The Better Mom Devotional: Day 20; The Surest Foundation

I am belly-deep in Rachel Held Evans' book, Inspired.
She, like many other Influencers I enjoy, shares her life through
her writing and while doing so, she reveals her humanity.
Rachel had lots of questions.

If you aren't familiar with Rachel, I suggest you start with a video
of her on YouTube and try really hard not to read the comments
people have left on it before you get to the end- Draw your own 
conclusion is what I'm suggesting. (Take her or leave her, I
appreciate her.)





As for books, I suggest starting with Rachel's Searching for Sunday,
which knocked the wind out of me for vernacular, honesty, and the
freefall to ask what I didn't even yet know I desired to ask in the
first place and from the depths and most honest parts of myself.
Anne Frank, that's all I'm writing about that.

It's just that, Rachel writes in ways I don't yet know how to articulate.

Blogger Shannon Williams at Shannons' Scribbles writes so adeptly
about Rachel in her post titled, My Own Search for Sunday:

It was Rachel’s words I so often turned to when I couldn’t
find words of my own. When my own brain was in tumult,
she projected clarity. She was a writers’ writer and a
thinker’s thinker; someone who could harness into words
what felt trapped in my own head.

So, why Rachel? And why during this devotion?

Here's why.
Our devotional author, Ruth Schwenk, writes this:
All of us are building our lives on something.

Yes.
And...?

Well, I know that my foundation- the truest thing I know about 
myself- is that I love Jesus.
My opinions about my intelligence, beauty, and character all ebb
and flow on my mood and environment, but, even when I am
desperately upset with, and feeling abandoned by, Jesus -even when 
I try to convince myself that it is an easier life without Him- I know
in the very core of my self that that is untrue.

Jesus is my foundation- the very heart of me. 

Earlier this year, Rachel passed away and in her wake, she left
behind a trail of stories: some written, some spoken.

Just like me, Rachel has questioned God and been left to 
wonder. Just like me, Rachel has wondered if God is enough
...or good...or real. 
  
And when, at my core, I can be honest about how I have come
to know God, to question God, and to sometimes wonder if I 
even like God, I know that I know that I cannot turn my back 
on Him.

I cannot turn my back on my core. 

What would you say is your Surest Foundation? 
Maybe you would say Jesus, like me, and maybe you wouldn't. 

Alexander Hamilton is thought to have been [one of] the orgin[s]
behind the quote:

Those who stand for
nothing fall for anything.

I am not sure if this is entirely relevant to the point, but 

I admire Rachel for having something to call her foundation:

even if she was always in want. 

She had her faith: 

first untouchable and self-righteous,

later renounced and critiqued. 

Eventually she realized that her foundation was still there:

that God was big enough to handle her inquiries. 

And thus, her foundation, like mine, was made the Surest.

Have you read any of RHE's work? 
What has made the greatest impact on you?

-gomommyblogger