Also by this author: Any Time, Any Place, Any Prayer: A True Story of How You Can Talk With God, Any Time, Any Place, Any Prayer Board Book: We Can Talk with God
Published by Harvest House Publishers on October 15, 2024
Genres: Non-Fiction
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Emily A. Jensen and Laura Wifler, bestselling authors of Risen Motherhood [over 150,000 copies sold], show moms how to navigate their everyday decisions and current circumstances through a biblical lens, and experience the freedom and confidence in who God made them to be.
If there’s one thing moms love, it’s a formula. Give us the three-step process, the instruction manual, the straightforward solution for how to mother with excellence and we’ll give it our best shot.
But we all know motherhood isn’t that simple. Each decision seems to present a thousand overwhelming options, or our circumstances suddenly change and we can’t keep up with “the plan,” or we see another mom making different choices and begin to doubt our own.
All of this leaves us questioning our decision-making in motherhood.
So how can we find a secure identity in motherhood and know we’re “good” before the throne of God? By understanding the gospel story and how all of scripture applies to our lives. We need more than just to know what to do.
We need to know who to be.Join Emily and Laura as together you explore what it truly means to be a gospel mom, a woman who is renewed by Christ’s righteousness, knows her mission and purpose, and lives free from guilt and unhealthy comparison.
As friends, fellow moms, and expert guides, Emily and Laura walk you step-by-step through the practices and thinking of how to rest in the grace of Christ, gaining peace and assurance in your motherhood.
In this book, the founders of the Risen Motherhood ministry share insight into how mothers can apply the gospel to their daily lives. Emily A. Jensen and Laura Wifler explain that even though mothers naturally look towards other people for guidance, there’s no way to possibly keep up with or implement the advice of friends, parents, influencers, and experts, especially since so much of it is conflicting and comparison-based. They encourage mothers to stop looking for a checklist or rubric to make sure they’re doing things correctly, and to depend on God in everyday life as they make decisions for their families.
The authors provide helpful perspectives for how mothers can make sense of their lives through the story of creation, the fall, redemption, and consummation, and they show how understanding these theological realities can give moms a framework for thinking through different issues that they face. The authors share occasional personal examples without oversharing about their families, and they describe a range of different challenging circumstances that people might be facing. I appreciate the broad range of examples they give, and I also think it’s great that they include references to parenting teenagers, since so many similar books focus only on parenting little kids.
The first third of Gospel Mom focuses on unpacking the gospel story and its implications for everyday life. After that, the authors write about spiritual disciplines and healthy habits such as friendship, rest, and media discernment. Then they dive into more specific guidance on how to make decisions. They write about considering your unique circumstances, your personal conscience, and your heart motivations, and they also address how to deal with disagreements with other moms. I appreciate their message of striving for Christian unity in the midst of disagreement on particular life management choices and parenting decisions. However, I found this book less practical than I had hoped, and I felt like the authors glossed over some tough topics.
For example, they include a passing reference to how it’s different when someone does something Scripture forbids, but they never provide guidance on pursuing or responding to an accountability conversation like that. Their sole focus is on dealing with disagreements about side issues. They explain that if someone has a strong conscience, then they are confident in their Christian liberty to do things that the Bible doesn’t expressly forbid, while someone who draws tighter boundaries has a weak conscience and needs others to bear with them in love, since it would be a sin for them to violate their conscience. This explanation is spot-on in some cases, but their broad application is reductive and seems to encourage putting labels on yourself and others.
If someone has good reasons for their stricter choices and isn’t trying to enforce them as a law upon others, why describe them as having a weak conscience? As Paul said in the quoted Bible passage, just because something is permissible doesn’t mean it’s beneficial. Also, sometimes the person who thinks they have a stronger conscience really just has lower standards, and other scenarios are genuinely neutral. The authors refer to a mother with a stronger conscience who lets her children play certain video games, but who yields to another mom’s weaker conscience when her kids come to visit, since that mom thinks the games aren’t age-appropriate. This doesn’t have to be about the strength of anyone’s conscience. Maybe the other kids get nightmares easily!
Gospel Mom: How to Make Biblical Decisions and Discover the Mom God Created You to Be is great for moms who are struggling with social pressure and are worried about making the “right” choice in everything. The authors share biblical wisdom about how you make decisions through a gospel framework and sensitivity to God’s leading in different areas of your life. Personally, the in-depth material about applying the gospel felt like basic review to me, while the practical application sections seemed oversimplified. However, I recognize that the gospel application elements will be new to many other women, and that this can book can be life-changing for them. Women who have already experienced gospel-centered discipleship may appreciate this book’s general encouragement, but I would primarily recommend this book to women who haven’t yet learned how to process their lives through the lens of the gospel.