A Force To Be Reckoned With

231. When Motherhood Brings You to the End of Yourself with Whitney Newby

• Bethany and Corey Adkins / Adkins Media Co.

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What if the hardest moments of motherhood weren’t something to escape—but a holy invitation?

In this episode, we sit down with Whitney Newby, the heart behind Brighter Day Press, who opens up about the messy, beautiful collision of motherhood and faith. A former nurse turned homeschooling mama of four, Whitney shares how an early, overwhelming moment with her newborn led her to a deep realization: her own love and strength would never be enough—but God’s grace would be.

With wisdom forged in the trenches, Whitney offers practical rhythms for weary mamas—like redefining interruptions as divine assignments and waking up just a little earlier to meet with the One who holds it all together. She challenges the idea that self-care means checking out, pointing instead to Jesus, who withdrew to pray so He could pour Himself out again.

Whether you're juggling toddlers or teens, homeschool or public school, this conversation is a gentle nudge to lift your eyes, steady your heart, and find God right in the thick of it.


Episode Highlights: 

  • Meet Whitney Newby.
  • About Brighter Day Press.
  • Whitney’s homeschooling journey.
  • A devotional for moms.
  • Changing our perspective.
  • Routines that work for the Newby’s.
  • Depending on Jesus in our ‘empty cup moments’.


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Links Mentioned in Episode/Find More on A Force to Be Reckoned With:

This show has been produced by Adkins Media Co.


Speaker 1:

We are at war and it's not against our neighbors, spouses, children, politicians or whatever else we feel like we're battling against.

Speaker 2:

So the questions are who's the fight against, and are we winning or losing? We're the Adkins, and we are a force to be reckoned with.

Speaker 1:

Are you ready?

Speaker 2:

to join the force. All right, Hi everyone, so excited. We have not had a guest in quite a while and I'm really excited about our guest today. Her name is Whitney Newby and moms, if you're on social media at all and we're in the era you may still be in homeschooling, but for many of us, we were in that era around 2020 for a couple years. She's also known on social media as Brighter Day Press. She has an amazing, encouraging online presence for moms and I'm just so grateful to have her here today. Welcome, Whitney.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited, yes.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, I was telling Whitney, right before we started interviewing her, an email came across to have her on our show and I saw her picture come up and I was like man, she looks so familiar I cannot figure it out. And I realized, yeah, you know, we homeschooled for a few years and she had an incredible Advent study. Which do you still do that every year?

Speaker 1:

I do. Yes, we have. We have a couple now actually for different age groups. So, yes, that's amazing. So we had a whole friend group.

Speaker 2:

We were all doing the Advent study together and it was super encouraging. I actually still have it. It's beautiful. We get it out every year. I set it on my fireplace and, yeah, just love it. But I love it. We are actually here today to talk specifically to moms and just talk about encouragement and getting into the word. You had a new book come out recently and I would just love to first hear. Well, first, before we even get into the book, I just want to hear a little bit about you.

Speaker 1:

Sure. So I am married to Sean. We've been married for 16 years and we have four kiddos who are currently 12, 10, 7, and 5. And we homeschool. We've homeschooled since the beginning, but we also create family discipleship resources through Brighter Day Press. And we live in Greenville, south Carolina, which we just moved here a few months ago, but we live and work together. So my husband and I both do this full time and I get to speak some and write some, and it's just a joy to do this as a family.

Speaker 2:

That's amazing. Is that something like growing up? Is this? Are you kind of where you knew that you wanted to be? That's one of my favorite questions to ask our guests.

Speaker 1:

That is such a good question because I never saw this coming. So my parents are in ministry full-time, so they were in music ministry and so my sister and I grew up traveling with them to different churches and I mean, I had a great childhood but I thought that is not what I picture doing traveling with my family and doing this. And now sometimes I look at our life and it's like there are a lot of similarities. But I actually went to college. I went to Bible college, got a Bible degree, but then when I got my degree, it was in 2008, and there was a recession and it was like what am I going to do with a Bible degree? And so I went on to nursing school and got a nursing degree and worked as a nurse for a lot of years, and it was just about five years ago that I stopped working as a nurse and started pouring into these resources and had no idea that it would become our full-time job.

