The Brave Art of Motherhood by Rachel Marie Martin

Fight fear, gain confidence, and find yourself again.

"Faith is confidence in a future that doesn't match the present reality."  That quote from the book sums up, for me anyway, the basic premise of the book.

Rachel finds herself the mom of seven kids and I would say she also finds herself stuck, stuck in financial bondage and stuck in a repeating cycle. It takes courage to break free from that and embark on a new journey and Rachel provides encouragement to moms to do that hard thing.  But she also encourages us not to do it alone. Welcoming others into our circle is the brave thing to do. It can seem so easy, but letting other people see who we really are can be really, really hard. Rachel went through a time in her life when she wouldn't let people inside her house, when she kept the garage door closed because of the stuff inside that she was afraid to let others see. Doing that just lets the cycle keep repeating.

Rachel encourages us to name that thing we've always wanted to do, write it down, set an end date and get past the excuses. The excuses are there, and she gave us a huge list of the common ones, but we have to overcome them to fulfill our dreams.  Reading this book came at an opportune time in my life as my husband and I are working hard toward our dream of buying our dream house. And yes, the word dream is mentioned a lot, but it's been a crazy summer of busyness and exhaustion, but it comes with being able to see that what we want is possible, Lord willing. But I had to be willing to step out of my comfort zone and be willing to work hard.

Rachel doesn't give us a lot of details on her marriage and why it failed and I can respect her for that and yet it also made it hard for me because I can't fully grasp the reason for the divorce. It feels like there are some big missing pieces to the story. And as someone who believes that marriage is for life, this messes with me and my ability to fully embrace her story.  That is not to say that I don't believe that what she has to say is true. I know there are many things I can learn from this book and be encouraged and challenged by.

Probably my biggest negative for this book is I feel there was one key point missed in this book. To me, the brave art of motherhood will never be accomplished to the fullest potential unless I first place my trust and confidence in God. Again, I don't know where Rachel stands on this, but for me, personally, that is the first thing I need to have in place before I attempt to do anything else mentioned in the book.

I did enjoy the book. Like I said, there are good things to be learned from it, but there were also a few things that did bother me as well.

I received this book from Multnomah and was not required to write a positive review. For further information on this book or author, Rachel Martin go here