Abbie is so encouraging—even when she’s serving up scriptural truths that taste more like cabbage than candy. She is solid, and this book is solid. I wasn’t sure how much she could possibly say on this topic, but I knew that I needed to read it because I loved M Is for Mama so much.

This was a quick listen on audio and a total shot in the arm. I will say something: Even though I listened to this on audio straight through in maybe three days flat, I think that I would benefit greatly from reading a page or two a day in print. The book (as well as MIFM) is so fantastic and necessary that I’d benefit from a daily dose.

Abbie (homeschool mom of 10) proclaims that hard is not the same thing as bad. Just because something is hard doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad and you should remove it from your life.

On the other hand, just because something is hard doesn’t mean it’s good and sanctifying and needs to stay.

Abbie doesn’t minimize the truly hard things. She describes growing up with her dad who was undiagnosed bipolar for many years. She talks about mom friends who weren’t true friends. She talks about the very real challenges of having newborns, toddlers, and teens—even when they’re perfectly healthy and happy, they are hard!

Sometimes, we cannot do anything about the “hard” except patiently wait and hope for the day that God lifts the burden from our shoulders (or the day when we realize that we have increased in strength to the point where the load doesn’t feel heavy anymore). Other times, we can prayerfully take action to ease unnecessary hardships (or trade the “hard” of disobedience for the “hard” of obedience).

I love the chapter where she makes a distinction between “hard things” and “suffering.” They are not the same thing. Often, hard things we face as moms are “challenges” that we tackle and overcome with a hopefully positive result. Suffering is something else altogether. Abbie refuses to accept that motherhood is suffering. That mindset may FEEL true, but it’s NOT helpful, and I couldn’t agree more. I’m saying this from the perspective of someone who does often feel like I’ve sacrificed a lot to stay at home and homeschool my boys. I can make an idol of my so-called suffering, or I can put it into proper perspective and increase my joy and peace.

This book is high on inspiration and mindset—the whole book is about shifting perspective so that we, as moms, can invite God more fully into our hard days and even into our suffering. But, as always, she offers some practical action items to consider (but not too many that it’s overwhelming).