Speaker 2:

That's incredible. And that's, I was also a nurse.

Speaker 1:

Were you. Oh, I didn't know that that's so cool.

Speaker 2:

That's. That's really cool. It's actually really cool to see how many women who are now in this space, who were previously nurses.

Speaker 1:

That's amazing. Yes, I've noticed that too. I wonder what it is.

Speaker 2:

So tell me about like was homeschooling on your radar?

Speaker 1:

How did you get into this space specifically? Yeah, homeschooling was not at all on my radar until we had a child that was schooling age and he was at the time he was five years old. We were going to send him to the school down the street and I went to go visit and at that time he was five years old. We were going to send him to the school down the street and I went to go visit and at that time he was already reading which. He was just this voracious learner, kind of a wild child but very smart. And I went to the school down the street and I could tell it was just not a good fit and I was not ready to send him and so I thought, well, let's just homeschool for one year and see how it goes. But I will definitely send him to school in first grade because I loved school. I had a wonderful experience. I was not homeschooled at all and I only really knew kind of weird homeschoolers, so I was not drawn to it at all.

Speaker 1:

Were you in public school? I was. I was in public school until middle school and then middle school and high school I was in a private Christian school and so I thought, let's just try it for a year. He already knows how to read, so I can't mess this up too badly and we just fell in love with the lifestyle. I loved teaching him, learning alongside him, and so we thought, well, let's just try another year. And that was seven, eight years ago. So we I mean we always hold it very open-handed, and I know that offends some people that are just so committed to homeschooling, but we pray every year and just you know, look at our kids and are they thriving? Is our family thriving? Because I think all of us need to thrive for this to work long term. And for now, every year the answer has been yes, but we are open, if the answer is no, sometimes to look at other options.

Speaker 2:

I absolutely love that mindset and that outlook and we very much have taken that same stance and it has ultimately led us to a couple of years of homeschooling. Our kids are now in public school, but again, it's every year. It's just what does the Lord have for us? And I think that right there is such an encouragement to moms out there, because I think often sometimes we make a decision that is right in a season and then maybe three years later we feel like a failure because that decision is no longer working. And that is not. That is a lie from the enemy.

Speaker 1:

It absolutely is. Yeah, yeah, I mean I look at, I look at families that have, you know, some circumstances that would just even for like a year or two. Hey, it would really benefit everyone to put your kids in school. And but I think, because I don't know, there seems to be some shame in that for some reason. Like you know, you like we're all so in control of our, our children's educations and then we're giving it over to someone else. I mean that's really not the case. And so I just, yeah, I do encourage parents to just be prayerful and and open handed about what that looks like in the future. And who knows? I mean our kids right now, like I said, are thriving, but who knows, you know, if in high school it feels like man, they really need to be with other peers or whatever that might look like. We'll see.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, okay, so you have homeschooled up to this point? Yes, and now you have some curriculum.

Speaker 1:

Well, is the curriculum the right word? It is.

Speaker 2:

Okay, and you have written books and all of that. What did it like? When did all of that start? So I can imagine, like in the first year you're not writing curriculum and writing books. How did that transpire?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so it was maybe about three years in that. You know, I think this is how a lot of businesses start, but where you kind of see a gap in the market or you're looking for a resource for your own family and you can't find it and for me it was. What does our morning time look like? So the 15 to 20 to 30 minutes that we spend every morning as a family in the Word, memorizing scripture, singing a hymn, reading aloud, that kind of thing, all of the subjects that we do together. And, like I said, at first, in those early years it was only, you know, maybe 30 minutes. Now it's gotten a little bit longer with our older kids.

Speaker 1:

But I wrote down our plans that I was seeing bear so much fruit in our family that by just sitting down and practicing a memory verse, you know, five days a week, even our two and three-year-olds were able to, you know, say Psalm 23 or Psalm 1 or these beautiful passages, and so we were seeing fruit, and so I wrote those down and I had a small Instagram community at that point and I said would anyone be interested if I just offered these plans for sale?

