Grace Despite the Chaos: Writing Through Life’s Interruptions as a Christian Mom

Have you ever sat down to write with a fresh cup of coffee, only to be interrupted five minutes later—by a child needing help, a phone call, or something burning on the stove?

Thankfully, I’ve never burnt anything. But as a homeschool mom and pastor’s wife with a kingdom-minded business, I’m well familiar with the ebb and flow of daily interruptions.

And before you spout off the age-old advice of, “Desiree, just set proper boundaries.”

My friend, I do. But even with proper boundaries, some interruptions are unavoidable. Like the call that my in-laws were in a serious car accident. Or the unexpected visitor that drops by with a big need requiring my pastoral hat to be on. Or the gut-punch email that drops into the inbox.

Life happens. But interrupts don’t have to lead to a derailment of all your well-laid plans.

Today, we’re talking about how to handle life’s interruptions with grace while still being kingdom-minded about our writing and business goals.

Why Writing as a Christian Mom Feels So Hard

Now, before we get into the tips, let’s focus on setting a proper mental framework. Because for anything to have longevity, it needs a solid foundation.

Not everyone has the luxury of unplugging and getting undistracted time away from the home and kiddos. That’s beautiful, and we should treat ourselves to that every now and then.

However, that isn’t feasible for many. My husband is amazing, but he works outside of the home as the main breadwinner and isn’t available to relieve me of the regular responsibilities that homeschooling requires. So, I’m juggling school, home, and business all in a given day with church responsibilities sprinkled in.

As you can imagine, Old Desiree did not handle the stress levels well.

The Myth of Perfect Conditions for Writing

Despite all my best efforts to find the perfect work-life structure, I came to the hard realization that it doesn’t exist.

I’m sorry, but perfection by the world’s definition isn’t possible for mankind. We’re flawed. We’re fallible. We’re a lovable mess.

So rather than striving for perfection, we’re flipping the script and aiming to be consistent, diligent, and resilient as we press onward regardless of what the day holds.

Establishing healthy, sustainable rhythms and systems that value consistency over perfection will see us making massive strides in creating longevity in our creative business.

Now, in past episodes, I’ve shared how I would fly into a fit when my daughter interrupted me anytime I was knee deep in work—whether that was drafting a scene or editing a project for a colleague.

There were a few reasons why these types of interruptions would send me into a tantrum.

One, I had an unhealthy understanding of time, which we’ve been unpacking in the previous episodes.

Second, between ADHD and hormones tanking, brain fog is a crazy battle. So once a thought vanished, it was gone for good. Losing those ideas or story nuggets drove me nuts.

And those frustrations would bubble over, and I’d snap before realizing it.

My daughter shouldn’t feel like an inconvenience when asking for my time to help her with projects and assignments.

So changes had to be made on a foundational level if I wanted to cultivate a writing life filled with joy and grace rather than strife and toil.

Striving for Worldly Balance Leaves Us Empty

Thankfully, the Lord was more than ready to sit me down and teach me rhythms that went along with these next points:

1) First, I learned a Biblical viewpoint on time.

As we broke down in our last chat, time is a resource. One that we yield and God multiplies.

We’ve chatted about time a lot on the podcast lately, and that’s been intentional. To learn how to establish Godly rhythms of grace, we also need to have a higher perspective on what’s causing us to establish unhealthy rhythms for our families and our writing business.

2) Then, I learned how to readjust my priorities.

Stewarding my daughter comes before stewarding strangers.

As a mom, I am entrusted to guide, nurture, and see her thrive and flourish. She is my priority.

For me, the tier of priority starts with God, then family, and then my work. The need to steward my daughter well really came as a response to a testimony I heard about an evangelist who would skillfully pack out churches and conference centers to minister and would win hundreds and thousands of souls for the kingdom of God.

However, the gut punch of the story was that his own kids were lost, and his marriage was in shambles. He spent so much time laboring for the kingdom that he missed his most critical mission field at home. That testimony has stuck with me for a long time. I don’t want to be so focused on serving others that I fail to steward my family as I was designed to.

