Saturday, May 14, 2011

The Gospel for Moms

Last week, on a rough day, I emailed the friends with whom I pray on Tuesday nights. Nothing terrible had happened to make it a rough day; I simply found myself in the sadly familiar place of despising the work set before me, and then despising myself for not enjoying motherhood or finding delight in God.

One of my friends responded by preaching the gospel to me, and her words were such an encouragement to me that I got her permission to share them here:
I'm thinking out loud here...The cross, the cross. How does the gospel apply? Double imputation. [Our sin was put on Christ, and His righteousness, meriting the Father's perfect love and favor, was put on us--so we are loved perfectly because we are in Christ!] The promised perfect love of the Father—All He asks of us, as wives, as moms, is shrouded under the assured umbrella of, ‘Because I love you…’ It is good for us, because He only does good, and promises all works together for our good (our being conformed to the image of His Son, who sacrificed His all for us). Motherhood is an opportunity to partake in the sufferings of our Lord--in a very small sense of the word, we would admit--but it does involve sacrifice, a dying to the things we’d rather do, the way we’d rather have it…

I want to know Christ [really know?] and the power of his resurrection [this sounds good] and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings [hmm… put in the context of motherhood, etc.—those places that really challenge and stretch me], becoming like him in his death [Paul, I’m still getting here, when I really think about what that might mean. Spirit, patiently grow me in this direction.]... Philippians 3:10

Double imputation, again. When I reflect upon that reality, that truth, I’m drawn towards surrendering as I remember the selfless, infinite, and undeserving love of my Lord for me. Impress this deep within my heart, so that when I’m inclined to murmur, I instead choose glad surrender for Christ’s sake, as an opportunity to say, “Thank you, Lord. I love you—because you first loved me. Grow in me a desire to be stretched beyond my self, for Your name’s sake. Amen.”
My sweet friend doesn't have a blog, or I would certainly point you there...but I hope her wise, gospel-saturated words are an encouragement to other weary and sinful mamas today.

2 comments:

Anna said...

They definitely are. Thank you to your friend.

Ashley said...

I totally had "one of those days" yesterday..which put me in a foul mood right before worship! Thank you for sharing this, Amy.