Speaker 1:

And sure enough, people were, and that was the birth of Brighter Day Press and from there, honestly, the Lord has just provided ideas and motivation and I mean we've learned so much through trial and error, like all small businesses, and I know, you know, we don't always show the error part and so it probably looks like man. This has just been an incredible journey and it has, but we have learned a lot the hard way and but now I think we have over 70 products or something like that, and and God just keeps giving inspiration, so we just keep going with it and it has been a joy.

Speaker 2:

That leads me kind of to my next question. You know, like I can already tell you, and I have such different personalities, which I love, like I love gathering with moms that are completely different, because it's so inspiring. But I also think that it can be so discouraging in some ways on both sides, and I would imagine that it's so easy to maybe even for some of your audience to look at what you have now and think this is so beautiful and this has been so easy along the way and she's it's come so easy to her and her faith is so easy to her.

Speaker 2:

But I would imagine that's not not the case, which I'm wondering if that is kind of what stemmed or sparked this book.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, very much so.

Speaker 1:

So a publisher actually reached out to me a couple of years ago about writing a devotional for moms, and you know I don't usually read a lot of devotionals because a lot of times they just they can tend to be kind of maybe shallow theologically, you know, or just not very realistic.

Speaker 1:

And so what I wanted to do in this book was be very vulnerable, and I am, and you'll read, you know, times when I felt lonely, when anger got the best of me, when I was very overstimulated and overwhelmed, and especially in just those early years of motherhood, that can just be really, really difficult.

Speaker 1:

I feel like no one really warned me for how hard it would actually be and how much joy too, but how hard, how demanding that season was. And so, yes, I wrote this book, and there are 40 devotionals in this book that all pertain to motherhood, and they all start with, you know, when I feel this way or when I feel like I've failed as a mom, when I'm ashamed, for you know these different things, and the idea is to lift our eyes to the Lord in our struggles. And I, you know I really wrote this almost to my younger self, because so many of these things are the things that I learned in early motherhood that I wish you know I had had this book to teach me along the way. It might've been a little bit easier, but yeah, but I hope it's just a huge encouragement and it is rich with scripture and so, again, very vulnerable, but also hope-filled, because it hopefully casts your eyes on the Lord.

Speaker 2:

What are some of the things that you would say to your younger self? Let's maybe even say there's a mom out there who is just starting this and they're in the thick of motherhood, or maybe they are homeschooling. And because often I think that, especially with social media, people will look at the pictures and videos of other people's lives and they have this idea of what it's supposed to look like, and then, when things get hard, they just assume oh, this isn't what I'm supposed to be doing. But the reality is so often, when we are walking in God's will, that it's going to be hard, and so hard doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong. That's where kind of you have to get with the Holy Spirit and discern what God is calling for you in your life. But I'm just wondering if you can share some of the hard things that you've walked through as a mom.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So, honestly, it was very early on that I realized that my love for my children was not enough for me to be a good mom, because I came to the end of myself so fast with you know the waves of hormones and the sleepless nights.

Speaker 1:

And even when my son was, I think, five days old, I had my first experience with postpartum anger or rage, where I felt so angry at this crying baby I didn't know what to do and I had to set him down and scream into a pillow and I had never felt that, and especially toward this helpless little guy that I adored and had prayed for and longed for, and so it felt so out of control and I questioned like Lord, what? You know, how am I supposed to get through this if this is day five, you know, and I am failing, but there was, there was one scenario when my daughter so I have a son and then a daughter, and so when I had a two-year-old and a newborn, that was that was my hardest phase of all. So we have four kids it actually kind of got easier for us. I think it depends so much on the kid but I have heard the ages, yes, and their needs were so different.

Speaker 1:

So this little wild man, two-year-old and a very colicky little baby that was just. It felt like she cried, you know, all the time, and I could feel myself every time she would start crying and I would be in the middle of doing something, making dinner or, you know, playing with my son, or even trying to sleep. I would get up in the middle of the night or from whatever I was doing and just audibly like groan, like you know, because it felt like such an interruption to my plans and you know, and it sounds so ridiculous.

