By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Assistant Editor Sunday, May 10, 2026

For many women, Mother’s Day is complicated.

Alongside the flowers, social media tributes and family celebrations are the realities countless women face: grief over a child lost, exhaustion from caregiving, strained relationships or the feeling of never quite measuring up.

Jennie Lusko, pastor, author and co-founder of Fresh Life Church, understands that tension intimately.

Ahead of Mother’s Day, the Montana-based mother-of-five spoke to The Christian Post about grief, rest and God’s faithfulness in suffering, themes that shape her upcoming devotionalFresh Mercies Every Day, releasing June 2. 

For Lusko, the subject matter is deeply personal. In 2012, she and her husband, Pastor Levi Lusko, experienced the death of their 5-year-old daughter, Lenya, suddenly following an asthma attack just days before Christmas, a tragedy that reshaped her understanding of faith and motherhood.

“I think when you go through the darkest days … you realize you have nothing,” Lusko told CP. “There was no way I was going to walk through it without God, without His kindness, without His love, without His strength.”

Lusko said she wrote the book, a floral-filled 40-day devotional filled with personal reflections, photos and prayers, for women feeling the pressure of raising children, managing households, serving others and trying to maintain spiritual vitality in a world that rarely slows down.

“We can get so distracted,” she said. “Even this morning, I woke up and had like 10 things I needed to do, and I was like, ‘I don’t even know where to start.’ First things first: start with God.”

Lusko, who, with her husband, hosts the "Hey! It’s the Luskos" podcast, emphasized the spiritual significance of the mundane: changing diapers, helping with homework, sitting in traffic or folding laundry. Modern culture, she said, often celebrates dramatic milestones and viral moments, but faith is usually formed in the small, seemingly insignificant moments. 

“There’s actually so much purpose in the mundane,” she said. “That’s literally what our life is made of, the little seemingly insignificant moments. God's in those, and so if we can see what He's doing in the midst, then it brings life and brightness to what His purpose is for us every day.”

That perspective was forged, in part, through profound suffering.

Lusko, who shares Alivia, Daisy, Clover and a son, Lennox, with her husband, recalled the shock of losing Lenya, whom the family affectionately called “Lenya Lion,” in December of 2012. One moment they were wrapping Christmas presents together; the next, their daughter was dead.

“She was here with us … and then she was just in Heaven with Jesus,” Lusko said.

Looking back at photographs from that season, the speaker and author said she still struggles to understand how she and her husband managed to survive emotionally while caring for their other young children, all under 8 years old at the time. 

“There are photos with our little kids where we’re smiling and playing with them, and I was not feeling that,” she said. “It’s His peace that passes understanding. … It was one little step at a time, one little breath at a time, even, and one second at a time when, when it felt like that weight of grief was going to just totally just kill us.”

For grieving mothers, particularly around Mother’s Day, Lusko reflected on the importance of showing up for the day ahead, even when it feels like there's nothing left to give.

“Just show up and let God show up for you,” she said. “That has been something for me that has been so huge. You're going to come to your day and just be like, ‘I have nothing. I am empty. I have nothing to give. I'm hurting. I'm aching.’ The only way that we can truly love and give and serve and be who God's called us to be in the midst of it is if we rest in Him, surrender and show up to the day.”

The devotional includes practical rhythms Lusko uses in her own life: setting aside her phone in the mornings, physically turning away from household distractions while praying, and even taking what she jokingly called “holy smoke breaks,”  brief moments to step outside, breathe and ask God for patience before returning to the chaos of motherhood.

“I’m about to flesh out and yell and not be a good mom,” she said with a laugh, describing moments of exhaustion. “I need Your help in this situation.”

Rest, Lusko added, is crucial to spiritual health, citing Psalm 23, which reads, in part, “He makes me lie down in green pastures.”

“God is our Good Shepherd. He knows exactly what we need. He knows that we need rest … I think sometimes, especially as moms, we need to be made to lie down. We need to be made just to take a moment, take a breath, and then get up and keep going.”

Unlike much of the aspirational messaging often aimed at mothers, Lusko rejected the idea that faith requires pretending everything is fine: “We want life to be good,” she said, “but so often it’s the good and the hard that come together.”

On Mother’s Day, Lusko hopes women who feel weary or unseen will remember that they're not alone in their struggles and that God remains present even in seasons that feel spiritually dry or emotionally overwhelming.

“What I love is that God is all about the details of our lives,” she said. “He wants to meet us there in those things.”

Fresh Mercies Every Dayreleases June 2. 

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/jennie-lusko-opens-up-about-daughters-death-finding-hope-in-god.html