When I recently reentered blogging world I was introduced to this outrageously funny book at a time when I needed something that could make me laugh, and it did just that. I honestly don’t know how it happened other than by God’s grace, but I became a part of a launch group for this book, Same here, Sisterfriend, by a hometown girl, Holly Mackle (that’s her photographed below, by the way).
What I most appreciate about Holly, and her book, is that through the laughter and the misadventure we women are able to go back to a place where the things that don’t matter no longer matter. It’s not about how you became a Mama or if you had a c-section or why you breastfed or who feeds their kid a strictly vegan diet or how you amazingly potty-trained your child before age two, is it? We are all just doing the best we can, and are blessed to be called Mama. Right, sisterfriend?
When I asked Holly how she typically introduces herself to people she said that she first lets it sink in that her name is precariously close to “Holy Mackerel!” But after she gets the head tilt and a giggle she knows that the bad joke, also known as her name, will sink in. So join me in learning a little more about Holly and this fantastic summer read, Same here, Sisterfriend.
What has made your motherhood journey unique in some way?
These two crazy, unique little misfits are what makes it that way for me—both through parenting their sin patterns (that so often mirror mine) and encouraging their unique expressions of God’s character and glory. It was life-changing for me when I realized that I’m the only one in the whole world with the tools in her toolbox to mother these two in the way God wants them to be mothered, and that makes me one in a zillion. I love to reflect on God’s specific choosing of me to be their mama and the two of them to be my daughters. We’ve each been uniquely created for many purposes—but one of my personal favorites is to be their mama.
How did Same Here, Sisterfriend begin in the first place?
I’ve been in a book club for several years now, and as the members transitioned into motherhood fewer and fewer of us were actually reading the book. We just kept getting together because we needed the camaraderie and the laughter. But this one magical time someone picked a humor book and everyone read. It was the craziest thing and it got me thinking, so this book really started as an experiment—I wanted to see if some of the funniest and most talented women I’ve ever met could write humor that was essentially good clean fun. I wanted victimless humor, that didn’t dishonor God or our belief systems, but that was at its core as hilarious and real as possible.
There are women writing articles and pieces and even books that are both great fun and theologically sound, but comparatively speaking, there just aren’t that many of them in the marketplace compared to secular female humorists, and I wasn’t buying it that they didn’t exist in the church. I just have too many friends who love BOTH their Bibles and a perfectly-timed Mary Katherine Gallagher impersonation.
So I asked a few of my favorite friends and writers what they thought and the craziest ones jumped onboard!
Who or what makes you laugh the most?
My husband is really funny, and he keeps me laughing. And maybe my most favorite thing right now is watching my girls’ senses of humor develop. (Though you won’t hear any complaints from me once we’re past the knock-knock joke phase…) But one of my favorite things has always been to sit in a room with a group of women I care about and just crack each other up.
What is something about motherhood that has made you strong in Christ?
I hadn’t experienced this complete emptying of self until I had kids. There’s an extreme end-of-yourselfness that I am led to believe only happens once you’re responsible for the life of a tiny, helpless person, and you feel incapable of making even the smallest decisions because they all seem like a huge thing. I found myself at the feet of Jesus in ways I never had before after my first daughter was born, and I still reflect back on that time with a variety of emotions, but one of them is definitely gratitude. It is a fearsome thing to experience so vividly that there is a God in charge of all life and you are not Him.
What is something that the Lord has taught you lately that you’d like to share with others?
God is using the feedback on this book to show me just how very similar we are as women and moms. We have so many of the same fears, desires, struggles, and heartbreaks, and evil’s primary tactic is this isolation construct that strives to make each and every one of us believe we are alone and that everyone else is great and has it all together. Real friendship is powerful in this battle, and we need to have each other’s backs. My very best friends fight for me, and I want to be the kind of friend that fights for them too—reminding us that we’re not alone, there is no temptation that is not common to man, and that none of this is accidental, but rather our stories are created and written by the hand of a kind and loving God.
Because as much as we can be tempted to think that, as moms, the highest priority is that we have it together, here's the real-live truth: it's way more important that we have each other. - from Same Here, Sisterfriend
Same Here, Sisterfriend can be ordered on Amazon, because I know you have a Prime account, (on sale!) following any of these links (like here) throughout this post.
