Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from “Mercy in the Margin,” a devotional book by Chelsey DeMatteis, coming from B&H Publishing in August.
And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.’” Mark 16:15
One of the greatest missions we’ve been given as mothers is to be the heart of our homes. It’s where we get to live out our faith in its fullness. We get to show our children the highs and lows of walking faithfully with Jesus. It gets messy. It’s a mission filled with human emotions and missed opportunities. Still, it’s the only opportunity for our children to watch how their mothers choose Jesus over and over their entire lives.
When I think of my whole life up to this point and having my first decade of motherhood under my belt, and watching seasoned moms walk the road ahead of me, I see how the terrain of our mission field changes. Motherhood, most especially, shifts, twists and pulls us in new directions daily. It puts us in new places and in front of new faces regularly. It’s a mission the starts side by side and most often ends in giving encouragement from miles apart.
Jesus tells us, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel…”. I can’t think of a better way or anything of higher honor to do that rather than being able to show up fully and authentically in motherhood. I don’t mean by showing up perfectly by worldly standards; I mean showing up as you are. Whether that be happy, exhausted, weary, filled with joy, or washed over in grief. When we show up authentically in the places God has us, it gives meaning to one’s faith in Jesus. It adds flesh to the bones of living surrendered to the will of God and shows the reality that we need our Savior. We need Him in the little years, the tween years, the teen years, and the years when our children are paving their way (hopefully tethered to Jesus) through the world.
I believe that the mission field of a mother leaves generations changed forever. This season, it may look like your mission field is at the church, school, baseball field, basketball court, recital, graduations, college visits, wedding showers, or maybe all those places simultaneously. Wherever it is, show Jesus there and look to Jesus to fill you up as you walk forward faithfully in those places.
Take His love, grace, conviction, and mercy into any room you walk in. Remembering that it is a gift from Jesus Himself that we have the opportunity to pour out what He pours into us. Will we get this right every single time? No. But should we desire to be mission-minded in a way that challenges us to use motherhood as more than only an avenue to bless our homes? Yes. We can, and we should.
When Jesus commissioned believers over 2,000 years ago, I love that it didn’t come with a specific role or title you needed to hold. It came with one non-negotiable: to follow Jesus and two actions: GO and TELL. That was it. Simply put, we, moms, can do this.
Motherhood has a beautiful way of forcing us to get comfortable with this calling, too. As our children age up, our world naturally expands and so do the hopes of our hearts for our children – we go from a newborn nursery to the neighborhood library to the school down the street to the gymnastics class on the other side of town to the summer camp a few states away to the college dorm room where suddenly we’re reminding our kids that “they were made for this same mission,” too. God has prepared them, in the same way He has us, and now we get to watch them flourish into who He has called them to be.
Honestly, our missions may not look like traveling across the globe, but this mission – your mission – is undoubtedly full of crossing the terrains of the many hearts in front of you. The new environments and people you meet along the way are all part of God’s great plan of calling you to go and tell. Because we’re goers by default, living on mission as a mom means we can simply use the places we are and the places we’re headed to be tellers, too. Goers and tellers with gospel intentions, no matter where we are.
This going and telling can look like speaking Scriptural encouragement over a friend who is crying on our couch dealing with an unfathomable loss. It could mean asking good questions to the new family at the gymnastics class, inviting them to church, or simply asking them over for dinner. It could look like opening our own hearts and homes to fostering or adoption – or making a meal for a family who is doing this. It could be letting our actions reveal our followership of Jesus over time – making way for someone to experience the love of God before they are ready to walk with Him.
On other days, it could look like verbalizing the Gospel to our child when they pose an unexpected question, encouraging their teacher or coaches with hand-written prayers, or sharing spiritual insights during a book club with neighborhood moms. The examples are endless, but the point is this: God has allowed motherhood to give us a farther reach and an incredible ability to connect at a more profound heart level with people. Our mission field is vast, wider than we can imagine, and more impactful than we could ever expect. What a gift, what mercy.
While you journey out your Gospel mission well, listen to those who have walked before you with intention, be the seasoned mom willing to share what lies ahead, and most of all, Mama, go and tell the world that you follow Jesus through the way you love, lead, and live on a mission.
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FIRST-PERSON: Doctrinal fidelity without methodological conformity 
The Authority of the Bible Calvinism ~ Southern Baptist Perspectives Male and Female ~ Made in the Image of God 
‘But seriously folks’: Humor’s role in pulpit assessed 
Bible Study: God fulfills His promises The Church ~ Considering Congregational Polity The Salvation of the ‘Little Ones’
