Gosh.
Candace Nassar (02:59.028)
Isn’t that, yes, I have one daughter and two sons, so I can completely relate about half of your volume of activity, so I can’t imagine.
Emily (03:07.485)
Yeah, it’s a lot. And like, I had three sisters and no brothers. So it’s just very different from what I know, too. But it’s great. So yeah, and I stay home. Yeah, I stay home. And I homeschool them. We’ve been homeschooling. This is our fifth year of homeschooling. And so yeah, we’re kind of plugging along right now with our school year. And yeah, I want to write. And as I became a mom,
Candace Nassar (03:15.65)
Yeah, it’s a lot more active, a lot more active. Yeah, very good one.
Candace Nassar (03:25.632)
Okay.
Emily (03:37.449)
began to develop a love of communicating encouragement for other moms.
Candace Nassar (03:41.698)
Yes, I can see that and that is really what your book does. So is that what led you to write the book then? Is it just to encourage moms?
Emily (03:49.713)
Yeah, honestly, the book really was just kind of born of my own struggles as a mom. And I would just say it was kind of almost like writing what I felt like I needed to hear in the season that I was in. Then I’ve always just been like, “OK, if then I can take that and communicate that in a way that resonates with other people and encourages them and gives them the encouragement that I also need, then that’s really cool for me.” When I started writing the book, I had three. And so it was really just kind of in the thick of life with little ones and all the struggles that come with that. So, I had kind of been already writing about some of those things and then began to kind of
Candace Nassar (04:19.906)
Mm
Candace Nassar (04:36.728)
Mm
Emily (04:45.107)
see how I could develop a concept, kind of a central concept for the book to put those things together.
Candace Nassar (04:50.316)
Mm
Yeah, I love the title Majoring in Motherhood. I love how you have chapters on different subjects and how those subjects apply to motherhood and the creative way that you do that. And in each chapter, you have some fun stories you share. You’re just so vulnerable and honest. And that is very encouraging because it is really hard when we have young children. My kids are all grown, and the problems just get bigger. No, I don’t see them as much, but when they do call and have an issue it’s a big one.
Emily (05:22.685)
Yeah.
Emily (05:26.369)
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, the stakes are higher, I’m assuming. Yeah.
Candace Nassar (05:33.674)
Yeah, it is. Motherhood is just a hard job, but it’s also like you said, the most glorious job in the world. So I completely agree. Well, I’m so glad that you did that and that you wrote this book. And so let’s talk a little bit about the challenges as moms and living out the gospel and that’s really the core of your book as you relate the gospel into motherhood. So what do you see as the primary challenges moms have in that?
Emily (06:08.241)
Yeah, I mean, that’s definitely all throughout the book as I have a whole chapter on the sacrifices that we make as moms, which, and it’s just like at its heart, motherhood is just a kind of sacrifice from the very beginning. And so that’s a challenge. And then just laying down your life for your children. But I was kind of thinking about this question and I was like, “Well, there’s so many things that make it hard to live out the gospel.” Things are hard, whether it’s being woken up in the middle of the night or you know a toddler tantrum or things like that. But then thinking okay, really, it goes deeper than that, then just that these things are hard So, I’m kind of a big picture person, so I was just kind of thinking of the real reason that this is hard is because really at the root is just a self-centeredness that I think that we just have.
Candace Nassar (07:03.405)
Mm -hmm.
Emily (07:07.037)
It’s kind of just natural in all of us as fallen beings and just kind of a skewed picture even of the gospel and understanding of the world, of a worldview that where we kind of operate where I’m sort of the center of the show or I’m sort of the main character of this story. Anything that can kind of bleed even into our Christianity when we kind of have a man-centered understanding of our faith.
Candace Nassar (07:36.91)
Absolutely.
Emily (07:37.189)
And then there’s so many things in motherhood that are just pushing against that of sacrificing, denying yourself, laying down your life, serving, doing really lowly work, you know, that just don’t fit with this kind of ingrained understanding that we have that’s sort of faulty. And so I was just kind of thinking that’s really why it’s hard is because we’re sometimes operating out of just like a
Candace Nassar (07:51.33)
Thank you.
Emily (08:06.075)
skewed understanding of reality and the gospel. And so I think what happens when we become saved is then God sort of begins the process of correcting this and understanding that we’re not at the center of this story. And we’re actually part of a bigger story. And it’s actually God’s story. And we’re actually saved not so that we can be exalted, but so that we can exalt Christ.
Candace Nassar (08:07.788)
more.
