This week I was honored to sit down with Alicia Bruxvoort for a refreshing, honest, and God led conversation about motherhood. As a mom of 5 herself she has walked out many of the seasons you and I are currently walking through. Her heart for moms to know The Lord and make time for Him in their middle minutes completely shines through during this entire conversation. I cannot wait for you to hear it!
**Giveaway Details at the end of the show notes!**
1) Tell us about the wonderful you! (Where you live, church, writer/speaker, family, etc.)
- I’m a writer and speaker and abundant life seeker. I’m a sunset chaser, a carpooler, and a storyteller. I am a member of Proverbs 31 Ministries’ writing team, so I have the privilege of reaching over a million readers around the globe each month with hope from God’s word. Best of all, I’m a mom and a wife. five kids ranging in ages from 11-21 with our sixth child coming home through adoption sometime in the year ahead. I’ve been married for 26 years to the cute boy who sat behind me in the fifth grade. Rob and I have 5 kids ranging in ages from 11-21, and we’re in the process of bringing our sixth child home through adoption. We live in Holland, Michigan.
2) When I met you at She Speaks and sat in the Motherhood meets Ministry session I loved your raw honesty about the blessings, beauty, and challenge within the gift motherhood. Can you share how The Lord used a crayon box to restore your colors of contentment.
- When I was just two and a half years into my journey of motherhood, I finally admitted that there was a huge gap between what I’d expected motherhood to be and the reality I was living. It was harder. Lonelier. More draining and demanding than I ever could have imagined. When I’d imagined life as a mom, I’d pictured this colorful season of joy and abundance, but with two little ones 2 and under, I just felt empty----and disappointed.
- So, one day, as I was cleaning up after my toddler had sat in his high chair and colored (for 2 minutes at the most)--I crawled under the kitchen table to pick up the splattering of crayons, and as I reached for the empty crayon box, I started to cry. And there under the kitchen table, I poured out all my disappointment to God. I picked up that empty box and told the Lord, “This is exactly how motherhood makes me feel…. So empty……” After my rant, I put the crayons back in the box and began to crawl out from under the table, and a verse I’d memorized as a child in Sunday School rose out of the depths of my heart and ran through my mind. “I”ve come to give you life and give it to the full”-John 10:10. In the days ahead, the Lord began to assure me that I wasn’t created for an empty life--- and the life I was looking for was possible--- but it wasn’t my kids who would fill me or add the color to my days. He would…” In that decade, our family grew from 2 kids to five and God kept His promise to restore the colors of joy and contentment in my life. He showed me how to take hold of life that is really life, to refuel my heart with His Word; to seize joy that couldn’t be wrecked by a toddler tantrum or a grocery store disaster, and how to thrive in the throes of motherhood instead of merely survive.
3) When mom’s in any season are feeling discontent and wishing their life looked a little different, where would you send them in God’s Word to not only encourage them but equip them to trust where God has them?
- I love the stories in God’s word that remind me that God can do big things with our small offerings--
- God enabled David to kill Goliath with five small stones; He fed 5,000 people with a little boy’s small lunch, He changed the world forever with a small band of just 12 ordinary men,
- So often motherhood feels like a mundane exercise in smallness-- and we start dreaming of doing something bigger than reading Dr. Suess over and over again and washing faces and bottoms and floors a dozen times a day, and soothing silbing spats--- but in Zecharaiah 4:10, God says--- Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.”
- We have to remember that God’s measuring stick isn’t like us. He doesn’t major our value by the “size” of our work our the accolades we receive. God is pleased when we do small things with big love.
4) What are some of the best things God has taught you within motherhood?
- Oh, my! He’s taught me nearly all of my important lessons in the past two decades in the context of motherhood.
- Significance and success are NOT the same thing.
- It’s easy to grow blind to the gifts right in front of me--- gratitude opens our eyes.
- What we plant today determines what we will harvest tomorrow.
- Just because it’s small doesn’t mean its insignifcant
- If the enemy can’t defeat me, he’ll simply distract me.
- Time is a sacred gift; I need to steward it well
- Joy is found in unlikely places
- Comparison is the quickest road to discontentment
- Presence trumps perfection every time.
- The color of motherhood often feels brown--monotonous and mundnane-- but --- ask any artist and she’ll tell you the way to make brown is by mixing RED, BLUE, and YELLOW. When we learn to celebrate the beauty in the brown, our homes change; our hearts change; our perspectives change.
- Hurry steals joy.
5) What has been the best mothering advice you’ve received and if you remember who it was from can you share who told you!
- Pray for a passion for the present-----Ask God to give you a passion for the life you live right now, not the life you wish you had. --wisdom shared with me by a beautiful pastor’s wife, mom of four.
6) Spending time with The Lord in the midst of motherhood can feel like a challenge, but we’ve also began using that as a crutch. In your experience how would you help a mom who is trying to add this time to her life? Were there or are there any unlikely places you found/find yourself digging into God’s word that?
- Examples: Laundry, Carpool line, doing dishes, wee hour of the morning.
- Motherhood has made me desperate for Jesus. And I’m so thankful for that desperation.I made a pact with God when I was up all night with my fourth baby with colic--- told Him I’d spend the night in His word if He’d keep His promise and give me energy in the morning. I sat up every night with a fussy baby oin one hand and my Bible in another--- when I was too tired to open my eyes, I just listened to scripture. And God’s word began to be my lifeline. And 13 years later, He still hasn’t broken His promise.
- The simple truth is this-- In the end, we make time for the things that have captured our heart. When all my kids were little, I asked Jesus to wreck me and to woo me with His love. As He answered that prayer, I would find myself grabbing ANY time I could get with Him-- I hauled out of bed in the dark before dawn to be with him before my kids woke up. I scheduled a coffee date with Jesus when my last one went to preschool and I finally had a few precious hours to myself-- refused to run errands or clean or do laundry-- just met Jesus with a cup of coffee and my Bible and journal once a week for a couple of hours. I would take my kids to a fastfood playland a few times a month and bring my Bible--- just sit there in the crazy chaos and soak up the Word.
- But often my best time with Jesus was with my kids on my lap just reading the Jesus Bible Storybook together. I can’t even count how many times I’d read that precious book aloud and start crying as God spoke to me through its simple words and it’s powerful pointing to Jesus.
7) The Living With Less Podcast is all about living with less of the things getting in the way of who Christ is calling us to be. If a mom or anyone asked you what they needed to begin living with less of in regards to this what would you tell them and why?
- I think we need to eliminate hurry. Slow down. Look up instead of around. Become wonder-chasers---- watch more sunsets, jump in mudpuddles, laugh more. We have such a joyful and amazing God, but so often, we don’t pause to ENJOY Him or pay attention to His presence. Kids are natural wonder-chasers. Let them teach you how. Follow their lead. Kids are rarely in a hurry. We need to leave margin in our day to just savor the present and BE present.
Connect with Alicia here!:
https://aliciabruxvoort.net
Mother's Day Giveaway Details
- There will be 2 winners selected on Mother's Day (5/10/2020)
- Winners will receive - 2 - 8X10 prints + In The Garden Book
- To enter please like the photo on the @livingwithlesspodcast IG page!
