Jessica Oyelowo Releases New Album, Emphasizes the Goodness of Motherhood
By Movieguide® Contributor
Actress and Singer Jessica Oyelowo recently released a storybook album, (M)other centered around motherhood and the lessons she has learned though Jesus.
“I became a mama young; I married very young,” Oyelowo told The Christian Post. “I was still working. I’m an actress. I’m a Christian. So I’ve always had this feeling of otherness – this feeling of being a little different than other people. I always wanted to call it (the album) Mother, and it occurred to me as we were writing the album that I am other, and every mother feels that way at some point in her life.”
Oyelowo’s album explores the blessings and extreme fulfillment that becoming a mother is, without ignoring the struggles of motherhood as well.
“You’ve never felt love like this. It’s a different kind of love than you could ever have for anyone else,” she said. “The children that we love, that children that we birth, the children that we adopt, the children that we nurture, the neighbor’s kids, our nieces and nephews, the way that we mother I the world provides us with a sense of love that I have never experienced before util I had my own children and nieces and nephews and the various kids that kind of populate my house.”
She recognizes that she could not have been a great mother if it were not for her relationship with Jesus. The love she received from Jesus allowed her to pour out into her kids despite how drained or frustrated she may have felt.
“I’m not capable of separating my spiritual life from any part of my life. Jesus is everything,” she said. “So everything flows, and every other aspect of my life has to be reconciled within that part of me because that’s everything.”
“So if everything is His, I’m a steward of everything I have in this life. My being – I’m a steward of this temple. I’m a steward of the possessions that we have and any money we have,” she added.
An example of Oyelowo’s resignation to God comes from her approach to the number of kids she had.
“We hadn’t planned out how many children we were going to have. We just kept praying. And He kept saying have another one. So we did. They don’t belong to us,” she explained.
“God loves my children far more than I love my children. He is far more interested in their future than I am. He’s far more interested in all the blessings that He has for them than that I could ever give them. So I’m very careful to just trust and obey and go for it,” she continued.
Oyelowo and her husband have four children together, however, they have also gone through the pain of miscarriage multiple times, an experience that she touches upon in her album.
“I was very angry with God where I was weeping my heart out and just said, ‘How can you understand what it’s like to be a woman? Jesus, You are a man. You never had a baby. You don’t know what it is to feel this. How can you understand?’” she said. “And I felt His physical presence, and He said, ‘Jesse, I do understand. I lose children every day.’”
“I am so sorry. Of course, you do. Of course you understand what I’m going through. You’re not a man that should be mocked. I’m sorry,” Oyelowo recalled saying.
“It was like He was my mother in that moment, and wrapped me in His arms and told me that He understands, as a mother does, and it changed my relationship with God profoundly,” she continued. “It changed my perspective on motherhood profoundly because I realized that. God isn’t just a Father. He is like a mother, and He describes Himself that way in Scripture multiple times.”
“His love for us is so nurturing and so kind, and I hadn’t fully realized how kind He was until I lost that baby,” she added.
Alongside (M)other, Oyelowo is launching a podcast; “(M)otherness. The show will feature influential women who will share their unique perspective and stories on what it means to them to be a mother.
Jessica is married to Hollywood star David Oyelowo, who has had major roles in movies such as THE WATER MAN, SELMA, and QUEEN OF KATWE.
Together they started the production company, Yoruba Saxon Productions, where they focus on pro-family entertainment.
A portion of Movieguide®’s review of THE WATER MAN reads:
THE WATER MAN follows a family facing hardships. Gunner is a very bright young man, who loves to read and do research. When his mother, Mary, gets sick, he longs to help and learn more about her disease. When Gunner finds out about a man with eternal life, he believes the man can help his mother. Gunner and his father, Amos, are not seeing eye-to-eye and can’t seem to get along, which may have to do with his mother’s illness. A troubled girl named Jo tells Gunner about a man who has eternal life. With her help, Gunner runs away into the mountains to find the Water Man.
THE WATER MAN is an entertaining movie with a strong script and great acting. THE WATER MAN has a strong Christian, moral worldview about staying hopeful through tribulations. There’s also a prayer in the name of Jesus and conversations about Heaven and eternal life. THE WATER MAN does have some scary scenes, especially for very young children, and light but minimal foul language. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for children for THE WATER MAN.
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