Ep. 165 || Before We Go Too Far Transcript
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Laura: Welcome back to another episode of Risen Motherhood. I'm Laura and I have my sister in-law, Emily, here with me.
Emily: Hello.
Laura: We're pretty excited to be back after what's felt like a very long time away.
Emily: Yes, actually, we were talking—we haven't recorded together in person since probably February.
Laura: Before...you know what hit.
[laughter]
Emily: Yes, we went through that whole season. So it's a little surreal, but also really exciting, I think this feels so normal and it's just a blessing to be back and recording and being together, so it's good.
Laura: Do you feel normal sitting in your toddler-size kid chair?
Emily: I do.
Laura: It feels pretty accurate as motherhood goes.
[laughter]
Emily: I do, because you would think that nearly five years into this that we would have created a sound studio and have a podcasting room.
Laura: We should have all that, but we don't. We're literally sitting in IKEA kid chairs and a toy table.
Emily: Yes, and I'm going to hurt when I stand up from this.
Laura: Emily always says she gets so sore after podcasting, it's because I make her sit in really weird spots.
[laughter]
Emily: All right, like you mentioned, I don't know if we've dropped the words yet on this show, but COVID-19.
Laura: It kind of feel like it's the word that we should not name.
Emily: I know.
Laura: Like something bad might happen if we say it out loud—COVID-19. It has really put everybody's lives into a tailspin and definitely ours as well. It's been a pretty crazy six months or so, probably, since the last time we recorded. I know Emily and I both got our first taste of homeschooling. Wow, that was really exciting.
Emily: Well, we had a friend who said, and I thought this was really helpful, “This is crisis-schooling.”
Laura: Yes, that was good.
Emily: I think that helped me put it into a different category because yes, we were doing school at home, but it was definitely a very reactive situation. By the time we all got home, we weren't really going out to stores and getting school supplies, the libraries were closed. So it wasn't exactly the type of situation you'd set up for yourself, if you planned on it happening, but we made it. It was such an incredible learning experience for our family and our relationships.
I think on the other side of some hard days, we are really healthy and in a better place. We went through a lot of good trials with parenting.
All in all, I would call it a really merciful, grace-filled time.
Laura That's a good perspective.
I felt like my goal, eventually when I kind of got my sea legs under me, was just to enjoy my kids and to have fun with them. If we did some schooling that was great and it was important, but it was most important that we worked on heart attitudes and development. Mostly for momma, mostly for me. We made it through and I'm really glad it's summertime and it feels like things are inching their way back to normal, but inch is the keyword!
Emily: Is there anything new, exciting, and fluffy running around downstairs?
Laura: There is. I got a puppy!
Emily: That was kind of an exciting thing that happened to you guys.
Laura: It was. And this is not a COVID puppy. I know a lot of people got puppies. I guess I heard there was a puppy boom the moment COVID hit.
Emily: We became sure we were NOT getting a puppy during COVID.
[laughter]
Laura: She saw what happened. No, he is the most wonderful thing in the whole world.
Emily: He's cute.
Laura: Oh, I just I love him. He follows me around and I love it. He adores me and it feels really good to be adored.
[laughter]
What about you? What's new? What's going on in Emily's world?
Emily: We didn't get a puppy, but we got a business.
Laura: That's a pretty big one. I'd say a little bigger than the puppy.
Emily: Yes, long before we knew a pandemic was going to happen, my husband and I were working together to open a car wash in our community and so we did that. It opened in late May, we were kind of right in the midst of it and luckily, a car wash is a very socially distant activity.
Laura: That's right it's perfect for quarantining! It's like a great activity with your kids, like, "Let's go to the car wash and check it out."
Emily: It's fun! We've been very, very busy because of that. My husband's been working a lot, but there's also a lot of neat flexibility that comes with that and the summer's been flexible. We're just enjoying the time that we're in.
Today we went to the library because our library is open for “go in and pick up your books with your mask on and leave.” And I was just praising the Lord that I could even go in and get a few books. I thought, "Man, how things have changed." There are so many things I'm grateful for now that I find myself thanking God for that just totally took for granted.
Laura: Absolutely.
