Book Review: Everyday MOMents: Discovering Christ in the Details of Motherhood, by Jessica Poe

This new book by self-proclaimed “collector of divine details” (I just love that!!) Jessica Poe is a must read for tired, overwhelmed mammas everywhere. I myself am a mommy to my little 2 year old daughter and step-mom to 3 teenagers. Ever since my baby came along I have been super overwhelmed with life and have had a really hard time finding my old self again. I can’t seem to find my groove. Before my daughter was born I had my routine and spirituality was a huge part of that routine. There was always time, and a set time I might add for personal scripture study, reviewing conference talks, prayer, and temple attendance. I was really feeling the spirit and the love of God in my life every day. Since her birth it has been harder to do all those things and I have felt so horrible about myself at times. I am just trying to keep my baby alive and happy and keep myself alive that I have often neglected those things that I used to do faithfully every day to keep the Spirit in my life. I have struggled with getting that spiritual side of my life back into a routine again. This book is so wonderful! I love how Jessica shares her own struggles as a mom and I felt like “Hey! She knows how I feel! I’m not the only one who feels this way!” What a relief!

The book is set up kind of like a “Day in the Life” story. Each chapter is a block of time in the day and Jessica shares little insights she has as she folds laundry, goes grocery shopping, weeding in her garden, spending time with her children. I really like the reflection questions and challenges to take action at the end of each chapter. There are plenty of quotes from modern day apostles and prophets and scriptures as well that all apply to motherhood.

One thing that I had a hard time with was that the way the book is set up it appears that she is having multiple spiritual insights every hour of the day. I was beginning to feel like maybe there really is something wrong with me because I feel lucky if I can have just a few of those moments in a week, let alone a day. I began to feel discouraged and then I had my own little spiritual insight. Perhaps she set the book up this way to help us all see that in the mundane, daily tasks that repeat over and over day after day, week after week we can see Christ. We can feel the spirit. We may not see everything in one day and that’s one reason why things are repeated, to give us more than one chance to see and to remember. I learned that it took Jessica about 7 years to write this book. It wasn’t an experience that happened all in one day. This helped me to see from another perspective and changed how I was feeling.

In chapter 16 she has “a list of must-haves for clearly seeing symbolic moments”. This is fantastic, and I plan to post this list where I can see it as a great reminder to help me in my quest to see Christ in my every day. Another thing I thought was really great about this book – towards the very end she has a section called Insightful Scriptures for Discovering Divine Details. I think this is great, as she doesn’t give you only her ideas about how to see the divine, but she shares scriptures that you can study yourself and through the Spirit learn what God would have you know or do, not just what God would have Jessica know or do. I like that – she helps to facilitate your study but doesn’t tell you exactly what to think or do.

I’m glad I had the opportunity to read this book and I plan to go back and read again, this time focusing more time on each of the reflections and challenges at the end. This would make a great Mother’s Day Gift! You can find this book to order at Deseret Book and Amazon. One more great thing! The author has a wonderful study guide you can download for free here. Happy reading and let me know what you think!