Candace Nassar (08:35.543)
Mmm. That’s really good.
Emily (08:36.769)
So yeah, I was thinking a lot more big picture, but I was like, yeah, that’s really what’s at the heart of it is that if I’m kind of thinking I’m the star of this show, then there’s a lot of things in motherhood that are just not gonna fit with that. But then I think if we kind of get that very deep rooted foundational understanding of the gospel, then at least a lot of this makes a lot more sense of why we’re doing these things as moms and why they matter.
Candace Nassar (09:04.782)
Yeah, I love that. You talk about, obviously it’s a sacrifice, it’s a holy calling and you called it an “act of worship” as we lay down our lives for a time. For sure, there will be time. How old is your oldest, Emily? 10, okay. So you will get over the hump when it starts eventually, it doesn’t take as much time, but it is still.
Emily (09:21.609)
He’s 10.
Emily (09:26.597)
Yeah.
Candace Nassar (09:32.608)
your heart will always be with your kids and it is an act of worship because we’re serving God as we are serving our kids and our family, right?
Emily (09:41.821)
Yes. Right. Yeah. And then just to remember, yes, I think sometimes we can be grumpy servants. But then if we remember, Christ humbled himself even more than I’m humbling myself. And Christ, who was far more glorious and holy than I am, humbled himself to serve me. And what does he say? That you’re not greater than your master, right? So then it’s like, OK, I guess I can do these diapers and I can do these.
Candace Nassar (09:54.509)
Yeah.
Candace Nassar (10:13.805)
That’s right.
Emily (10:21.683)
acts of service with a joyful heart because Christ served me.
Candace Nassar (10:25.576)
Mm -hmm. I love too, you talked about how it’s a mirror that we can see our own sin as being a mom sanctifie, right?
Emily (10:38.455)
Yes.
Emily (10:42.459)
Yes, yes, that’s a whole chapter I have.
Yes, I talk about the mirror of motherhood where you’re kind of frustrated with your kid or whatever it is. But really it’s kind of like God holding up a mirror and showing you, but actually you’re kind of just like this too. Maybe we’re more refined. But the same sin patterns exist in us and we’re far more like our children than we are unlike them.
Candace Nassar (11:13.847)
Yeah, I know. My daughter is very strong-willed and still is. She’s a big boss in New York City at a PR agency and she’s great and still loves the Lord and walks with Him. But there were so many times when she would act in ways and I was just like where is this coming from? And then if I really thought about it, my goodness
Emily (11:20.502)
Yup, I know one of those.
Emily (11:36.892)
my gosh.
Candace Nassar (11:40.982)
I think I talked to my husband this way, you know, cause I’m also really strong-willed. And so there you go. It’s the whole log and the spec thing, right? Where we can’t see it in our own eye, we can see it in our kids, but very often it’s what we’re reflecting.
Emily (11:43.554)
Yep.
Emily (11:47.237)
Yeah
Emily (11:51.677)
Yes, yes.
Exactly. Yes, it’s very humbling. Yeah, when your kids start saying something and you’re like, where did they get that? And you’re like, I think I say that.
Candace Nassar (12:05.672)
Mm -hmm. How we react and it’s a little bit scary and that’s very humbling and that’s why, you know, I tell people I raised three kids that love Jesus on my knees because there are so many times when I had no idea what I was doing but God would always come along beside me through the Holy Spirit and guide me. So I also really liked how you talk about the lie of
self-empowerment.
Emily (12:10.76)
Yeah.
Emily (12:28.029)
Yes, yeah, that’s easy.
Candace Nassar (12:35.18)
Let’s talk about that for just a second.
Emily (12:35.261)
Yes.
Yeah, so I have a whole chapter that’s kind of about weakness and how motherhood just reveals our weakness and kind of exposes this lie that we get in the culture, which is, you can do it. You have what it takes. You are enough. And, yeah, when I was kind of writing about that, I was really in the throes of probably my most difficult season of motherhood when I had just recently had my third and I was,I think, having postpartum depression and two of my kids were not sleeping and I was just miserable and I was also just coming to terms with the reality of like my physical weakness of like I can’t even. You know, am I gonna do motherhood when I’m not even sleeping?
Candace Nassar (13:11.298)
I’m gonna go to
Candace Nassar (13:29.984)
Yes, I’m there.
Emily (13:30.117)
and then also just the exposure of my spiritual weakness of all of the things that were coming to the surface of just my ability to do motherhood well.