Speaker 2:

No, it doesn't. I think this resonates with so many. I mean myself also, you know.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and I mean I can still tend to have that attitude, and I prayed about it because I was like Lord, I don't want to be this joyless mom, I don't want this to be the pattern that I set in my home. And so give me joy, give me strength for this season, because it is obviously not coming from within me. And a little three word phrase that he just sparked in my mind was change of assignment. And so what I would do and this sounds so silly, but it really helped me if I was, you know, in the middle of cooking dinner or in the middle of sleeping and I heard her cry out, I would say out loud change of assignment. And I would picture that in that moment my assignment from the Lord was to go tend to her needs. It was not to be cooking dinner in that moment, it was not even to be sleeping, but it helped me view my caring for my daughter as an assignment from the Lord, as a sacred calling as a mom instead of motherhood, as just a complete interruption to my own plans. And so I share in the book a lot of just easy perspective changes like that. Lot of just easy perspective changes like that practical. So even you know, there's one in the book where I um.

Speaker 1:

A lot of times we get so focused on our to-do lists and the laundry and the cleaning that we never are really interacting with our kids. And I learned from being a nurse. Uh, one of the things that we were supposed to tell our patients before we left a room was is there anything else you need? You know, you're looking into their eyes and you say I have time. And at the time, as you know, as a nurse, you never have time. But it was amazing how the patient, his countenance, softened and they build trust because they're like, oh, you know, and they might ask for mayonnaise or something, but it meant so much that you said I have time. And so saying that to our kids now and looking in them in the eyes and when they ask to play a game or take a walk and we really don't have time, but we say yes, let's do that, I have time. I have 20 minutes right now that I can focus on you, that has made a huge difference in parenting.

Speaker 2:

That is great advice and very practical too. Which?

Speaker 1:

is amazing.

Speaker 2:

Yes, as a homeschool mom, how much of that. How much of your day does that take? And I'm sure every day looks a little bit different.

Speaker 1:

It does. So my husband and I both work from home and we both homeschool, so we split up the time. So some weeks I do two days a week of homeschool and he does three, and then the other weeks we do, you know, the opposite. But in the morning our kids are allowed to come downstairs at 730. So that's just been a standard we've had so that we know that that time beforehand we are able to think complete thoughts. You know, be ready for them, because I found out really early, waking up to their needs is really hard, and so if this is going to be sustainable with us all living under one roof all the time, you know, because we spend so much time together, we kind of had to have those limits.

Speaker 1:

But we have breakfast together, they get started on their independent work around 8, 15-ish and then by about 9.30 or 10, we do our community work, our morning time together, and that takes us to about noon, and then we have lunch and then we all have an afternoon rest time, which is also non-negotiable in our house. So for about an hour and a half every day no one naps anymore, but everyone goes to their separate spaces. They can do whatever they'd like. We don't do screens during that time, but read, listen to audio books, just rest, and we all look forward to that, because then we are ready for the rest of the day. So typically, yeah, the morning all the way through lunch, and then in the afternoon we have piano practice and soccer practice and all those kinds of things. We'll get together with friends or, you know, I'll do a little bit more work and they'll play outside. So that's kind of how our days work.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, okay, so backing up a little bit with the morning, like the 730 is when they can come down. I think that's amazing and we used to be so much better about it, but we have had so many transitions with kids coming and going, it makes it very hard, but do you have practical? So have you had any kids that have struggled with this? What are the practicalities of like what this looks like?

Speaker 1:

Yes, I mean there's definitely been times when our younger kids, you know, come down and they have needs early in the morning that you know. Sometimes you know that they're actual needs and sometimes you know that they're not real needs, you know. So we've had to do some positive reinforcement that hey, if you will stay in your room until 730, we're going to fill out this sticker chart and if you get 10 stickers, you know, you get some kind of reward. And that kind of thing has really helped. Nowadays our younger two actually sleep past 7.30, so it's not an issue for them. But our older ones, it's been great for them because they go ahead and get dressed, they do a little bit of independent Bible study on their own and you know, and then they come literally running down the stairs at 730 and they're ready for the day. So you know, it's taken a lot, a lot of time to kind of form that rhythm, but it's been so worth it.

