Unhurried Grace for a Mom's Heart: 31 Days in God's Word

by Durenda Wilson

The blessings of life can sometimes feel a lot like burdens. Parenting, marriage, relationships, homeschooling--all these things bring with them their share of disappointments, frustrations, and trials, but God always has something good planned for us. It is imperative we slow down and listen for His still, small voice telling us what we should do and the way we should go.

Designed to take you deeper than other devotionals, while not taking a lot of time, Durenda Wilson's new book invites moms into a meaningful study that will inspire and encourage. Each reading is concise, straightforward, and combined with a passage of Scripture and reflection prompts.

Durenda understands the highs and lows of motherhood, as mom to eight and grandmother to four she's been homeschooling for over 22 years. She deftly weaves her years of experience into this devotional to bring the wisdom and insight she would have loved when she was a younger mom. The daily readings are thoughtfully compiled to be deep and meaningful, while not requiring a lot of time (because moms don't often have a lot of time!).

"Unhurried Grace for a Mom's Heart" is a daily devotion that's great for moms to read through alone or in small groups.

Genres: Christian

144 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 18, 2018

About the author

Durenda Wilson has been very happily married to Darryl for 26 years and homeschooling for 20 years. They have eight awesome kids, 5 boys and 3 girls. Two are married, one is in college and the rest are still at home. Durenda is a Nana to four cuties! She writes for her own blog, Simple Nourishing Home and Hip Homeschool Moms. She also writes and podcasts over at The Busy Mom. Her passion is simplifying, being authentic and inspiring moms to homeschool and mother in freedom and joy.

Reviews

[Alison (readinginazaleawoods) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This 31-Day Devotional is a breath of encouragement, hope, and wisdom for a homeschooling mom’s heart. With each devotion being paired with a passage of scripture and reflection prompts with space for journaling, your eyes will be directed to Jesus and your heart will be encouraged to trust in the goodness and faithfulness of God.
 
✨ One thing to note: The author does quote from The Message (a paraphrase of God’s Word), and I would encourage you to compare it to other word-for-word or thought-for-thought translations.
 
Overall, this a wonderful devotional and I recommend it.

[Jess Vargas · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re a Christian homeschooler, this is the absolutely perfect devotional for you. Durenda knows intimately what it’s like and is so good at describing the nuances of how it is that she is able to put words to things even I couldn’t have articulated until reading her thoughts. I found it deeply encouraging and inspiring. And just a great all-round reminder to put God in his proper place. The Scripture passages she chose were concise but still included context. And each day’s devotional didn’t take more than 5 minutes to read. My only qualm was that the font for chapter headings doesn’t capitalize, meaning every reference to God in the titles was lowercase. A bit distracting but didn’t effect the content. Definitely 5 stars :)

[Jennifer Buczynski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, encouraging, biblical! I enjoyed some days more than others, some God really spoke to me, like day 29.

I also prayed for Durenda while reading this, as I know she’s going through some hard times.

[Bonnie Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have generally avoided devotional books because there seems to be too much fluff and focusing on the self. But I really enjoyed adding this one to my daily routine. It is thoughtful, not forced, and I can see myself picking it up again in the future.

[Gretchen Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Durenda Wilson has given homeschool moms a beautiful gift in Unhurried Grace, a devotional that is refreshingly practical and soundly biblical. With short but compelling readings, paired with passages of scripture and places for journaling, you can take your time working your way through the 31 easy to read chapters. But each one will be a timely encouragement, with tried and true wisdom from an "older woman" who has homeschooled eight children. She's been there, done that--with grace. And I, for one, am grateful that she's taken the time to share her perspective with the next generation of homeschool moms.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this devotional, in the fact that it wasn’t like most devotionals targeted to moms that I’ve read. It actually has more than 1 or 2 scriptures and a couple pages discussing the topic, then the follow-up questions aren’t so open-ended that you can’t see how to apply it to your life. I liked the way that the topics she chose wouldn’t always be the way I would have related it before, so getting to look at certain passages with a new lens was wonderful. There were a few concepts that really rocked my world that have stuck with me and I’ve discussed them with others to keep ruminating on them. Thank you Durenda for your heart for moms, especially homeschool moms!

[Melinda Staley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unhurried Grace for a Mom’s Heart is exactly what I look for in a devotional. Short, sweet, and to the point. But, it’s also so much more than that! Durenda Wilson takes 31 different topics and hits on them each day - topics that most of us find near and dear to our hearts. Then, she gives us a place to reflect and mark down what we feel like God is saying to us concerning the devotional as well as what we are saying to God. To top it off, she ends each day with a dig deeper section to cause us to reflect even more on the daily topic.
Each day is short, but also deep, and I really like that in a devotional.

[Hanna Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good but quite niche, it obviously is meant for Christian moms but even more I think it’s very specifically geared towards homeschooling families. As such is was applicable and encouraging. It was also very brief and easy to read 1 or 2 a day. I wished the scripture had been in each day’s reading just for further ease, but she left it out with the purpose of encouraging the reader to open their own Bible and see the context of the verses which I do understand and appreciate. Also the translation of verses she did include was the message which I didn’t love, but also understand for a relatable devotional

[Alonnah Thomson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve enjoyed her podcast, so I wanted to try her devo, however they were almost so short there was nothing to them. The devos also were very specific to homeschool moms and as we’re not in that season yet, the questions didn’t apply as much to me. But even so, it just didn’t seem like there was much meat and I stopped reading halfway through. In my opinion, a reader would be better off listening to her podcast where many of the chapters are read aloud.

[Cora Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but full of meat!

For someone with not a lot of time, this is packed with with such amazing wisdom from a mother and always points to the Lord. Really great and powerful read.

[Lisa Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 Stars
I could not really relate to the homeschooling parts of the book but the rest was helpful, relatable, and reassuring.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that it should be noted that I am not generally a fan of devotionals, per say. I was coming off an in-depth Bible study and wanted something encouraging before I dived into something else. I picked this one because I liked her homeschooling book and because the scripture reading was a passage and not just a single verse.

I think that I was probably most helped by the room to journal. Journaling is something that I need to do more of, but rarely take the times to do. The room right in the space to journal (not answer questions) was needed in this season of life.