Yeah, I was just feeling like I am not enough. This is clear. I’m clearly not enough. But then as I was kind of praying to the Lord,”Why do you keep kind of pushing on my weakness?” hat’s what I just felt like God was just like pushing on my weakness. And He kind of was just like, “Yeah, I’m doing this out of.
Candace Nassar (13:48.408)
Mm -hmm.
Emily (14:10.121)
love to show you how much you need me.” And how much it’s kind of like his faithfulness to keep us away from self-sufficiency by pushing on our weakness and saying, “Yeah, you don’t have what it takes, but I do.” God has what it takes. And so yeah, that chapter kind of draws on the imagery in Jeremiah 17 about, you know,
Candace Nassar (14:29.496)
us.
Emily (14:36.937)
“Cursed is the man who trusts in himself, but blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and he will be like a tree that’s planted by the stream.”
Candace Nassar (14:44.803)
Mm.
Emily (14:46.011)
And so that’s honestly a verse I come back to a lot in motherhood of, I’m starting to kind of trust Him. I’m trusting in myself again and I feel, I feel dried up, you know? I need to come back and bring my weakness. It’s not a shameful thing, but bring my weakness to the Lord and ask Him to fill me in that He’s faithful to do that. And that’s just how amazing it is that God,
Candace Nassar (14:57.922)
Mm -hmm.
Emily (15:14.651)
is never depleted by the need, by our need. Because I just felt depleted by my kids’ needs. But really, that just turned me to just kind of awe of the Lord. He fills us and fills us, and yet He’s never exhausted by our need.
Candace Nassar (15:16.429)
Mm.
Candace Nassar (15:33.484)
Yeah, we can’t comprehend that. So we try to put it in our human terms.
Emily (15:39.356)
Yeah, it’s unfathomable, really.
Candace Nassar (15:41.846)
Unbelievable, absolutely. So another chapter that I really enjoyed was your chapter on chemistry, because as I said, all the chapters are subjects. And you talked about “entropy”. And I remember that. so I found that because I actually went to an engineering college and tried to be an engineer and didn’t succeed. I did. Okay, okay.
Emily (15:48.574)
Yes. Yes.
Emily (15:59.637)
Okay. I tried to be a scientist and didn’t succeed, so yeah. Well, I was in microbiology before I switched to philosophy, so I do love chemistry, but yeah. Okay, there you go.
Candace Nassar (16:11.274)
Okay, and I was a chemical engineer, so I love chemistry as well. I didn’t finish with that, but anyway. But I thought that was so insightful because entropy is basically a law of chaos. And as mothers, we want to control our environments so much. I mean, it’s just part of our curse that, you know, our desire will be for our husbands and he will rule over us. I mean, we just want to control our homes.
Emily (16:29.843)
Yes.
Candace Nassar (16:40.719)
We want to control all aspects of our lives. And yet that is such a false narrative that we’re ever going to achieve that. And so I love how you talk about fighting the laws of the universe.
Emily (16:55.681)
Yeah, that’s what it feels like, Especially with little kids, like I feel like I’m trying to fight “entropy” and it’s just, it’s a losing battle.
Candace Nassar (17:06.242)
Yes, and I think that’s, you know, it’s part of the grace that we, you know, speaking of living out the gospel, right, is that we have to allow ourselves grace and we have to give our kids grace and to try to just find that peace and just allow things to be out of control sometimes,.That it’s okay. It can be controlled chaos, right, in a sense.
Emily (17:32.551)
Yes Yes, yes, honestly, I was doing another interview and she asked me which Subject was the hardest for me and I said this one because I still struggle a lot yeah with the chaos and the yeah the desire to control and maintain peace, which is of course just
impossible with six kids, who are home all the time? But yeah, I struggle still because I’m very introverted and so the chaos really can wear on me a lot? But yeah, I think just trying to embrace it and I think sometimes like the mess. Kind of even connecting it to another chapter that I have on identity When my house is a mess and there’s so much chaos, it feels connected somehow to my ability or how good I’m doing as a mom And so if my house is a mess. I’m like I feel like a failure or whatever it is. So, just having to come back to like.” Okay…
Candace Nassar (18:30.264)
that you’re talented.
Emily (18:40.699)
It’s a mess and that’s just understandable. You will clean it up. Like it will be okay. And kind of embracing the flux of it all, you know? There’s a flux of motherhood. There’s the chaos and then you kind of regain some stability and then go, “Okay, I’m not a failure because my house is a mess. This is just the reality of life.”
Candace Nassar (19:01.699)
Yeah.