Speaker 2:

I asked that. I mean, I think it might sound like a silly question and it's like why are you even asking this? This has something. This is completely off topic, but it really matters because, like you said earlier, how we start our day makes such a difference and I agree completely, like getting it's. In some seasons it feels nearly impossible to get up before the kids.

Speaker 2:

And yeah and that's okay. Like there are truly some seasons where you're up all night with a baby and it's just not realistic Absolutely. But as much as possible, you know, if we're not starting off the day in reactive mode, but we can get up and make time and space even to just sit and be quiet.

Speaker 2:

It makes such a difference and I think it kind of goes into your book also, because even you know you are getting up and doing morning time with the kids, but I would imagine that's not what's filling you, your cup as a mother. It's happening before that, in the earlier parts of the day. Yes, yes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it is. And yes, and I will second what you just said that there are seasons that this is not feasible. And so if you're waking up in the middle of the night the night you know, caring for someone sleep, please sleep in, because you're going to be a better mom. But if it's possible, even 30 minutes can make such a difference before your kids come tumbling down the stairs. And yeah, so my morning rhythm it starts pretty early, just because I know I will be the most effective mom and person if I do get that early start. And so I'll wake up 5.45, six, something like that.

Speaker 1:

I try not to start the day scrolling on my phone I'm not perfect at that, but try not to and at 6.10, I have an alarm set, an alert on my phone. That is the Dwell Audio Bible app. Oh, yeah, yeah, I have that app. So you can literally set it so that it, you know, dings and says OK, time for your Bible reading. And you click. I mean I click one time and it's going to read me the Bible where I left off yesterday, and so I have very little choice at that point, you know, because that is my rhythm and I've come to, so look forward to that.

Speaker 1:

But I am doing a chronological reading plan and what I like to do is set my Bible out the night before so that I'm ready and again just making these choices before I have to make them in the morning. But I do kind of an immersive reading, so I'm trying to read the Bible and also listen at the same time, because in the morning it's hard to focus sometimes and that has helped so much. But even 10, 15 minutes in the Word in prayer, just asking for the Lord to guide my steps, whatever I might need for that day, makes an enormous difference. Sometimes I'll try to also do a quick workout, If I can. I do Nourish Move Love, which is their free workouts. She's a believer. It's awesome, Just for some strength and that has helped me so much because by the time the kids come down and I've eaten a light breakfast.

Speaker 2:

I am ready for them and I'm excited to see them. That cup, like maybe she's even getting up and finding the time but is still struggling throughout the day, like not able to truly feel, you know, god's presence, like her cup is filled and that she, like she still feels like she's pouring from an empty spiritual cup and is constantly short fused and feels hopeless and discouraged. Do you have any words of wisdom for that mom?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I've absolutely been there and what I have discovered because I think our culture will tell us that we have to pour from, you know, a full cup and the way that our culture would tell us to fill our cup is just a lot of self-care, that we need a lot of coffee and wine and trips to Target by ourselves, you know, to just survive motherhood. And we don't see that in Scripture. What we see Jesus doing when His cup was empty, when he, you know, when he needed time with the Father, he would go away alone and he would pray and he would fill up in order to be poured out, because he knew he was going to be poured out for the needs of the people around him. And so, in the same way, you know, there's nothing wrong with a strong cup of coffee or some time alone we all need that but more than anything, we need to fill up and we need that perspective that we're doing that in order to serve our families and that he will meet us in those low places. He will meet us in those empty cup places where we have nothing left to give.

Speaker 1:

And I have just found that my empty cup is this holy place where His grace meets me and that might just look like a prayer, that's, you know, even out loud. I often pray out loud in front of my kids and say, Lord, I am feeling joyless today, I am feeling angry, I am so exhausted I have to have your strength and your wisdom and your peace to get through this day. Lord, fill me up. And what's amazing about that is when we pray out loud and we show our kids our need for Jesus and for a Savior, that we don't have it all together. We need help. It's really a discipleship moment for them because they're like now you know, they've become my little accountability partners and over time, if they feel frustration rising or they feel the need, they're like mom. I think we need to pray and they'll be the ones you know to remind me.

