Many of us feel a disconnect between our Sunday-morning faith and our Monday-morning mom life. We wonder how hymns, prayers, and Bible reading intersect school lunches, footie pajamas, and full-blown, on-the-ground, tear-filled tantrums. We have our Christian faith, and then we have real life. The church and the Bible feel outdated—good for Sundays and nostalgia, but that’s about it.
But these two aspects of life are part of a bigger story, a cosmic battle, even when we can’t see it. It’s a bit like being downstairs quietly washing dishes, listening to music and humming along, while upstairs the kids are in a Nerf gun battle, shooting things off shelves, jumping on beds, and practicing their parkour moves. We feel like time is quietly passing, but in reality, an epic war is raging right over our heads. Only the sounds of furniture bouncing and ceiling joists shaking cause us to look up with wonder.
We admit, amid diaper changes, babysitting swaps, and bill paying, this cosmic reality is hard to fathom. That’s why it’s so easy to put faith and life in separate boxes. But really, our faith and life should be woven together, inseparable. Like Play-Doh in the carpet threads, it’s impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins. But to do that, we must understand the story we’re in and the role we play. We must know it from the beginning to the end.
This story is commonly known as the gospel. The gospel is the good news that God sent his Son, Jesus, to save sinners by his sacrifice, making a way for them to have eternal life with God. That’s the shorthand version, but there’s so much more to know and understand.
Many years have passed since the first sin, but moms still endure life under the curse. We’re used to battles of every kind—battles with sweaty kids who don’t want to get back into the car, battles with other moms over the right snacks to feed our children, battles with our never-ending laundry pile, battles with the bills that come month after month. And we battle deeper, harder things too—the empty womb, the anger in our hearts that feels impossible to control, the sour marriage, the selfish spirit, the empty bank account, and the wayward child. We feel stuck in a world much like Narnia under the White Witch’s rule—“Always winter but never Christmas.”
Just like the mom washing the dishes in peace and quiet, not realizing the Nerf gun battle raging on the second floor, we see the light fixture shake and sense that something is wrong. The echoes of concern stir our souls, causing us to second-guess our reality. But Satan makes every effort to distract us, conceal the real battle, and lead us off course. We’re duped into thinking we can figure out how to save ourselves… or maybe just survive by making ourselves a little more comfortable for a time. So we tweak our routines, fix our outward behavior, or find a crutch to lean on, but nothing lasts.
This is where the gospel meets everyday life.
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Emily Jensen and Laura Wifler are the authors of Risen Motherhood, cofounders of the Risen Motherhood ministry, and cohosts of the chart-topping podcast. They are also in the trenches of motherhood, right alongside their readers. With a combination of accessibility, relatability, and solid biblical knowledge, Emily and Laura have a knack for simplifying complex scriptural truths, relating and applying them to everyday life. God has consistently and powerfully used the voices of these two moms to captivate women around the world with the gospel. As sisters-in-law, Emily and Laura both live in central Iowa with their families.
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