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Family, Parenting and Religion

2026-07-18T08:43:55-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When Love Has to Change: Loving What’s Real

Last updated on: July 18, 2026 at 8:43 am By Christine Moriarty Field

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Scripture never promises us that love stays the same shape forever. It asks something harder of us: to keep loving even as the people and circumstances around us change in ways we didn’t choose. Image courtesy of Pexels The Love We Assumed Wouldn’t Change Many of us built a quiet theology of family without ever naming it — a belief that if we raised our children well and stayed faithful, closeness would simply be the reward. When that closeness doesn’t... Read more

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family grief

2026-07-11T09:36:54-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Your Child Feels Like a Stranger? A Prayer for the Waiting

Last updated on: July 11, 2026 at 9:36 am By Christine Moriarty Field

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Loneliness doesn’t show up in the Psalms by name, but I think David understood it anyway: the ache of watching someone you love turn their face away, little by little, and not knowing if or when they’ll turn back. If your adult child has grown distant — fewer calls, shorter visits, a version of them that feels almost unfamiliar — you are living inside a very old kind of grief. And it is a grief worth bringing honestly before God,... Read more

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adult child estrangement

2026-07-06T17:45:46-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Fence and the Garden: What Boundaries Are Actually For

Last updated on: July 6, 2026 at 5:45 pm By Christine Moriarty Field

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I used to believe, somewhere beneath the level of conscious thought, that being a good Christian woman meant being endlessly available. That every request for my time, my energy, my attention, carried something close to moral weight — and that to say no was to fail some quiet test of love. It took me decades, a law career, a remarriage to a pastor, and a great deal of exhaustion to understand that this was never actually what Scripture asked of... Read more

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boundaries

2026-06-29T18:28:56-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When the Quiet Comes After Letting Go

Last updated on: June 29, 2026 at 6:28 pm By Christine Moriarty Field

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You finally did the thing you knew you needed to do. You released the rescue pattern with your child that wasn’t love, it was control dressed up as love. You stopped trying to fix what only God could fix. You set down a burden you’d carried so long you’d forgotten it wasn’t yours to begin with. And instead of the peace you expected, you found a quiet that feels almost unbearable. I want to sit with that quiet for... Read more

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letting go

2026-06-19T16:21:27-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Who You Are Beneath the Roles You’ve Played

Last updated on: June 19, 2026 at 4:21 pm By Christine Moriarty Field

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There is a question in scripture that stops me every time I encounter it. Not what have you done, or where have you been. Something more unsettling, more intimate than that. Who are you? Image courtesy of Unsplash The Question Beneath It’s the question beneath every season of stripping away. The desert seasons. The grief seasons. The long seasons where the roles we’ve built our entire sense of self around begin to fall away — mother of young children,... Read more

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spiritual identity midlife women

2026-06-12T08:38:47-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Learning to Love Without Carrying — A Spiritual Practice

Last updated on: June 12, 2026 at 8:38 am By Christine Moriarty Field

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Last week I wrote about the burden many of us carry — the invisible weight of over-responsibility for the people we love most. This week I want to talk about what it actually looks like, spiritually and practically, to begin setting it down. Because surrender, in my experience, is one of the most misunderstood concepts in the Christian life. Image courtesy of Unsplash We talk about it constantly. We sing about it. We pray it with genuine intention. And then... Read more

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boundaries

surrender

2026-06-03T15:11:35-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Faith Reflection for Weary Mothers

Last updated on: June 3, 2026 at 3:11 pm By Christine Moriarty Field

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There is a verse I kept reading during the hardest years of my life that I somehow managed to misapply for a very long time. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matt. 11:28 I read it as comfort. As reassurance that God saw my exhaustion and cared about it. Which is true — but I missed the deeper instruction embedded in those words entirely. Image courtesy of Pexels He wasn’t... Read more

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boundaries with adult children

2026-05-22T09:15:03-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When Motherhood Changes and the Silence Gets Loud

Last updated on: May 22, 2026 at 9:15 am By Christine Moriarty Field

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You reach a point in mothering where the silence can feel spiritually disorienting. Image courtesy of Unsplash Many mothers spend decades living in constant emotional motion. Then one day the house is quieter, the phone stops ringing as much, and the routines that once structured life disappear almost overnight. What often follows is not peace. It is disorientation. Especially for women whose identity became deeply tied to serving everyone else. And this kind of loneliness can quietly affect faith too.... Read more

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2026-05-13T07:36:36-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When Mother’s Day Hurts More Than You Expected

Last updated on: May 13, 2026 at 7:36 am By Christine Moriarty Field

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Mother’s Day can be complicated for women whose lives no longer look the way they imagined they would. For some mothers, the ache has nothing to do with bitterness or lack of faith. It comes from memory. Image courtesy of Pexels From remembering years when the day felt full. Loud kitchens. Handmade cards. Early morning excitement. Children climbing into bed beside you with flowers and crooked handwriting and love that felt uncomplicated. And then one day, without warning, the season... Read more

Progressive Christian

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2026-05-09T17:00:24-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Emotional Exhaustion in Motherhood

Last updated on: May 9, 2026 at 5:00 pm By Christine Moriarty Field

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You can love deeply and still feel worn down by it. That tension confuses a lot of women, especially those who take their faith seriously. You show up. You stay. You try to do what is right, even when it is hard. You give grace. You extend patience. You keep the door open. And somewhere along the way, your energy starts to thin out. Image courtesy of Pexels Not all at once. It happens slowly. You begin to feel it... Read more

Progressive Christian

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