Speaker 1:

But just that utter dependence, I think, is what our kids need to see. More than a mom who has it all together, I think they need to see moms who are relying on Jesus, even just praying out loud in the middle of the grocery store, wherever you might be.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, how about the moms out there? So there's so many different categories of people that we speak to. There's different personalities, we have different spiritual gifts. We're all parts of the body of Christ but there are different body parts and so we're all very different. And that goes back to the beginning of our conversation where we talked about making sure we're following what God is calling our family to do, and that is different, very different for each of us, like our family for foster care and other people to homeschool, other people whose children are called into the public school. But ultimately, as believers, we're still all called to be the light in the world. With that, it can still be really hard and to look at somebody else in the pads especially when our lives are feeling hard or rocky or we're in the trenches to look at somebody else's life and think maybe I'm doing it all wrong or maybe this path that God has called me to, maybe I heard God wrong or I made not the right choice. Do you have any encouragement to speak to the person in that spot?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know, I think this is especially a problem in 2025, when we have this phone in our hands 24-7 and we are scrolling and we are seeing images and highlight reels of moms that we feel like either are doing a way better job than we are, uh, or moms that just have it way easier than we do, and I know that I have been tempted to compare myself to that, especially the easier part. I'm like this feels so much harder than I see this person doing it and you know, maybe they have grandparents who live next door or you know just these other you know helps in their life that I don't have. And what I tend to do, and what I think a lot of people tend to do, is when we compare and then we feel like we're not measuring up, we tend to isolate and think I'm all alone in this. And one of the stories that I talk about in the book is from Matthew 14, when Jesus is walking on the Sea of Galilee and it's during a storm and Peter sees him walking and he wants to walk on the water too, and so he asks Jesus if he can walk on the water and Jesus invites him to come and Jesus I'm sorry. Peter steps out of the boat and for a few faith-filled steps, he has his eyes fixed on Jesus and he is able to miraculously walk on the water. But it isn't long before he starts looking at his circumstances. He is looking at the wind and the waves, the water underneath him that's threatening to consume him and he starts to drown. And he starts to sink into this pit and literally drown and Jesus rescues him.

Speaker 1:

But I've noticed that's what we do as well, when we start comparing our situations and when we look directly at our circumstances and think at our circumstances and think this is so overwhelming Nobody else knows how I feel about this, you know and we start to sink into this pit of worry and despair.

Speaker 1:

But what I've found is when we fix our eyes on the Lord, and that's through prayer, through His Word, I mean.

Speaker 1:

His Word tells us in 2 Peter 1.3 that His divine power gives us everything that we need for life and godliness. So what you were talking about earlier, that you know, obedience looks different for different people and for your family it's foster care. You are being obedient to the Lord through foster care, but that might not be what my family is called to, but we're all called to be obedient, to look to Him in our need, and he promises to give us everything we need for the circumstances that he has put in our lives. And so, even just holding on to that promise, that man, it doesn't feel like I have what I need. But when I look to Christ, he promises to supply it. And even when I look, I think hindsight can be so powerful, especially in motherhood, where you think, man, I don't know how I got through those early years of you, know newborns and all these needs, and yet he met me in those places and he promises to sustain me now and forevermore. So those are just good promises to cling to, thank you for that.

Speaker 2:

So those are just good promises to cling to. Thank you for that, yes. Okay.

Speaker 2:

So I have one kind of closing question before you tell us about where people can find your book and all of that good stuff families to rise up and live out the life that God is calling them to and encourage them to pour into future generations so that we can be a force to be reckoned with. And so you guys are obviously a very intentional family. We could probably do an entire podcast series about just different things. I would love to dive in more into the morning time thing, which is that Charlotte Mason yeah, that's kind of where that came from so into that. But different tools and boundaries with their kids and just all of the things. There's just so much there, and so this might be a hard question, but I would just want to have you share something that your family has implemented with your children that other families might think this is actually a really cool and practical tool that we can implement with our own kids and working together to raise up this next generation to be God fearing. You know wonderful kids, yes.

Speaker 1:

That is such a good question. That is such a hard question. I know.