Candace Nassar (19:09.176)
Mm -hmm. that, and our kids, like you’ve got a boy, you said you have five boys and that just, that’s a whole nother layer of level of chaos and activeness.
Emily (19:10.6)
Yes.
Yeah.
Emily (19:17.767)
Yes, the effectiveness and the fighting.
Candace Nassar (19:22.924)
Hmm. Yeah. so, how can we have peace in that?
Emily (19:27.768)
Yeah. Honestly, I talk about Psalm 46 in that chapter where it says, “Be still and know that I am God.” And that was a verse that kind of kept coming back to me because when I had my third, and I was starting to write this book, I was really kind of getting into the chaos and that was the verse that the Lord kind of kept bringing me. And I was like, “Why? I can’t be still and know, how am I gonna be still and know?” Like I just felt like that meant I was supposed to go find.you know, some peaceful place and I was like, “I can’t do that.” And so then it was like when I read it, read the chapter, it was like, this is where it’s talking about the mountains falling into the sea and crumbling and all of these things. And so it’s about finding peace in the middle of chaos because the Lord of Hosts is with us and the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Candace Nassar (20:03.118)
Why?
Emily (20:22.971)
So that’s still a struggle for me. I think sometimes it’s just praying to the Lord or just praying and reminding myself that God is with you and saying, “I’m surrendering the desire for control and the desire to kind of have everything neat and in order. yeah.
Candace Nassar (20:33.025)
And surrendering, right? Just surrender.
Candace Nassar (20:44.108)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it’s the only way we can have peace knowing that He’s in control and we’re not, and that He will get us through each day and show us what’s important to do that day. If we ask Him and you know, then we’ll get “His mercies are new every morning.” So, it’s whatever we need for that day, He will give us. So.
Emily (21:04.936)
Yes, definitely.
Candace Nassar (21:05.922)
Very good, very good. Well, let’s talk for a few minutes about mom guilt. All moms know about mom guilt. It just is the biggest thing. So how can the gospel help us respond to that?
Emily (21:13.033)
Yes.
Emily (21:20.891)
Yeah, I’ve been thinking about this a lot because I talk about mom guilt like a little bit in one of my chapters and I was like, “I think I would maybe go back and nuance it a little more because I think sometimes we feel a lot of guilt for things that we don’t need to feel guilty for, right?” Like, so a lot of times mom guilt comes from some kind of unrealistic ideal we have in our mind. So we feel guilty if we don’t attain that, or maybe we feel guilty if we compare ourselves to other moms and what they’re doing that seems better, or something we see on social media. And so I think a lot of that guilt is misplaced and like, we can kind of go, “Okay, this isn’t actually real guilt.”
Candace Nassar (21:50.093)
Okay.
Candace Nassar (22:00.06)
Share.
Emily (22:04.251)
This isn’t something God has commanded me. This isn’t you know, it can kind of be a response honestly to just like a legalistic kind of understanding of “I have to check all these boxes”, or whatever. But then I’m like, you know, I think sometimes as a culture, I think we want to just completely feel guilty. Don’t do that. Like just just push that aside. Just shush-you’re doing a good job, don’t you know. And so I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. That mom guilt isn’t always misplaced. It’s our gut reaction, at least mine is usually.I’m going to minimize it if I feel guilty about maybe that I lost my temper or something, I’m going to justify it, I’m going to, you know, maybe talk to my husband and see if he’ll kind of give me some affirmations of like, “You’re doing the best you can.” So that’s kind of a response that we can have.
Candace Nassar (23:00.152)
Mm
Emily (23:06.667)
And I can kind of do these both, really. I sit in just condemnation if I feel like I’ve failed as a mom. And I can just sit in guilt and shame and tell myself, I’m such a horrible mom. And I can kind of just almost even alternate between the two. But both of those, I’m just like, both of these are really just from the enemy of, and both rooted sort of in ultimately of either I want my sin to be justified so I don’t feel bad about it or I’m gonna sit in shame because I’m really kind of inwardly focusing but I think a true gospel response to guilt is if you really did fail, to just,receive, receive the guilt. And I’m kind of thinking maybe we should call it like mom conviction, you know? Because guilt and shame do come from the enemy, but conviction comes from the Holy Spirit. And so sometimes, mom guilt is misplaced and sometimes it’s not. And so then we can actually
Candace Nassar (24:02.392)
Thank you. -huh.
Candace Nassar (24:07.106)
for sure.
