How to Stay Focused on God as an Exhausted and Overwhelmed Mom of Littles

Growing up in a devout Catholic family, I learned at a young age that God needed to be first in my life. Making time for personal prayer and devotions was modeled to me and became a relatively easy habit in my life as I grew older.

Then I became a mom. I struggled with my ideals about what staying focused on God looked like versus what my reality around it looked like. All of those good habits that I had fostered felt like they were crumbling.

I desired to be a saint and form saints, and that required a relationship with God. But how could I when there were constant interruptions and distractions that made it hard to stay focused on God in the day to day? I learned that having a good relationship with God wasn’t impossible in motherhood — it just looked a little different. What I learned in my childhood helped inform what I was trying to accomplish in my motherhood as I learned how to stay focused on God in a new season.

Read More Here: Intentional Prayer in Motherhood

As you continue reading, remember: none of these things happened perfectly, consistently, or in every season of my childhood. There were gaps, interruptions, and ordinary days just like in any family. But together, they formed something steady. Not because they were done all the time, but because they were returned to — again and again — helping us stay focused on God over time.

Your Kids Pick Up On Your Efforts

As a kid, religion classes were definitely a part of my life. However, they aren’t the main reason I still practice my Faith today. Instead, my religious studies helped inform the parts of my Faith that were modeled, taught, and surrounded me in everyday life.

Visible signs of our Faith surrounded me in our home.

Looking back, I see my father’s Bible open with multiple verses highlighted and my mother’s prayer journal and prayer book on her nightstand. There was and still is a whole bookshelf of spiritual reading available, and religious pictures and statues adorned our home. These quiet, visible reminders helped our family stay focused on God even in ordinary routines.

Family prayer anchored us together.

Every meal started in prayer and every night my dad would come to our rooms to pray with and for us. As different seasons allowed, other forms of family prayer would be added to our days, and personal prayer time was encouraged as we grew older.

Then there were other seasons of life where other forms of prayer in our community were added.

Weekly Mass on Sunday was a non-negotiable, but seasons came and went where we also went to daily Mass. There was even a point in time when we would go to daily Mass with our friends and the moms would take turns — one staying home with the little ones and the other taking the older ones to Mass.

Throughout my childhood, we also attended Family Praise and Worship events and Rosary night with our homeschool community. Then in high school we had an Adoration hour that I often attended with one of my friends. These are just a few of the many ways Faith was weaved through our daily life and helped us stay focused on God as a family.

My Faith didn’t grow because my parents did everything perfect, consistently, or one way all of the time.

My Faith grew because the one thing that did stay consistent was the understanding that our Faith was important. It was absorbed quietly in the imperfect, everyday moments that make up life. It was normalized because it was present in many forms. And what a blessing! Because even in the inconsistencies, I was exposed to so many different ways of living out my Faith and how to return to practices that are so easy to fall away from. As a child I didn’t understand how much these small things were shaping me, but their fruit became more clear as I grew.

Proof of God’s Power as I Grew

As I got older, I had many opportunities to participate in various religious activities on my own and with friends. It gave me the opportunity to explore and embrace my Faith as I grew into adulthood and learned how to stay focused on God personally, not just as part of my family.

Participating in the Sacraments gave me the opportunity to experience God’s love and forgiveness in more profound ways.

There is one experience in particular that stands out to me. First, a little back story: I really struggled to get along with one of my brothers, so most of our interactions were cordial at best. I had my driver’s license and decided that I was going to go to daily Mass and weekly confession for the Lenten season. Amazingly, I actually kept up with it.

Well, after getting home from Mass one morning, I ran into this specific brother who I struggled with. I don’t remember what it was, but there was something I needed him to do. However, when I asked him to do it, he completely blew me off. Normally this would have made me very frustrated and bitter. Yet, in that moment, I felt a deep sense of peace and forgiveness instead. In that moment, I understood the power of the Sacraments in a more profound way — and how God meets us when we choose to stay focused on Him, even imperfectly.

These types of experiences continued as I worked on my prayer life.

I think everyone struggles in some way during their pre-teen and teenage years, and I was no different. Yet, due to my parents’ and community’s example, I brought them to God in prayer. I knew that I needed to have a relationship with our Lord and stay focused on God, even when life felt overwhelming.

