Amber C Haines
About the Author

Amber C Haines, author of Wild in the Hollow, has 4 sons, a guitar-playing husband, theRunaMuck, and rare friends. She loves the funky, the narrative, and the dirty South. She finds community among the broken and wants to know your story. Amber is curator with her husband Seth Haines of Mother...

(in)side DaySpring: things we love
& you will too!
Find more at DaySpring.com
(in)side DaySpring:
things we love
& you will too!
Find more at
DaySpring.com
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Happy mothers day. And I’m so feeling the need to be a better mamma this year. Hope these books will start me right?

  2. dry bones…. oh how i can relate right now. thank you for sharing, Amber, and being honest about motherhood and the dark places. and thank you for sharing your remedies too… i needed to hear that and need to adjust my sights and course right about now. thank you!

  3. I have struggled with several periods of depression in my life…and these words describe how I felt. The guilt alone (of ruining my kids with this awful cloud over our family) is quite suffocating. But, God is faithful…and I continue to trust Him, despite myself. Thanks for sharing. 🙂

  4. Thank you for the posts that keep me focused and help me as a mother, wife and women. Happy Mother’s Day!

  5. Happy Mother’s Day to all of us in “the trenches.” May God’s fullness completely fill all our emptiness.

  6. Love, love love your articulation of how God uses the “mean time” of our life. Such a great depiction and a reminder that we are not meant for this world. May we continuously be hungry for Him.
    Thank you!

  7. A wonderful post of encouragement.
    Happy Mother’s Day! That’s an awfully nice giveaway!!!

  8. I know God uses these incourage emails to splash some of that “spirit water” on my soul. Thank you for your part in waking me up to God’s voice each morning…

  9. His mercies are new every morning; great is His faithfulness…Lord, may we learn to appreciate both the dry and the drenched, knowing You are there through all times…

  10. I have yet to become a mother myself, but I sit here with my dear sister and her TWINS on her first Mother’s Day after years and years of heartache and struggles with infertility… and I get it. I see the exhaustion. I see the desperation. And then I see the heart drenching, soul soaking Wisdom of our Lord healing and transforming all her wounds into deeper love for her family.
    Thank you for this post.

  11. Happy Mother’s Day to you!! Your post gave me encouragement and blessed me today. Thank you!! Being a Mom is one of the greatest gifts God has ever given me and I thank him for it. Have a great day.
    Janice

  12. Thank you so much. You cannot know how much this post touched me – and it’s only the first I’ve gotten in my inbox. Just signed up yesterday and today you’ve made me cry with gratitude. The Lord leads us to wonderful things 🙂

  13. This is my first time posting here, but I subscribe by email and love reading all of the posts. Everyone is so uplifting and positive, while at the same time being REAL.
    Thank you ladies for all that you do, and good luck to everyone in the giveaway.
    Blessings-Fontaine

  14. I appreciate this entry immensely. And really any “mother writing” that honestly tells of the exhaustion and discouragement of motherhood. But of course, the joy and satisfaction that eventually follows. Honesty can be very encouraging.
    Sarah Morlandt

  15. Happy Mother’s Day to all of the wonderful mothers out there! Thanks for this post, Amber, and for the opportunity to win a little extra “in”couragement! 🙂 As a single mother to a ten year old boy and almost 4 year old girl, I need A LOT of help! LOL

  16. thank you for blessing me with your words today. i have been to those dark places, and i appreciate and thank the Lord for lifting me out of there! He is my strength, and all glory is His!

  17. Thank you for being honest. It is tough to be a momma, but the unconditional love of our children and watching them become beautiful creations of God are an amazing gift to us. God uses them to help us know His love for us. Thank you God.

  18. I pray every day for the Lord to give me ears to hear in my heart and speak only His love to my childen. Happy Mother’s Day to all!

  19. Great post….While motherhood is exhausting, both physically & mentally I wouldn’t trade one second of it…it’s also the most rewarding privledge I have ever had!

  20. Gosh, so good to think that others struggle too. This has to be a huge contribution of Christian women’s blogging to the Kingdom!

  21. Happy Mother’s
    Day. Am feeling dry right now, my daughter, 21, is not speaking to me much less wishing me a Happy Mother’s Day. My son is not with me now either. My precious Mom is deceased. I would love to win this Thomas Nelson collection. I went to church this morning and am getting ready to take a nap. Can’t talk my cat into fixing me lunch.

  22. Dear Cathy from the post above me . . .I can relate and I am praying for you especially today! Thank you, Holley, for the mother’s day wishes and for sending us here to Amber. Thank you Amber for encouraging us as mothers, when we need it most . . .like all the time! May He be the living water that forever soaks our souls! Blessings and love! deb

  23. Dry Bones certainly describe me right now. I have been dealing with a computer game addicted husband, a new baby, all the household duties, and for the first time in my life living away from my family and friends. It’s been hard and thanks to wonderful posts like this I know that my life is guided by God and he is always there to help me. Happy Mother’s Day!

  24. Naptime sounds glorious right now. Thanks Amber for sharing how these weary times really do have a purpose. When we are delivered from them, we appreciate the refreshing so much more.

  25. Lovely words today of such encouragement and how this weary mom feels at times . . . thank you. A blessed mama of a dozen ~ 10 beside me & 2 at Jesus’ feet

  26. Thanks for a nice Mother’s Day post! Happy Mother’s Day to everyone!

  27. You’ve captured what it is to be a mother…..and in for the long haul. Press on, gently of course. It is worth it.

  28. Thank you, Amber! I breathe a sigh of relief and let my shoulders relax as I recognize and appreciate the fact that the “image” we’ve been fed of the “perfect” mother is all wrong. Happy Mother’s Day to you!

