Mama Well

“If we would do our best for our children, grow we must; and on our power of growth surely depends, not only our future happiness, but our future usefulness.”
—Charlotte Mason

Mothers everywhere have heard that we cannot pour from an empty cup.

But filling the cup can be challenging when the house is full of little people who need constant care.

There were years when I could only steal five or ten minutes for myself. Sometimes a shower was all the alone time I could get. I love early-morning solitude, but that was nearly impossible when our five children were 9, 6, 5, 2, and 1.

So, for a season, I found my solitude in the afternoons during naptime.

Those precious minutes preserved my sanity.

But over the years, I’ve realized that perhaps what matters more than the time we carve out to recharge is what we put into ourselves when we do.

Doomscrolling may give us a break, but it doesn’t necessarily fill us.

Neither does grocery shopping alone or endlessly planning and organizing better systems.

Those things may be necessary—and sometimes even enjoyable—but there is a difference between getting a break and being replenished.

Reading quality literature or the Bible refills my cup.

Sitting in nature refills my cup.

Changing my scenery and enjoying a new coffee shop refills my cup.

Journaling my failures, cares, and successes refills my cup.

And somewhere along the way, I started thinking less about an empty cup and more about a well.

Because sometimes we simply don’t know what to put in our well.

We plan our families’ wells.

We carefully choose what our children will read and study. We consider the ideas and influences we want to place before them. We fiercely guard what is being poured into them. But we can so easily forget about our own.

So I would like to ask: What’s in your well, Mama?

You’ve planned your children’s school year. But have you planned yours?

My personal life verse this year is: “Her teachings are filled with WISDOM and KINDNESS as LOVING INSTRUCTION pours from her lips.”—Proverbs 31:26

But how can I pour out wisdom if I am not being filled with wisdom?

How can I pour out loving instruction if I am not learning how to instruct lovingly?

How can I be kind if I am not being kind to myself?

I’ve been contemplating these questions and realizing that I need my own simple study plan—something that cultivates my own well while I spend my days pouring into everyone else.

So I made one. Nothing complicated.Just a simple rhythm of reading, studying, reflecting, and noticing what God is teaching me in this season.

You can download my six-week reading rhythm right here for free, and I’ve included a blank template to help you create your own.

Or maybe all you needed today was the reminder to make one.

Because we are not finished growing simply because we have become the teachers.

And perhaps one of the loveliest things we can give our children is a mother who is still learning, still noticing, still becoming—and still tending her own well.

With love,
A Fellow Homeschooling Sojourner