When life is a series of never-ending struggles, when the work is never done, when it all seems drained of joy and beauty, then what? How do we continue to inhabit our lives with grace and keep searching for God in all of it? If you feel a that you have lost control, or that…
Author: Mackenzie Chester
My name is Mackenzie Chester. I am a wife and mother of eight children. Welcome to my blog and podcast, The Sacred Everyday, where I write and talk about waking up to the miracle of ordinary life through prayer, reflection, and creative practice.
Listening for God’s Voice (Podcast #49)
Over the last few weeks, we have been experiencing a move of God in our family. In today’s episode, I’m sharing some of the ways he is bringing new hope to my life, how he has touched my marriage and our family, and how we are learning to listen for God’s voice, guidance, and direction…
Standing in the Hallway of Sorrow (Chapter 3 Read-Aloud about The Search for Beauty in Grief) Podcast #36
Today I send my most vulnerable and intimate words out into the world, written at moments in my life when grief was shaking me down to the very core. In this chapter of my book, I share about miscarriage and the death of my beautiful mother. These words chronicle the numbing pain of loss, the…
Motherhood When It’s All Too Much (Podcast #31)
Have you ever found yourself wondering what you were thinking when you believed you were capable of raising children into adulthood? Or have you ever been overwhelmed by a season in your family when it just all seemed too much? Sometimes, this happens to me. (Ok, it happens to me a lot…) I realize that…
Motherhood Begins With Surrender
Motherhood begins with surrender.For the sake of love, yes,but surrender all the samethe body the mind the soul the spiritbends to the body that breaks openthe womb, the silent seedthat buries itself into the earthof the secret place within If birth isn’t surrenderForget everything I’ve ever saidOr don’t you remember when all you could do…
The Memory and Promise of Light
There are moments, in the middle of the night, when the electricity of current events sends a shockwave through my sleeping body and wakes me, wide-eyed and shaken. What is going to happen to this broken world? I see myself, gathering my children around me like the mother in a fairy tale, walking into a…
The Climax of a Real Story
The climax of a real story is always movinggrowing upgraduationtruelovemarriagebecoming a mothergetting the kids to bed so you can finally sit down for the eveninghitting send to the publisher after a decade of writinggetting the kitchen clean after breakfast In stories, there is one climax. And then there is the hope of sustained joy.There isn’t…
The Dreams of a Stranger (A Miracle Remembered)
*This is the story of a miracle that our family experienced a year ago. Not a day has gone by that we have not felt the significance of it. God answered the deepest prayers of my heart and even beyond that, he met needs I did not know I had. I wrote many of these…
The Journaling Circle
Dear Friends, You are warmly invited to The Journaling Circle, a kindred gathering for inspiration and conversation over tea (or coffee or hot chocolate, etc.!) and open journals. We will be meeting on Zoom on the first and third Mondays in February, March, and April at 3:00 p.m. (EST) to venture into my course, Innermost…
Helpless (When Faith Trembles)
Helpless. The word rose up out of my mind and offered itself to me in the middle of a dark night. I held a feverish child in my arms, watched his labored breathing, imagined the flickering candle of his precious little life before my eyes. My mind traveled farther than I meant it to go,…
There Is a Woman in the Mirror
There is a woman in the mirror that shares my face but does not know who I am. She mimics my every move with nuanced attention to detail–the slight raise of brow, the synchronized blink and focus, the parting lips and hint of smile… Her performance is flawless. But she does not know what I…
It’s Going to Be Okay
Sometimes I travel through time. Usually in the middle of the night, when I am awake with babies on either side of me, not daring to move lest I wake them and lose the few precious moments I have in my life to let my thoughts flow without interruption. During the days, the needs take…