HOW MOMS CAN MODEL GOD’S GRACE by Gloria Furman for Core Christianity
Do You Need It?
Mothers have a strategic role in allowing the gospel to shape their home by expecting that we are always in need of God’s grace. Do you need God’s grace? Or do you have what it takes to multitask your busy routine? Do you need God’s grace? Or have you been “down this road before” with your husband, and your conflict will sort itself out in time? Do you need God’s grace? Or do you just need Google? Do you need God’s grace? Or do you pretty much have this motherhood gig in the bag?
If we want to give grace to our children, then first we must be willing to receive it ourselves from God.
In the midst of endless possibilities for the “we always” of our homes, there is one expectation that we are certain to meet every day, whether or not we are conscious of it: we always need God’s grace.
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As one hymn writer wrote, “All the fitness he requireth is to feel your need of him.”1 Grace is the most important thing for us to keep in mind as we shape the expectations of our home. Our children need to grow up knowing, “We always trust God because he’s willing and able to help us,” and, “We always praise God because he is our most valuable treasure.” And we need to get up every morning knowing, “I always trust God because he’s willing and able to help me.”
The gospel should shape the way we shape our home through our traditions. Does this mean that we ought to do catechisms with our children? Does this mean that we need to be more intentional about how we celebrate religious holidays? Perhaps. These are matters of personal preference.
The gospel, however, is not a matter of personal preference; it is news that is a matter of spiritual life and death. The gospel can shape our home as we mothers realize that we will not always meet the standards of excellence that we desire. If we want to give grace to our children, then we must be willing to receive it first from God. We tend to wallow in shame or scoff in cynicism over our inability to keep our hands out of the proverbial cookie dough. At some point, we will fail, and sometimes we will fall hard. Then we must boast in the gospel, because in it God mercifully gives us Christ to be our valued treasure. Things like “mommy guilt” cannot crush us because Christ was crushed on the cross in our stead. Jesus is our consistency; he fulfilled God’s highest expectations of perfection, and in him all the promises of God find their Yes (2 Cor. 1:20). In him we find mercy in our time of need—which is always.