3) Another thing I learned is that spiritual health matters.

Spiritual wholeness will lead to stronger creative flows.

Physical issues are complicated and feel never-ending. However, we can still do our part to live healthy lifestyles. Learning to utilize our strengths while also putting checks in place for our weaknesses.

Vanishing thoughts are always an issue for me, but I’ll share more on how I handle that in a moment.

As we ponder these mindset shifts, we can start to sweep away the unwanted or unhealthy viewpoints and have the eyes of our hearts opened to see our lives in the way God would see them.

When we become yoked with Christ, He’s going to teach us through the Holy Spirit the foundational things needed to help us cultivate consistent rhythms of grace for a thriving creative business.

But for us to learn from Him could require us to let go of preconceived notions or previously held to beliefs.

One of those might just be the viewpoint on perfection.

Redefining Perfection from a Biblical Lens

Now, I mentioned earlier that perfection by the world’s definition is impossible. Let’s dive more into why.

According to a quick definition search, the word perfection in English is defined as:

the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects.

However, there are a couple of different terms used in the New Testament to denote perfect that I’d love to highlight.

First, there is the word teleois (tel’-a-os), used in Matthew 5:48, which reads “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Teleios (tel’-a-os) is an adjective that describes a state or quality and focuses on the end result of completion, perfection, or maturity.

And then there is the word katartizō (kat-ar-tid’-zo) used in 1 Peter 5:10, which reads, “But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”

The word nerd in me wants to keep dissecting this particular verse, but I’m refraining so we can stay on track.

Now, katartizō (kat-ar-tid’-zo) is a verb describing a process or action. So the ongoing process of mending, equipping, and restoring to bring about completeness.

What the Bible Really Says About Being “Perfect”

So in context, teleios (tel’-a-os) describes someone who is fully grown, mature, or complete. While katartizō (kat-ar-tid’-zo) describes the act (the process) of repairing, preparing, or adjusting something that is broken, lacking, or out of alignment.

Please tell me you’re geeking out over these words like I am. If you are, then you are my people!

But do you see why I love these words when connecting them not only to ourselves but to our systems and schedules as well?

The world shouts to be flawless and have no errors or faults.

Yet the Lord invites us to sit with Him so He can bring us to a place of wholeness and maturity. A place of growth and transformation.

Which options sounds like a foundation for healthier rhythms to you?

Coming to a place of wholeness and maturity can be done. But only if we’re willing to sit with Jesus and learn from Him.

And when we live from a place of wholeness, when we structure our time and establish our systems from a state of maturity, then interruptions take on a different perspective.

From this place, we can reframe how we look at interruptions as well as how we handle said interruptions.

How to Reframe Interruptions with Grace

As Christ followers, our entire life is designed on the framework of loving and serving. We love and serve God. Then we love and serve His people.

But sometimes it can be hard to balance a serving nature with stewarding our time well.

As a recovering people-pleasing, productivity addict, the hardest reframing I had to do regarding interruptions was to accept the hard truth that not everything is an emergency.

I do not need to live in a constant state of rush, dousing fires any time life did not follow my predetermined order.

I’m exiting survival mode and embracing thriving mode.

So I had to train myself (with the Lord’s help) to reflect before I react.

Assessing the situation and then aligning my response to the interruption with my priorities.

Again, for me, that’s: God, my family, and then everything else.

Just as we would categorize the tasks on our to-do list. Let’s also categorize our interrupts to give them a proper priority level.

Is the interruption truly time sensitive? Or can it wait until the end of your designated work time that you’ve blocked out on your calendar?

Interruptions become distractions when we prioritize them incorrectly.

It bears repeating: Interruptions become distractions when we prioritize them incorrectly.

For example, let’s say a friend texts to see if you could speak at their next book club. That would be a wonderful marketing opportunity. However, it isn’t time sensitive to require an immediate response.

Your excitement might convince you to drop everything to respond, thus pulling you out of your workflow. But, in reality, right that second isn’t something you would need to interrupt your work block for.