Emily (24:17.883)
receive the conviction of the Holy Spirit and we can receive that freely because we don’t have to justify ourselves because we’ve already been justified and we don’t have to condemn ourselves because there’s a Jesus who was condemned in our place and so then there’s so much freedom to not minimize my guilt but to neither kind of fall into a pit of like shame but to then receive the conviction,
Candace Nassar (24:28.6)
Mm
Emily (24:47.901)
And confess to the Lord. He says He’s “faithful and just to give us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And so I think then, coming back to being in Christ then, there’s so much freedom to confess without condemnation.
Candace Nassar (24:49.112)
Right?
Candace Nassar (25:04.002)
Yeah.
Candace Nassar (25:08.012)
Hmm, that’s so good. And also just apologize and ask for forgiveness when we need to. And use that guilt to prompt us, “Okay, I’m confessing to the Lord, I’m confessing to whoever I hurt.” And then move on.
Emily (25:13.043)
Right, right, to go to our kids.
Emily (25:22.087)
Yeah.
Right, yeah, it’s like you don’t have to keep carrying that, and so it’s like it almost sounds too good to be true, but it’s like yeah, we can just confess and like you said there’s new mercies. And I think, at least this is what I’m hoping, is that confessing and asking for your forgiveness for your kids will go a long way.
Candace Nassar (25:47.874)
It absolutely does.
Emily (25:49.445)
They’re gonna have lots of memories of mommy failing, but hopefully they’ll also have lots of memories of you know, asking for forgiveness.
Candace Nassar (25:59.756)
Yes, they do. And my kids, that was something I really lived by and they know that. And we have such strong relationships. Matter of fact, my daughter lives in New York. My son lives in Austin, but last night at the same time, they were FaceTiming, trying to FaceTime me. And I I told my husband, you call my daughter and we’ll have FaceTime with everybody together.
Emily (26:18.738)
You
Candace Nassar (26:26.934)
It’s just precious that we have those kinds of relationships and it’s all from Jesus. It’s all because of Jesus.
Emily (26:33.545)
Right. Yes. God is the one who’s going to save your kids. You’re not going to ruin it. You know, it’s not all on us too, I think. So remembering that it frees you up a lot because I think if you’re carrying the burden of “I got to make sure my kids are saved”, or whatever, then the guilt is going to be even heavier because you’re like, “I blew it.” But trusting in the Lord.
Candace Nassar (26:55.608)
Right?
Candace Nassar (27:01.325)
That’s right. That’s right. And there are people like me, I wasn’t raised in a Christian home at all and found the Lord at 30 years old. So just never know. So that’s really good. And I’m so glad that you address that because guilt and shame is a huge problem. And we don’t want to sit in that shame and that condemnation because we don’t need to. So I love that.
Emily (27:08.243)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you just never know.
Emily (27:21.075)
Yes. Yes.
Emily (27:27.507)
Yes, yeah.
Candace Nassar (27:29.964)
All right, well, what other encouragement would you give moms that are struggling today? There was so much good stuff in your book, but, okay, wait, I have to, before we end this, I have to talk about the thing that made me laugh the hardest in your book. The great gummy vitamin snack.
Emily (27:36.83)
Yes
Emily (27:43.149)
Yeah, what was it? They’ve got my vitamins. Yes, that’s my favorite story.
Candace Nassar (27:50.283)
That was so good because I can relate. And that was your third, right? Was that your third?
Emily (27:56.305)
It was actually my oldest that I think at the time I had two. But yes, that is, and it’s funny too now because he knows the story. So when we got the book, they were all like, read the gummy vitamin story.
Candace Nassar (27:58.05)
Well, okay.
Candace Nassar (28:07.192)
Yeah, I bet.
Candace Nassar (28:11.466)
It’s so funny and I can relate so much because my third was very, very particular about lots of things. And so let’s just tell our readers real quick. You gotta get the book and read it or give it, and it’s a great gift. Actually, I thought to myself, it’s a great shower gift for new moms.
Emily (28:19.379)
Yeah.
Emily (28:32.113)
Yeah, a lot of people have said that that would be a good baby shower gift. Yeah, because it’s kind of like a “Here’s what you need to know” kind of thing.
Candace Nassar (28:39.79)
Yeah, it really is. But it’s also an encouragement for moms of toddlers and even older kids. I got encouraged from it just knowing, you know, because I mean, even still to this day, I can have mom guilt, right? And when I’m teaching, I teach a lot on parenting and I go, wait, I didn’t do that. You know, maybe that’s why this one has this problem or that problem, you know? And it’s just, you know, that does no one any good. So.