Speaker 2:

I should have prepped you with that.

Speaker 1:

No, it's okay. Sometimes it's hard to look from the outside and think, okay, what is our family doing differently than other families? I think one thing is just well, two things. One thing is just keeping a very open conversation through the day, and so we are with our kids all the time we want and we just say we want to be the first people that you come to with questions, and so there's no embarrassing question, there's no wrong question.

Speaker 1:

Ask us anything, and they do, and that has been just a powerful discipleship tool, because we never you know, they can never surprise us or shock us with anything that they ask. And so they've come. You know, when they see something on TV or when we're out and about that's concerning to them, they come to us and that's been a great point of just conversation. Another thing that we do every night and we've done this for years and years, but we sing the doxology at bedtime and our kids. It's just become just a really sweet way to end the day and I think about it sometimes and think throughout their lives. When they sing the doxology in other settings, they will always remember us, holding them, hugging them, saying good night, kissing them on the head and singing, you know, praise God, from whom all blessings flow over them, and that's just been a really sweet tradition, so just kind of reminding them the source of their help and their hope right before they close their eyes.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that is so beautiful. So what I have just observed throughout this whole interview is that it's just so many small practices throughout the day, just tiny little things, and I think that that is the message here, and it doesn't have to be everything at once, and that goes from filling your own cup in the beginning of the day with God's word to little things so that we can steward our kids well and help them to become disciples. We often just think it's all like this all or nothing thing. That's my personality, oh.

Speaker 1:

I do too.

Speaker 2:

They have to memorize this entire passage and we're going to focus on it. And then, before you know, everything drops off. But when you implement these tiny little practices throughout their days, and one little thing at a time, and then it becomes a habit, and then you add in another little thing, yeah, that makes all the difference.

Speaker 1:

It really does. I actually just to piggyback off of that, I just finished a book called Atomic Habits, which is a great book, and one of the perspective shifts that was so helpful for me when it comes to this is, instead of saying, ok, I am, I'm going to walk 10,000 steps a day, which is one of my goals this year, and then getting really discouraged if one day you don't meet that goal, instead of saying that you change the perspective, to say I am a person who walks 10,000 steps on most days, and it's like an identity statement, and so I think that helps in parenting too, because it's like we are a family who prays together. If we don't pray every day together, it's gonna be okay, but we're a family who prioritizes that, and I don't know it takes some pressure off, but it's also very motivating because it's like, no, that's who we are, and so this is how we put it into practice.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. That is so cool. Okay, so tell us more. Is there anything more that you want to share about your book before telling us where people can get it? First of all, it's got a beautiful cover, so it's a very practical, just beautiful tabletop book. Is there anything else that you would like to add?

Speaker 1:

Thank, you, yeah, so it's based on Psalm 121, which is the famous Psalm that begins I lift up my eyes to the hills from where does my help come? And so I study the Psalm. There's eight verses. It's so easy to memorize, and I recommend memorizing it because it has so much truth of who God is that we need to remember as moms. But I also illustrated the whole book with watercolor illustrations. I think there's 60 watercolor illustrations throughout, and so it would make a great gift for baby showers. You personally illustrated it.

Speaker 1:

I did, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2:

That's so cool.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, so I hope it's just. It kind of conveys a sense of peace and rest. As you read, you know the truth of the gospel. So you can find it on Amazon, wherever books are sold. We actually went to Barnes and Noble and it was there, which was amazing.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, wherever books are sold and I'm super excited because we're actually going to be doing a giveaway to go along with this episode. Whitney has graciously offered to send a couple books and we are going to give two books away. So make sure you check out the details for that in the show notes and, if you happen to not win the giveaway, whitney, where can people find more about the book, purchase the book and everything that goes along with it?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so my Instagram account is called Brider Day Press and I share a lot, not just for homeschool families, but a lot of encouragement for moms on there, and then BriderDayPresscom. You can find the book and all of our resources there.

Speaker 2:

Well, Whitney, thank you so much for your time today. This has been personally so encouraging for me as a mom of five, and I know that it'll be so encouraging to our listeners as well.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for having me. This is a joy.