For those of you who are not familiar with Risen Motherhood, you are in for a treat. Their aspirations are simply stated, but profound: according to their website, Risen Motherhood “exists to encourage, equip, and challenge moms to apply the gospel to their everyday lives.” Their primary avenues of ministry have been an excellent podcast and blog, but this fall the founders, Emily Jensen and Laura Wifler, have added a book you won’t want to miss.
Risen Motherhood- Gospel Hope for Everyday Moments demonstrates how the gospel matters to moms. In their words,” understanding the gospel… is the key to getting your faith and daily life out of two separate boxes and intertwining them into one big expression of worship.” In the first section of the book, Jensen and Wifler define four key elements of the gospel: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation. For the rest of the book, they will use these four elements to pose questions and apply the gospel to the circumstances of everyday life:
Creation: Because God designed literally everything and is the “main character” in the narrative history of this world, how did He intend His creation to exist and thrive, and how does it still reflect who He is?
Fall: Through Adam and Eve’s sin, our world is broken. How does sin permeate our lives and what are its effects in my situation?
Redemption: This is where the gospel really teaches us how to throw off the sin nature: “What do I need to repent of in this situation? How does my freedom from sin empower me to obey God and adhere to his original design? How can I steward this situation or relationship in a way that honors God and is a means of evangelism or discipleship?”
Consummation: Wifler and Jensen encourage us to examine how our hope of heaven impacts how we live today, in the midst of temper tantrums and stomach bugs and sullen teenagers.
With that template, the authors examine thirteen different aspects of motherhood and demonstrate how we can live in light of the gospel. Covering topics as varied as marriage, traditions, postpartum body image, and parenting children with differences, the book allows readers to see these four areas applied in practice. The authors get down into the nitty-gritty reality of mom life; the chapter entitled, “The Gospel and Our Mundane Moments” examines how the gospel helps us think about laundry.
Creation: Thinking of Eden, much of the work Adam and Eve were originally given was likely mundane, but there was order and dignity in naming the animals, as there is in sorting socks.
Fall: Sin has tainted the mundane, causing us to shun the routine and chase the extraordinary.
Redemption: Jesus lived thirty years in ordinary obscurity – yet sinless, for our sake – and then spent three years in the most extraordinary ministry the world has ever known.
Consummation: “Like Adam and Eve in Eden, we’ll do purposeful, good, even mundane work – all for God’s glory.”
This wonderful new resource from the editors of Risen Motherhood is honest and practical as well as theologically rich. Best of all, Wifler and Jensen encourage our faith in the power of Christ to permeate and redeem our difficult and broken lives in our homes and hearts, where it matters most. Truly the gospel can transform the everyday lives of mothers into a beautifully redemptive season of raising children.