Emily (28:46.695)
Yeah
Emily (28:51.283)
Right?
Emily (28:56.155)
Yeah, I didn’t do that perfectly. Yeah.
Candace Nassar (29:05.048)
But yeah, the great gummy vitamin debacle is when your son wanted to have the vitamin. He took it in a million pieces and he took it into wherever you were dropping him off. And yeah, you can just tell it real quick.
Emily (29:08.691)
Yes.
Emily (29:15.953)
Yeah, we were going to Bible study.
Yeah, so I was, he had wanted my prenatal vitamins, so I got him his own gummy vitamin, dinosaur gummies, and he, instead of just eating it in like one bite, would kinda carry it around and nibble on it and suck on it and whatever, and then, you know, he would lose it and the world was over, whatever. So one, yeah, one morning we were going to Bible study and I gave him his vitamin, and then I go to drop him off and he’s like losing his mind and I don’t know why he’s like grabbing on to me and he wasn’t normally like that so I was like, okay I’ll just get him off and make my escape but I could just hear him keep screaming and screaming and so I went back and I was trying. We were doing this back and forth. I’m like, “What’s the matter? I can’t understand you.” You’re in that stage too where they don’t even talk clearly and so I was like trying not to like lose my mind and then the childcare worker says, “You have a gummy on you,”
And so then I was sort of trying to see it and I couldn’t see it. I’m like patting myself down and I can’t get it off until of course then I had to bend over and let this woman pull it off of my…
Candace Nassar (30:15.064)
you
Emily (30:29.681)
And then I was like, well, “You know, I can either like not give it to him because it’s been on my butt and risk him having more fit or just like give him the vitamin so I can go have my coffee.” So I was like, “Here you go. I just gave him the vitamin.” There’s so many crazy things like that that happened in motherhood.
Candace Nassar (30:47.682)
Yeah.
Candace Nassar (30:55.166)
That’s it. That’s the whole, the preciousness of that story is we’ve all had those situations where you’re just like, you know, at your wits end. Yes.
Emily (31:01.011)
Yeah.
You’re like, how did I end up like this? You know, like how do these absurd things even happen, you know?
Candace Nassar (31:09.576)
When I was in college, this was not how I pictured my life.
Emily (31:12.797)
Yes, huh, right? Did not think I’d be bending over for somebody to take a slobbery vitamin off my rear end.
Candace Nassar (31:20.899)
That was just, it was just so great. So lots of great stories like that. But anyway, so what, if you had to encourage a struggling mom today, what would you say?
Emily (31:34.225)
Yeah, I think my favorite chapter is the last chapter where I talk about the why of motherhood. Because I think it’s just so easy, especially moms of young little ones who are kind of in the nitty gritty of motherhood in the day to day. And it’s just so easy to lose sight of the bigger picture of why motherhood matters or why motherhood is glorious. And so I would just say that.
Remember that in the ordinary day-to-day things and being faithful in the ordinary and the small work and the menial work of motherhood, God is at work and everything that you’re doing matters even when it feels like it doesn’t matter. I like to say motherhood is a marathon and not a sprint. So it’s just, it’s a lot of delayed gratification. Be faithful. I think that’s what I would say, be faithful in the small things that feel not glorious and feel not important and just trust that the Lord is at work. Just as you and I talk about, the verse about if a grain of wheat falls to the ground, I don’t know how he says it, but if it falls to the ground and dies, it bears much fruit. And that’s kind of the vision of motherhood.
Candace Nassar (32:42.872)
Mm -hmm.
Emily (32:57.339)
Through our faithfulness, imperfect faithfulness, through our service, through our sacrifice, God is at work and there will be fruit down the road.
Candace Nassar (33:07.778)
So good, so good because really I just taught a lesson on the purpose of parenting and it’s to raise fellow worshipers that are brothers and sisters that glorify God and so yes, discipleship. And so every little thing that we’re doing as part of that, even folding laundry day after day after day.
Emily (33:20.243)
Yes, disciples, it’s discipleship,
Emily (33:31.283)
It doesn’t feel glorious a lot
Candace Nassar (33:34.328)
But it is part of making that stable home for your kids and then just seeing your love and your sacrifice. Great. Well, Emily, this has been such a great conversation. I really appreciate you. And the book is available on Amazon. And again, I highly recommend Majoring in Motherhood. So we thank you so much, Emily, for your time and wish you the best in this.
Emily (33:52.721)
Mm -hmm.
Emily (34:04.027)
Yes, thanks for having me.
Candace Nassar (34:05.248)
Okay.