Assess the time sensitivity level, see where it would fall in your priority category, and then determine if it needs to interrupt your work or if it can wait. 9 times out of 10, it can wait.

Recognizing Divine Interruptions from God

One thing I do want to point out when it comes to interruptions is that not all interruptions are bad or problematic.

I can’t tell you how many times something random will turn into a full-fledged God-moment.

1. Like how about the time I bumped into someone I hadn’t seen in years, who just so happened to have read one of my book and was immensely blessed by it. A perfect God-moment opportunity to minister to that reader’s heart.
2. Or how about the time I zoned out in the garden because God had a full-on conversation with me about soil health, which led to a strangely prophetic strategy for how to help authors.

If we have an unhealthy viewpoint on time, we’d be tempted to rush through these God moments and miss beautifully designed interruptions.

By assigning the interruption to categories and then basing them on our priorities, we can know whether to linger and reflect or set it aside for later review.

You might be noticing something that I hope to address in this next piece of our chat today.

Interruptions—whether from our kiddos or those lovely divine interruptions—cause our thought trains to screech to a halt. Or jump the tracks altogether, if your brain is like mine.

Assessing the time sensitivity of the interruptions helps us flow within those rhythms of grace. But the fact remains that our thoughts have still stalled out. So what do we do with those vanishing thoughts?

Practical Tips for Managing Daily Interruptions

You might be noticing something that I hope to address in this next piece of our chat today.

Interruptions—whether from our kiddos or those lovely divine interruptions—cause our thought trains to screech to a halt. Or jump the tracks altogether, if your brain is like mine.

Assessing the time sensitivity of the interruptions helps us flow within those rhythms of grace. But the fact remains that our thoughts have still stalled out. So what do we do with those vanishing thoughts?

What to Do When You Lose an Idea or Thought

When you work from home, there’s a never-ending supply of “Hey Mom” moments that cause thought bubbles to dissipate and stellar ideas to vanish.

And yes, that loss of concentration used to drive me crazy. But I don’t want to be that mom again. I hated what my home felt like as that kind of mom. I want to work and live from a place of wholeness that leads me to respond with grace and not mom rage.

So here’s how I handle vanishing thoughts.

I just get another one.

I don’t rage. I don’t throw my hands up in frustration. I just go back to where I left off and get another idea.

Because here’s the kicker: the creative well with the Holy Spirit is endless. I have never had a moment when I couldn’t think of another way to finish a scene or come up with another witty line for a character. Oftentimes, the new idea is better than the original.

This isn’t fluff. This isn’t cheesy motivational nonsense.

This is where we see the time spent doing the deep internal work with Jesus overflow to affect our work and home balance.

The whole basis of this mission is to rediscover the joy of writing. To revive creativity and refresh the art of kingdom-minded storytelling.

Not to be constantly tortured left and right by what I may or may not be losing.

Walking in Grace. Partnered with the Holy Spirit.

Rhythms of grace for our writing and our families are the end goal. That grace and peace comes from sitting and learning at the feet of Jesus.

It does not come from hustle culture. It doesn’t come from striving. It doesn’t come from mystical schedules built on worldly perfection.

It comes from being in partnership with Jesus and awakening our hearts as whole, complete, and fully equipped daughters ready to do all that God has called us to.

Closing Encouragement for Christian Writers

Before we come to a close today, I want to challenge you just a tad.

I want you to think back to an interruption that left you flustered, either from today or last week.

Reflection Question: How might your reaction have changed if you viewed it in light of what we discussed here today?

Don’t rush the answer. Sit in it, ponder it, and let the Holy Spirit speak to you.

Want to continue the conversation?

My friend, I hope today’s chat blessed you and gave you a new perspective on handling life’s unexpected interruptions. I’m praying for you today! May the peace and love of the Father wash over you in fresh ways as you reflect on this heart chat from Him.

If you’d like to continue the conversation, here’s your invite to the newsletter community. Hop on in. We’d love to have you!

Happy writing, my friend. Enjoy the journey, and I’ll catch you in the next episode.