  29. Reading what you have to write makes me nervous about being a mother in August, but I am so thankful for your honesty. Hope you had a happy mother’s day!

  30. Thank you for this today. Sometimes it feels like that darkness lasts a bit too long. We all need to know that there is light for us to find.

  31. I’m so glad I’m not the only one… I love being a Mom and I know how incredibly BLESSED I am to be one. But it does empty me some days.

  32. As I watch my 87 y/o mother with Alzheimer’s deteriorate right before my eyes, I will always remember the words she said to me not more than a week ago, “I am in no pain, I am so blessed.” When she cannot remember what happened 30 seconds ago, she knows that God is still there in her heart as always. Then, I fast-forward to my grandchildren, her great-grandchildren, as they are learning about our Father and His Word, and praying that someday they will understand what it means to say those words, “I am so blessed.”

  33. Yes, every mother can relate. I’m still in the throes of motherhood with 8 from ages 2 to 20. Thanks for the encouragement to stay the course.

  34. You caught my feelings in yours. Rejoicing with you in the drink of the Spirit today and the song One Heartbeat at a Time by Stephen Curtis Chapman.
    Happy Mother’s Day.

  35. Amber,
    I hope you’ve had a wonderful Mothers Day!
    Your words are quite a gift and just what we all need to read on days like that. I love how you pour from the overflow of your heart, even sharing what’s like when your heart feels dry.
    I’d love to win this give-away, for expressly why you said: for those of us who strongly desire to lead our children in the way of the LORD, in spite of our own waywardness.
    Thank you so much for your sweet words, written and, I imagine said, in your sweet southern cadence. 🙂

  36. I have only recently begun receiving emails and have found myself eagerly awaiting for new poetry, insight, inspiration, and most of all the realization that so many women are just like me. We are mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends. Thank you for creating God centered and peace driven newsletters and website.
    Happy Mother’s Day.
    Susan

  37. Happy Mother’s Day! Thank you for the opportunity to win these books.

  38. What a wonderful giveaway! Amber, you have an unbelievable way of writing! I look forward to each of your posts! They are so real. Thank you for pouring your heart out.

  39. OH yes, I know this. I hear (read) your words and know well, mom to 3 boys, those days that run into nights into days.
    Much encouragement to you.
    And what a wonderful giveaway, too.
    Steph

  40. Thanks for this, Amber. Sounds like these books will be a big help for those dry spells…

  41. Wonderful post for wonderful mothers! How I (and we all) can relate to dry bones at one time or another (and another, and another). Let the Spirit water flow!

  42. This my first mothers day without my mom.. but I know in my heart she is with the Lord now. I myself enjoy my beahtiful grandchidren and am blessed with a wonderful family that loves me. so your post encourages me to embrace and love others. Thank you and Happy Blessed Mother’s Day Amber.

  43. Happy Mother’s Day – who couldn’t use a giveaway that includes (in)couragement for mamas!

  44. Thank you for the sounds of my own thoughts…It is so good to hear them from someone else…a reminder that i really am not alone.

  45. Amber, I too am bone dry….most days. Thank you for sharing what you do on those days ….great ideas for an awakening.

  46. Praise God for you, Amber!
    This may be the first one of your devotions that I have read. It is very good, especially as I have had a rough morning already with my thirteen year old. Your remedies for “those days” are right on.
    God is so good to give us folks like you to encourage us. Thank you for being available and obedient! God bless you richly!
    Because of Jesus,
    Cindy

  47. Yes- you nailed it on the head exactly how I feel some days- so thankful the for the rain God brings to us!
    thanks for the giveaway!
    Jennifer
    4kerrhome@att.net

  48. Thank you for the encouragement as I have struggled with bouts of depression and anxiety for years which makes me feel like I can’t be all I need to be for my two wonderful kids. With God’s help (he uses people like you to encourage, we will be blessed and overcome. Thank you for the words of encouragement. Happy Mother’s Day!

  49. Thanks for sucha good post! Yes, sometimes i definitely feel weary when it comes to motherhood, but also that I am doing a lousy job at it…would love some help from Thomas Nelson;)
    Thanks again for sharing!

  50. My girls and I decided last night that we would have a fresh beginning this morning: less arguing, fighting, yelling and more loving, obeying, and enjoying each other. Daddy wasn’t in the room, but we’re gonna include him too. It’s refreshing on Mother’s Day to know that despite all my shortcomings, my kids still love me. What a testimony to God’s love and grace. Thank you Lord!

  51. Thank you so much for putting into words things I have been feeling and dealing with for the past several months. I only recently have been able to come out of the darkness and clouds and see that light again and realize the need to reconnect with my Savior.

  52. oh to be “drenched in the knowledge of God”.
    to truly know him & find that he is enough.
    such a beautiful post, Amber. thank you.

  53. What a wonderful reminder to not only God’s mothers, but God’s women and beautiful creations. Indeed He does fill and restore us, and use our emptiness and brokenness to shine through and draw us nearer to Him.
    Mahalo for your encouragement and words of wisdom, and thank you for being a strong mother and woman of God.
    Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers and you are ANGELS and SUPERWOMEN 🙂

  54. Enjoyed reading this post today! I too have discovered purpose in the dark places. I see so clearly who God is and have a love for Him I’m not sure I would know any other way.

  55. What an awesome post. Isn’t His love and grace always sufficient to bring us back…

  56. Amber, I’m not looking to win a thing, but this is another one for your book, woman. You floor me. In the best way possible. Please share this beyond the blogging community — you have a gift that could touch so, so many people. That *does* touch so many, but should be reaching more. You’re preaching the word, my friend.

  57. I love reading the posts on this blog. Hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day!

  58. Such joy I find in being a “Mom”. I am always trying to do it better, so any resources would be helpful.