A free Bible study about losing yourself in motherhood starts Oct. 1
Simple Grace for the Mom Who Comes Last, a 31-day reading plan about the line between selfless and disappearing
My husband asked where I wanted to go for dinner. I gave him an answer. It wasn’t where I wanted to go. It was the place that worked best for all four of us, and I didn’t even think about it. It’s just automatic at this point.
When I asked a group of Christian moms whether that happens to them, 35 of them replied in a day. And that number nearly doubled over the next week.
Simple Grace for the Mom Who Comes Last runs for the whole month of October. It’s four weeks, one theme at a time.
When you’ve lost yourself in motherhood
You can’t name a hobby. When your family asks what you’d like to do, nothing comes to mind.
You order the pizza everyone else will eat. You play the family playlist in the car. You say “I don’t care,” and mostly you mean it.
Somebody asks how you’re doing and you say fine. Ask about your kids and you have plenty to say.
You thought this would ease up once they weren’t little anymore. It didn’t.
You’re not falling apart. You’re doing a good job, actually. You just can’t quite find yourself in the middle of it, and you’re not sure whether that’s a problem or simply what this season is.
If that’s familiar (raising my own hand here!), you’re in very good company. And if it isn’t, you’re still welcome here.
Selfless and disappearing are two different things
Scripture asks us to love our neighbors as ourselves, which assumes there’s a self in there to love.
Jesus served constantly. He also went up the mountain alone, left when the crowds wanted more of Him and sat down tired at a well for a drink from a stranger. None of that made Him less loving.
This study isn’t about putting yourself first, and it certainly isn’t about doing more.
It’s about the difference between choosing to give something you have and having nothing left to choose from. One of those is love. The other one only looks like it.
There’s no system here and nothing to overhaul. In Simple Grace for the Mom Who Comes Last, we’ll be honest about how this happens, remember the woman God made on purpose, look at what He truly asks of us and try a few small ways back.
Here’s how the month works
Right now
Sign up for Simple Grace for the Mom Who Comes Last and I’ll send you “What Would You Pick?,” a short printable with a few questions for the mom who can’t quite remember what she likes.
These are questions I recently answered when I realized I wasn’t always sure what I liked anymore. Plus they’re a great way to prep for this study in just a few minutes.
Oct. 1
The reading plan starts. One or two short verses a day, all month. It comes in a dated version and an undated one, so you can start Oct. 1 or whenever you find it.
Every Friday in October
An email from me with a short devotional, one simple thing to try in the week ahead and a little encouragement. You’ll get five of them from Oct. 2 through Oct. 30.
Mondays, Oct. 5, 12, 19 and 26
A new theme starts, and we talk about it together in Christian Moms with Grace, our private Facebook group. Come comment when you have a minute. There’s no meeting and nothing on your calendar.
After October
The reading plan is yours to keep, and you’ll keep hearing from me every other Friday with a devotional. Unsubscribe any time.
There’s no catching up and no wrong way to do Simple Grace for the Mom Who Comes Last. Miss a day, miss a week, jump in on the 19th. It all still counts.
(If you find this after October 2026, sign up and receive all the study emails in one message to follow the study on your own.)
What Simple Grace for the Mom Who Comes Last covers
Before we start: the question you can’t answer
Naming it honestly before we try to fix anything.
Week 1: How it happens
Nobody asked you to stop having preferences. It happened one reasonable yes at a time, and saying what you want costs something.
Week 2: You were a person first
God made you specific and on purpose, before you were anybody’s mother. That didn’t get erased when you became one.
Week 3: Selfless is not the same as erased
What Scripture actually asks of us, and what it doesn’t.
Week 4: Small ways back
You don’t need a plan. Just one small step at a time. Plus the difference between a limit you genuinely have and one you’ve just stopped questioning.
All of this is free with the Bible study
What Would You Pick? — the printable, right away
The 31-day reading plan — dated and undated
Five Friday emails — devotional, one simple practice, encouragement
Discussion in the group — Christian Moms with Grace, all month
If you’d rather not do it alone
Everyone gets the October study, Simple Grace for the Mom Who Comes Last, for free. The Grace Circle for Moms is where you work through it with people who know your name.
You can lose yourself quietly for years and nobody notices, because everybody around you is being taken care of. The Grace Circle is a small room where somebody notices.
Members get the full study journal with reflection pages for every week, a short video from me each week and a live wrap-up at the end of the month.
Through Oct. 4, become a member of The Grace Circle and lock in the founding member price.
Hi, I’m Stacey
I’m a mom of two teenagers, a writer and somebody who has never once had this all figured out.
I’ve been writing at Families with Grace since 2019 for Christian moms who love God, love their families and absolutely do not have it all together.
I’m not writing this study as somebody who solved it. I’m writing it as somebody who couldn’t answer a question about dinner and hasn’t stopped thinking about it since.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to start on Oct. 1?
No. Start whenever you find it. The undated version works any month of any year.
What if I miss days?
Then you miss days. There’s no catching up and no wrong way to do this. Mom life gets crazy sometimes!
Is this only for moms of older kids?
It’s written with the school years in mind, but every mom is welcome. Several of the women who shaped this study have babies and toddlers.
What Bible translation?
Mostly NIV.
How many emails will I get?
During October, one each Friday with the study, five in all. You’ll also get my regular Tuesday email, and after October the Friday devotional comes every other week instead. Unsubscribe any time.
Is this about putting myself first?
No. It’s about the line between loving your family well and losing track of yourself entirely. Those aren’t the same thing, and neither one is answered by “me first.”
You don’t need a plan. You need one thing.
Start with a few questions and see what’s still in there.
