The Good Things: Seeing God’s Work in Our Hearts and Homes
“In short, there are a lot of good things going on in that home of yours.” I stared at my phone’s screen, tears gathering in my eyes before I could stop them. It had been a tough day of parenting, and I didn’t realize how much I needed this encouragement from a neighborhood mom until I received it.
Never have I felt more weak, helpless, and incompetent than I have as a mom, and too often, these feelings begin to color the way that I see every mistake or win in parenting.
But this text message was a light-in-the-darkness type of moment, because my neighbor saw what I’m not always able to: regardless of my perception, regardless of the tough moments, good things—miraculous things!—are happening in my home through God’s sanctifying, gospel growth in me.
Motherhood in the Middle
As Christians, we sometimes forget that we parent between two realities: one which has already been realized (Jesus is alive!) and one yet to come (the perfection of heaven).
On the one hand, we parent in the reality that Jesus is alive! Because of Christ’s atoning sacrifice and resurrection from the dead, and because we trust in this Christ, sin no longer has any ownership over our lives.[1] We cannot lose sight of this truth because of the hope that it brings: thanks to the Holy Spirit inside of us, we now have the ability to do what is right and good in the sight of God. Whether we are noticing ingratitude during long work weeks, impatience during challenging seasons of discipleship, or fear after a miscarriage or scary diagnosis, we live with the enduring hope that these struggles do not control us or define us—Christ’s resurrection does.
On the other hand, we parent in the reality that we are works in progress, longing for the perfection of heaven. Sin is defeated—praise God!—but we still live in a world and in bodies plagued by sin.[2] Do you feel this like I do? I’ll commit to patience during the dinnertime rush only to lose my cool before it even starts. Or I’ll pledge less time on social media only to find myself scrolling in my free time and drowning in comparisons. No matter how hard we try, we are unable to achieve perfection in our own power, but we’re designed this way.
The tension of gospel growth is that God has set us free from sin[3]—thanks be to Christ!—but we don’t always live like it.[4]
The beauty of gospel growth is that—thanks be to Christ!—we will continually grow in grace until our perfection in God’s presence.
Believing moms, if we have Christ, then we have God’s sanctifying, gospel-growing power at work within us for everyone who lives in and enters our homes to see.
Seeing Rightly
While we may believe the doctrine of gospel growth, though, the challenge comes when we can’t see forward movement in our homes or in our lives. We forget that we’re still sinners daily in need of a Savior, and we forget that we’ll struggle with sin on this earth. Suddenly, all we can see is how we fall short, and gospel growth is hidden from our sight:
The kids are finally sound asleep in their beds, after a full afternoon of fun? All I can see is the moment I raised my voice. I am a failure as a parent.
I’m reminiscing with my kids about that snow day a couple of years back? I only remember that I went inside after thirty minutes. Why didn’t I just enjoy those moments?
My oldest is resistant to discussing Jesus with me? Surely this is something I’ve caused within her. How could I have messed this up?
We forget to see the blessings of nighttime kisses and warm, snuggly beds; We forget to see the beauty of holding hands in the snow; We forget to see the impact of countless memorized verses, family devotionals, and relentless prayers made for our children. We forget to see all of the good.
Our vision easily becomes blurred and self-focused when we stare too long at our failures and not long enough at Christ and his truth. Where we fix our eyes is important, and this is why the writer of Hebrews exhorts his readers to keep their eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of their faith.[5] Here is the promise in this passage: what Christ has started, Christ will perfect—until we see him face to face in glory.
Bitter Sin, Sweet Christ
Puritan Thomas Watson once declared, “Until sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.” How often do we recognize the evidence of bitter sin in our lives without also recognizing the evidence of Christ’s sweetness? How often do we mistake hatred of our sin as condemnation from God, as opposed to proof of the Holy Spirit’s gospel growth in us?
Believing mom, as my neighbor encouraged me, so I encourage you: “In short, there are a lot of good things going on in that home of yours.” Every single day, you are a walking display of Christ’s defeat of death, God’s forgiveness, and the Spirit’s continued work in your heart. Gospel goodness and growth is whole-life evident: in your weakness, in your tears of repentance, in your dependence on the Lord, in your slow-but-sure transformation into Christlikeness.[6] Good things are happening in your home because God is at work in you.
With this assurance, we can live each day knowing that God hasn’t given up on us or forgotten us. And when sin threatens to capture our gaze, we can heed Scripture’s call to keep our eyes on Jesus—for it is he who began the gospel growth within us, and it is he who will finish it.
[1] Rom. 6:6-7
[2] Rom. 7:24-25
[3] Rom. 6:22-23
[4] Rom. 7:21-23
[5] Heb. 12:2
[6] 2 Cor. 12:8-10; 2 Cor. 3:18
