Risen Motherhood
Emily Seck shares how reading the book, Risen Motherhood — Gospel Hope for Everyday Moments by Emily Jensen & Laura Wifler, with the Mum's Connect group has helped her see God’s purpose for her in motherhood.
About nine months ago, my life changed. My son Edward was born. With the change also came a change in my priorities. From working on Singapore's next big thing, I now stay at home all day with a new life form that I have absolutely no control over. Though he is so cute and precious, I found myself living from cycle to cycle of feed, sleep and poop, singing “Jesus Loves Me” and “Rock-a-bye Baby” countless times. In the early hours, I would be scrolling through social media, the internet, and our Babycare Bible (that’s its actual name), reading about how to interpret his different cries and finding new ideas and information on whether what I was doing was right and best for me and my child.
Where’s the gospel in all this? How can I practically live a Christ-centred life in this role of motherhood in the everyday, mundane and thankless job that’s milking out (literally) all my energy and I cannot take a break from?
This was a book we read and discussed in our Mum’s Connect group recently. The book aims to encourage, equip and challenge mums to apply the gospel to their everyday lives.
Each chapter goes through different aspects of motherhood, following the gospel pattern of creation, fall, redemption and consummation. This is done not in an empty, repetitive way, but in a direction to revive our faith and pointing our eyes back to Christ. There are discussion questions at the end of each chapter that help us to ponder and reflect on how we can apply the gospel practically.
While Scripture doesn’t have much to say about the food choices I make for breakfast, or how I view my postpartum body, or what school choice I make for my children, a deeper look reveals that the Bible actually provides the framework for finding answers to our specific questions about modern motherhood.
Through the candid sharing by the authors and identifying with the issues that they faced, it has helped us in our mums group to reflect on our own lives. It has revealed our sin, and how much we need our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Too often, instead of reorienting our standards to God’s, we look to our friends or our news feeds instead of putting our hope in Christ. We put hope in our own efforts and comforts, living for naptime, bedtime, when Daddy gets home, when we get to leave for work, or when we’ll have time to zone out on our phones. We have learnt that in order to find true lasting joy in our motherhood journey, what we need is the work of Jesus Christ.
Apart from encouraging us mothers to seek to live out the gospel, it has also challenged me to read God’s Word more. I have been encouraged to pick up and read my Bible more, and to be patient with the interruptions I face. In these times when we spend more time on Netflix, Facebook, Instagram and Whatspp more than we read our Bibles, I’m reminded that what we know today is a product of applying ourselves in the cracks of time available to us, they do add up!
I have learnt to treasure the everyday moments and see God’s purpose for me in motherhood. It has helped me to treasure relationships, treasure my marriage, deal with traditions, transitions, comparison and my choices for my child in light of the gospel. It is amazing how the gospel applies to our everyday life, bringing hope, freedom and joy. I hope this sharing encourages you to read the book, or recommend it to new or seasoned mum you know who may benefit from it!