Holy ground in the kitchen: Motherhood when nothing feels “spiritual”
- Allison Jones
- Feb 10
- 3 min read
BIG QUESTION (FEBRUARY): What does it look like to find God in the in-between—before anything changes?
Where we are in the study:
This week we’re learning to notice God’s presence in the ordinary—before anything looks “fixed,” before the breakthrough, before the house is quiet. (Genesis 28 is the reminder that God meets people on the road, not only at the destination.)
Motherhood has a way of making you doubt your own spiritual life.
Not because you don’t love the Lord—but because so much of your day feels like maintenance.
You feed everyone.
You clean the same mess again.
You teach, you answer, you redirect, you try to stay patient, you start dinner, you forget what you walked into the room for, and you do it all again tomorrow.
And if we’re honest, we can start believing the lie that “real” closeness with God happens somewhere else:
on a retreat, in a quiet room, in a calmer season, in a different version of our life.
But Genesis 28 pushes back on that kind of thinking.
Jacob isn’t in a sanctuary.
He’s on the road—tired, uncertain, in-between.
And that’s where God meets him.
Read Genesis 28:10–22 (NASB) here:
When you slow down with the passage, the first thing you notice is how ordinary it is.
Jacob travels until night falls, then he stops because he has to. He sleeps because he’s human. There’s no planned spiritual moment here—no retreat schedule, no worship playlist, no “I finally got my life together.”
And then God initiates.
That matters more than we think, especially for moms.
Because it means the presence of God is not something you earn with the right conditions.
It’s not a prize for finally getting the routine perfect.
God meets Jacob in the life he actually has.
Then comes the line that feels like the pivot point:
Jacob wakes up and realizes the Lord was there—and he didn’t know it.
Here’s the sober thought (and also the hopeful one):
It is possible to live in the presence of God while practicing the absence of awareness.
Not because you’re a bad Christian.
Because you’re human.
Because routine can dull attention.
Because responsibility can become a tunnel.
Because you can be doing holy work while feeling nothing holy at all.
What might we be missing?
The enemy doesn’t always need to lure a mother into open rebellion.
Sometimes all he has to do is keep her too hurried, too dulled, too mentally split to notice the Lord.
Genesis 28 gently confronts that without shaming Jacob—and without shaming you.
God is not only the God of “big spiritual moments.”
He is the God who meets people on a random night in a certain place.
Ordinary ground becomes holy, not because the ground is impressive, but because God is there.
Subject sentence (the point of the passage for us):
God meets Jacob on the road and reveals that ordinary ground can be holy.
Aim (what I want for you this week):
I want you to practice awareness of God’s presence in the room you’re already in.
One misread to clear up:
“If I can’t have a long quiet time, I should just wait until I can.”
But Genesis 28 shows God initiating in tight, ordinary spaces—so the question isn’t, “How do I produce a perfect spiritual routine?”
The question becomes: How do I remain aware of God in the life I actually have?
So here’s a shift to practice for the rest of February:
Don’t aim for a perfect routine.
Aim for faithful awareness.
Start with three places you already live:
At the sink:
When you turn on the water, pray one sentence: “Lord, You are here too.”
At the table:
Before the meal, name one mercy from the day out loud—even if it’s small.
At the interruption:
When someone needs you mid-task, whisper, “Make me patient and present.”
It’s small—but that’s the point.
Awareness usually isn’t loud.
It’s steady.
It’s learned.
Diagnostic question:
Where have I been treating my ordinary responsibilities like evidence that God is far?
5–10 minute practice (Kitchen liturgy — 7 minutes):
1) Write your most common motherhood frustration in one sentence.
2) Underline the word that reveals what you’re fearing most (time, control, respect, quiet, competence, help).
3) Pray this honestly: “God, meet me here. Replace fear with faithfulness.”
If you want a simple tool to carry this theme through February, download:
“Surely God Is Here — Prayer Guide + Memory Plan (Genesis 28:10–22)” in the Sunday newsletter, The Lampstand. Let me know if you’d like to be added to the email list.
Next layer coming:
On Friday, we’ll take the same theme into work and responsibility outside the home—what it looks like to obey before you see results.
And on Sunday’s Lampstand, we’ll move into the memory chunk for the week (Genesis 28:13–15): God’s promise and presence spoken clearly.
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