I even went so far as to imagine Jesus as my brother. It helped me see Him as a real person that He is and someone I could turn to for help. In many of my struggles, I would talk to Him with tears streaming down my face as I poured out my heart. There wasn’t always an immediate actionable answer, but there was always peace that came.I grew to rely on Him in my struggles to provide His everlasting Peace — because it truly did surpass all understanding.

These proofs of God’s power continued into my marriage.

This may not seem applicable in the sense of “as I grew,” but it is since I was still only nineteen when we were married. I don’t think I’ve really shared this part of my story online, but we got pregnant after my first year at college. We had already been talking about marriage, so we decided to go ahead and get started on our life together with our little one. My husband and I love each other deeply and have a really great relationship, but we still had our struggles as well.

As I look back on our early marriage, I see God’s hand at work in us. My husband was also raised in a devout Catholic family. While this didn’t exclude us from our humanity or protect us from having sex before marriage, it did form the foundation of a safe, loving, and faith-filled marriage. I know our marriage could have gone in so many other directions, but it is God’s grace that has seen us through. This is why I believe so deeply that what you’re doing now, even imperfectly, matters more than you can see.

Don’t give up trying to stay focused on God

I get it, as moms we want to see our children succeed in every area of life. Most importantly, we want to know that they have a strong foundation of Faith so that, one day, they may enter heaven. Yet, it’s okay if the day to day reality falls short of your ideals of what it means to stay focused on God. This is humanity. We will always fall short on this side of heaven, but that doesn’t mean that our efforts aren’t bearing fruit — even if they are inconsistent or imperfectly carried out. What matters is that we keep trying to instill the Faith and don’t give up or get discouraged in our efforts.

Try to look at your efforts through the eyes of God.

If I’ve learned anything in my motherhood, it’s that His perspective brings so much peace. We may not always understand it, but we can always offer up our confusion and worries to Him. He wants to take them and console you. He has a plan for it all. Our job is to trust Him with it.

Again, your efforts are bearing fruit.

As mothers we have to trust that. Even as we figure out what expressing our Faith in this season of life looks like, we have to trust that God takes all of the interruptions and brain fog and makes our offerings whole. Even as we stare at our child in disbelief and wonder if anything that we are trying to teach is sticking, we have to trust that God is forming His heart.

Most moms trying to form themselves and their children well aren’t failing spiritually.

The problem is that, most of the time, moms are reacting to what’s going around them instead of responding with intention. We are so caught up in the joys and struggles of the day to day that we end up living in reaction mode instead of trusting that God is taking all that we are doing to form our children and bringing forth fruit from it in its right time.

This comes from intentional prayer. Sometimes the most faithful thing a mother can do is create one small place in the day to return to God, stay focused on Him, work on that trust and your relationship with Him, and let that be enough for now.

Read More Here: Responding with Intention Instead of Reaction

If staying focused on God feels especially difficult right now because your days feel chaotic or reactive, I created a free guide to help you gently anchor your day — without rigid schedules or unrealistic expectations. It’s designed for mothers in the thick of ordinary life who want calmer, more grounded days rooted in faith. (Note: This is currently getting re-worked to be even more encouraging and useful to you!)

Get it Here: Anchoring Your Day in Faith

Things to remember:

Your efforts matter. Getting back up and returning to faith-filled practices matters. Not all practices are for all seasons. There are some things that must be done consistently (like going to Sunday Mass), but there are so many other beautiful devotions and practices that are just not realistic in all seasons of motherhood — and that’s okay. You’re not behind. You’re forming your children slowly and faithfully.If you’re in a season where you’re ready for a little more support, The Intentional Day Blueprint was created as a next layer.

It isn’t a rigid schedule or a “do it all” plan. It’s a gentle framework that helps you shape your days around what matters most — faith, family, and the responsibilities God has actually given you in this season, so you can stay focused on God without burning out.
Many moms use it when they’re craving just enough structure to bring peace to their days, without the pressure to do things perfectly.

You can explore The Intentional Day Blueprint here if it feels like a helpful next step for you.