by Sara Cormany

“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

Psalm 27:13, NKJV

Her eyes spoke louder than words ever could.

Standing in the grocery aisle one weekend, catching up over frozen food and teeming carts, somehow finding each other after years of time and mamahood had passed.

The questions were much the same.

“How are you? How are your babies? How is your family?”

But even though we answered, something stayed unspoken. Written in the silence. Woven between our hearts. Wrestling through each pause.

The language known only to the parents of teens. The understanding that we carry hard things and tough seasons and broken dreams. The place where we’ve grown from storytellers to story keepers.

It could not have been louder—this sacred unspoken we shared.

As we turned to part ways, we looked at each other once more as if to say,

“Keep going. Keep moving. Keep loving. Keep staying faithful.”

The grace of parenthood is never an easy one and even before I entered this sacred season, I often felt lost and lonely in the places I felt weakest. Mom with a cane. Mom with a body that goes rogue. Mom who could barely wrestle one child, much less four.

But even in that weakness, God has grown in each of my babies something beautiful and rare and grown only through my weakness. As I survey the landscape of those years, I see the grace I so desperately need now.

Because even when I doubt it, I have watched the love He has poured out over us be enough. I have learned that what is hard today will be the cultivating ground for tomorrow’s redemption. And I have rested deeply in the safety of His arms and learned there is no better place to be.

“For I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

And while your tender spaces might not be parenthood or physical weakness or a permanent ticket on the Hot Mess Express, we all have a landscape that testifies to His goodness, His faithfulness, His reckless love for us. We need only to open our eyes and remember.

Even when our hearts break. Even when our words run dry. Even when our story is hard.

God will give us the grace to breathe and grow and rely on His strength so that one day we can turn around and find someone across the aisle, around the corner, or even right beside us and say with our hearts what our words cannot, “You are not alone.”

Sara Cormany is an award-winning author and speaker, and the world’s most reluctant marketer. Her first solo title and devotional, Even When, is slated to come out in Spring 2024. A former educator, editor, and ghostwriter, Sara now serves authors as a project manager and the head of platform coaching services for Redemption Press, where she draws on both the failures and successes of nurturing her own social media platform to over 15K+ followers. But when asked, her most favorite roles include being wife to Nathan, mom to Grace, Drew, Sophie and Maddie, and a girl perfectly held by Jesus.