Greetings fellow Mommies on a Mission! I hope you have rested well this week because it's time to dig into the evidence surrounding our third clue comparing mommyhood to being a missionary! Are you ready? Get out your gadgets and let's get to work! (If you've missed the previous posts in this series, check them out here and here!)

Clue #3: Bringing the Gospel to an Unreached People

This may come as a shock so brace yourself: our children were not born knowing the Gospel and therefore, are sinners. Is that a new realization to you? I admit that when I heard that for the first time, I was rocked back on my heels. The common understanding in our culture today is that babies are born pure and untainted and it is what happens to them or what they are exposed to that corrupts them. But that isn't what the Bible says!

Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Psalm 51:5 NIV

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
Romans 5:12-13 ESV

John MacArthur, in his commentary on this passage in Romans, states, "Adam passed to all his descendants the inherent sinful nature he possessed because of his first disobedience. That nature is present from the moment of conception (Psalm 51:5), making it impossible for man to live in a way that pleases God".

It's difficult to look at our new little babies and understand that they are sinful but the Bible says that they are (and, by the way, so were we when we were born!). So what does that mean to us as their mommies? Quite simply, it means that we are to be God's missionary to them. We are responsible to be the ones to teach our children in the ways of God according to His Word as instructed in Deuteronomy 6:6-9 ESV:

6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

As I mentioned, this is probably the most intimidating evidence of all that we are called to be missionaries in our own homes. We can tend to think of missionaries as those who go off far away to share the Gospel but we are called as missionaries right into our own homes, into our little one's bedroom down the hall, and at the breakfast table each morning. If we ask God to help us think of our calling as mommies in this light, I believe our perspectives and awareness will be continually refocused on what God calls us to be as mommies.

Does the idea of bringing the Gospel to your children intimidate you? Share your thoughts and fears!




My website: http://www.taramcclenahan.com
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