A Gospel Goodbye
Dear Risen Motherhood Community,
This letter feels like when you’re saying goodbye to friends from out of state you don’t see very often and aren’t sure how to end your time together. You don’t know when you’re going to see them again and the goodbye is sad and hard, but at the same time, you don’t want to make it awkward by crying or over-dramatizing it—nobody died! So you give big hugs and smiles, and you wave them off in the van and say, “Have a safe trip!” but the unspoken reality is that it might be a long time before you’re together again.
After 260+ podcast episodes and nearly ten years of sharing about the gospel and motherhood, it’s hard to know how to say goodbye—how to go out. This is sad and hard. It feels like the end of an era. R|M has defined a lot of our time and our work in this season of life, and we’ll always look back and remember it fondly. We want to say goodbye but also leave it on a note of joy and blessing, because even though this is sad, a “gospel goodbye” is different from a regular one.
A gospel goodbye means we’re all still part of the same family and kingdom, even when we’re not together in person or participating in the same ministry. It’s one where we trust God to continue his good work, even in our absence. We trust that there’s even greater joy awaiting us, and someday we’ll see and celebrate God’s completed work and the fruit of what Christ accomplished through this. And we sure hope that one day, after Christ returns, we get to meet all of YOU and talk about how we were all blessed.
As we go, we want to pass the baton to you. Because though we’re saying goodbye to the formal ministry of R|M, the concept of Risen Motherhood—doing motherhood in light of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ—lives on in all of you. We hope and pray that you’ll start mom groups in your communities and local churches, gathering to talk about the Scriptures and troubleshoot your questions in light of Truth. (And bonus: you’ll still have all the Risen Motherhood published works to help guide the way!) We hope and pray that you’ll continue to lend your ear to wise voices and resources who are encouraging you in a biblical version of motherhood. We hope and pray that you’ll stay rooted in a local church and prioritize growth in the Word of God. And we especially hope you’ll keep sharing the gospel with your children!
Thankfully, R|M was never up to us anyway. It was the result of God working through his Spirit by the power of his gospel. Each and every time someone was impacted, R|M served only as a conduit for the real source of life and transformation. Though our work in this online space is coming to an end, God’s work is going strong, and he will complete all that he started and do abundantly more than we could ever imagine. We believe that he is still at work in each of you, transforming you into the image of his Son and sending you out to be a light in your family and the world.
That awkward goodbye? Let’s skip it. Just imagine we’re pulling you in for a quick blessing before you hop in the car and head on your way. Here’s what we’d say:
“May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).
See you sooner than you think!
Love,
Emily & Laura
P.S. Come find us on our personal platforms! You can find Emily on her website and Instagram, and here’s Laura’s website, company The KidLit Lab (where she helps you write your children’s picture book), and Instagram.
