Summertime offers moms a break from the everyday routine. It's a time to settle into a comfy spot with a good book — one that enriches their lives and strengthens their faith in God. This summer reading list offers titles to encourage and uplift mothers in varying stages of motherhood and seasons of life.
Summertime offers moms a break from the everyday routine. It's a time to settle into a comfy spot with a good book — one that enriches their lives and strengthens their faith in God. This summer reading list offers titles to encourage and uplift mothers in varying stages of motherhood and seasons of life.
1. A Little Me
by Amy Roloff
Roloff writes how her faith in God helped her through the physical and emotional struggles of growing up with achondroplasia dwarfism in an average size world. She tells of dealing with a serious illness as a child, bullying, body image, courtship and marriage, struggle with infertility, and becoming a reality star.
No matter your stature as a mom, Roloff’s experiences with insecurities including poor self image, low self confidence, thinking she was “un-pretty," and believing others saw her as incapable, relates to women everywhere.
She also shares how her faith has sustained her through the past few years when her world was turned upside down, writing, “The glue that kept me together was my faith—always has been and always will. Even when I didn’t think God was there, He was.”
2. Aly’s Fight: Beating Cancer, Battling Infertility, and Believing in Miracles
by Aly Taylor and Josh Taylor
Diagnosed with breast cancer at age 24, Aly endured surgery, rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. After looking through books for information on cancer, only to find discouraging reports, Aly writes, “I prayed right there and then in that bookstore, ‘Lord, when I am healed…not if, but when, I am writing a book that someone can pick up and only be given hope.”
Follow their journey of believing all things are possible with God as they share how He worked it all together for their good, leading them through the joy of adoption and natural conception, to becoming parents of three beautiful daughters.
3. Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
by Ben Carson, M.D.
Carson’s mom writes, “As the mother of Ben and his brother, Curtis, I had a lot of challenges. Being one of twenty-four children, getting married at age thirteen, and later having to get a divorce after finding out my husband was a bigamist were just a few of them. But God helped me every step of the way, even when I didn’t notice.”
Moms who feel like they lack the education, resources, emotional fortitude or more to parent their children, will find hope in Carson’s astonishing story and the ways God influenced his life for good through his mom’s commitment to help shape his life.
4. Grit and Grace: Devotions for Warrior Moms
by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin and Gretta Kennedy
“Maybe you’ve been there,” writes co-author Suzanne Hadley Gosselin. “I think we all ask ourselves versions of the questions” Am I good enough? Am I doing this right? Is every other mom doing this better than I am?”
Between the covers are 90 daily devotions co-written by two moms who have spent face-to-the-floor time seeking courage to keep-on-keeping-on, penned to encourage moms to give themselves grace, while recognizing God’s grace at work in the nitty-gritty details of their everyday lives.
Each devotion offers biblical truth, real-life examples, and prayers aimed to help strengthen your faith and sharpen your purpose as a mom.
5. Healing the Soul of A Woman: How to Overcome Your Emotional Wounds
by Joyce Meyer
“Can a woman who has been hurt deeply either by circumstances in her life or by a person she loved and trusted be healed?” writes Meyer. “Can her heart and soul be healed? Can she love and trust once again? As a woman who was sexually abused by my father, abandoned by my mother, and cheated on by my first husband, I can say without hesitation ‘Yes!’ If you are living with a wounded soul and feeling alone, unloved and misunderstood, I can promise you that you don’t have to stay that way.”
Although Meyer has written on emotional healing in the past, she delves in even deeper with the hope her story will be of help to countless women.
6. Imagine Heaven: Near-Death Experiences, God’s Promises, and the Exhilarating Future That Awaits You
by John Burke
Burke writes, “Two days after reading this book to my mom and sister in the hospital, my mom breathed her last breath. My sister and I were in the room, hugging, blessing my mother, and celebrating with her—because we knew in that moment, she had come alive. Alive like she hadn’t been in years; alive like she’d never been before! Alive like you’ve never imagined.”
Through a Scriptural viewpoint, Burke seeks to answer questions like: What does Heaven look like? Will we see friends and loved ones in Heaven? and much more. With interviews and accounts from over 100 individuals who have died and come back to life, he compares near-death experiences that give glimpses of Heaven, discussing common experiences shared by survivors of varying ages and backgrounds.
7. Parents Rising: 8 Strategies for Raising Kids Who Love God, Respect Authority, and Value What’s Right
by Arlene Pellicane
“We all want our much-loved children to grow up into a life of godliness and morality,” explains Pellicane. “But our children won’t drift into a life of godliness and morality by accident. Because of the morally bankrupt world we live in, it takes a great deal of intentional parenting to provide some structure and spiritual handrails to guide our children toward lives submitted to God.”
Offering a “How Healthy Is Your Home?” quiz to help identify where a mom may need help, Pellicane follows with 8 practical strategies to deal with the areas of amusement, authority, boundaries, biblical training, making your marriage priority, healthy food, the importance of spending time with your children, and preparing your kids for the future.
8. Praying With Power When Life Gets Tough
by Jackie M. Johnson
“Prayer is the foundation upon which everything else is built in your life,” writes Johnson. “It is the most important thing you can do. You may think, ‘I’ve already prayed, what other solutions are there?’ Keep on praying. Talk to God about your situation, because He is the One who has the power to change it.”
Johnson explains what powerful prayer is through biblical examples and personal stories, along with clarifying misconceptions and obstacles to prayer. She also looks at the ebb and flow of prayer during times of worship, pleading a cause, warring for a loved one, confessing waywardness, asking for needs, and thanking God for His provisions.
9. Team Us: The Unifying Power of Grace, Commitment, and Cooperation in Marriage
by Ashleigh Slater
With humor and transparency, along with biblical and real-life examples from her own marriage, Slater begins with Genesis 1-3’s first couple Adam and Eve. “As I revisited these opening chapters,” writes Slater, “I saw that this original man and woman had all the markings of a good team.”
Addressing everyday matters in marriage, including how to face conflict and parenting issues, as well as the unexpected in “Pinks Slips and Other Losses,” Slater shares her journey through heartbreak and devastating losses.
Urging a winning team attitude, Slater encourages women to support, celebrate, and extend grace in their marriages, and offers a free First Chapter and downloadable Study Guide.
10. Watching the Road: Praying Your Prodigal Home
by Karen Wheaton
Writing from personal experience, Wheaton offers a jump-start to rekindling your faith in God to do the impossible. Her remarkable journey of trusting God, watching the road from her front porch, calling her prodigal daughter Lindsey to return home, is sure to renew your belief that even the hardest of hearts is not too difficult for God to reach and soften with His love and forgiveness.
“What do you do if someone you love changes into someone you’ve never known?” writes Wheaton. “What do you do when you are watching her make decisions you know will destroy her life? What do you say when everything you say falls on deaf ears and only widens the gap between you? How do you hold on and let go at the same time?”
A mom who feels like her situation is hopeless will draw from Wheaton’s strategic tactics and determination to not ever give up on her prodigal child.
Lynette Kittle is married with four daughters. She enjoys writing about faith, marriage, parenting, relationships, and life. Her writing has been published by Focus on the Family, Decision, Today’s Christian Woman, kirkcameron.com, Ungrind.org, StartMarriageRight.com, and more. She has a M.A. in Communication from Regent University and serves as associate producer for Soul Check TV.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
