Courtney and Amber discuss identity in Christ versus identity in motherhood and how easily we place our value in the perceived successes of our children. You’ll hear Courtney share about losing her home to Hurricane Rita, life as a mother to a child who is an addict, and the ways God has sustained her through at all.

Masquerade of Motherhood Questions Discussed:

1. (1:39) Share a little of your faith journey with us.  When did you begin walking with Jesus?
2. (9:18) You are mother to 6 and have said you spent years with your identity wrapped up in the successes and failures of motherhood.  Share a little bit of what you mean by that.
3. (16:57) What has the journey looked like of discovering you didn’t have your identity firmly rooted in Christ and how did you begin reorienting your heart and mind in Christ?
4. (20:43) You said, “My life has been a series of events each being unique and a testimony of Gods faithfulness in my life.” One of those events was losing your home to a hurricane.  How did you experience God’s faithfulness in the chaos?
5. (29:10) Another experience you are living through as a mother is the addiction of an adult son.  What has that journey been like for you and your husband?
6. (37:41) You have said, “I used to believe things happened to me, now I believe things happen for me to share how God can sustain you.” Share a little about that shift in thinking and how that has changed how you face trials.
7. (44:27) Let’s close with why you launched Courtney Doyle ministries and M.O.M. podcast?  

Masquerade of Motherhood Quotes to Remember:

Share a little of your faith journey with us.  When did you begin walking with Jesus?

“I knew there was something different about Havana and something special. She was my lifeline. She was my lifeline to prayer. Any troubles that I had, I called Havana.”

You are mother to 6 and have said you spent years with your identity wrapped up in the successes and failures of motherhood.  Share a little bit of what you mean by that.

“My first son was born whenever I was 18….My career was motherhood.”

“There was nothing else I could identify with, other than being a mother. I began to get a very skewed reality: if my kids are behaving, if they’re all dressed appropriately, if everybody’s hair is done, if we appear one way, then I appear good.”

“I began to realize that when my kids were doing really good, I was really good…And when my kids are doing really bad, well, shame on you, and what could you have done better?”

“Mary is put in the middle of it to be a vessel. But at the same time, she’s a complete bystander, she has no control over God’s will for Jesus’s life.”

“My identity is not determined by his [her son] testimony, my identity is in Jesus.”

Another experience you are living through as a mother is the addiction of an adult son.  What has that journey been like for you and your husband?

“I certainly don’t have the power or the control to navigate and point his life in the direction in which I, Courtney, want it to go. His life needs to be in the hands of Jesus. That’s the Creator, and the Maker and the Path Carver for him, not me.”

“If you could scream addiction out of somebody, I’ve done it. If you could cry addiction away, I’ve done it. There is not any amount of money that we have not been willing to spend to help him and we have spent and taken away from the other kids. I’ve done it all. It’s not what I can do. It’s what He can do.”

“I wasn’t just masking the reality of what was happening in my house, I was masking the work that Christ was doing in each one of my children, in my marriage, in me personally and He [Jesus] didn’t sign up to come to my masquerade ball.”

“I truly believe that amidst the hurricane of life, that the eye of the storm is Jesus.”

Resources Mentioned:

• Courtney Doyle Ministries
• Alpha
• Book: Victory Over Darkness by Neil Anderson

Related Episodes:

• 39: Jeannie Cunnion | Mom Set Free
• 98: Katherine James | A Son’s Addiction & A Mother’s Love
• 41: Susan Alexander Yates | Thriving in Transition