Emily: Silver lining there.
Laura: Before we get too far in our show, we do want to talk about a few things. We have fun announcements. Well, actually one of my favorite things is—is it next week, Emily, after the show releases, is that the birthday of the book?
Emily: Oh, yes.
Laura: It's our book's birthday! It's also my birthday, they were released on the same day, but that's unimportant here. What's really important is the book's birthday.
Emily: We are so thankful. I think one of my favorite things still is to hear specific stories from friends of women they know, who either gave them the book or they stumbled upon the book somehow, and it started all these incredible conversations. I just never get tired, especially of hearing of moms who just hadn't heard the gospel before, or who hadn't thought deeply about Jesus and the way that he can transform their lives and just how important it is that they know Christ.
I love hearing of women that get a hold of the book and it just totally shifts the way that they're thinking and ultimately, it changes their heart. Not because of what we wrote, but because God is working through it. That just blows my mind, and I just never get tired of that.
Laura: I just heard a story, maybe last week, where a mom wanted to witness to a friend of hers, who she thought didn't know Jesus and so she was kind of gearing up, kind of trying to steer the conversation in the right way, and eventually she was able to share the gospel, which was so cool. Then her friend, who she hadn't seen in a very long time, was like, "Oh, I became a Christian a long time ago." Then the girl that was telling the story to me, she said “I wanted to tell her about Risen Motherhood, so that she could grow deeper in her faith.” She went and quickly grabbed her book off of her nightstand and handed it to her friend, so she could take it home.
I told her that that is one of my favorite things, and one of the main reasons why I really wanted to write a book, because I think there's something so powerful about having a tangible copy of something, especially for a ministry that you want to check out or for learning more about the gospel. A lot of times we'll tell our friends about, "Oh, did you see that show? Did you try that food? Did you go to that restaurant?" Then you forget what the name of the restaurant was, you forget the name of the show, but when you have something tangible to take with you—this is why business cards are so popular, and flyers, and leaflets, and things—when you have that book, then you're like, "Oh, yes, it's sitting in the seat of my car. I meant to check it out,or go to risenmotherhood.com or go check out the podcast." It's just really fun that women, I think, have a physical, tangible reminder of checking out the ministry, but more than that, of growing deeper in their faith and learning and hearing how the gospel applies to their motherhood. It's pretty cool.
Emily: Amen. I think that's such a good idea just to have, keep a few on hand and give them away. The other thing that is really, really exciting, and you may have heard us share this on social media, but there is going to be a Spanish version of the Risen Motherhood book and we're thrilled! As of right now, what we know is that it's releasing on October 20th, 2020. That could change, but we will totally keep you posted on social media, so be on the lookout for that. We are just thrilled that this is going to reach a whole new group of women whose first language is Spanish. It will be so helpful to read it in their native tongue.
Laura: Definitely, go check it out. I think you can already pre-order on Amazon or Christian Book, so head over there to those sites. And like Em said, we'll have more on social. Another thing, some of you guys know this, some of you may not know, but we're actually a crowdfunded nonprofit. What means is that we run almost entirely on donations, not exclusively, but it is a main way that we are able to produce the content that we can, so that anyone in the world can access all of the Risen Motherhood resources for free. We really do try to do that where everything we have is available for free for download, you're not paying anything to be able to access this content. Actually, because of COVID, we chose to cancel our spring pledge drive and that was because our spring pledge drive was scheduled to land on, probably, week two of when the U.S. went through the major, major shutdowns. It was the second week after the shutdowns.
We felt like, "Hey, the timing doesn't feel right. It feels like we all have a lot of things to deal with and a lot bigger things happening." We ended up canceling the pledge drive and God has been so faithful and he's continued to provide for the ministry, but that is one area where if you feel led, and you want to continue to support the work that we do here at Risen Motherhood, we would encourage you to check out our web page, Risenmotherhood.com/give. Go there and you can see the different ways that you can partner with us. You can do it through a one-time donation or you can do it through a monthly donation, but we are really, really grateful for those of you who have partnered with us. Once you do, you actually get the R|M Report, which is a cool little insider newsletter, where we tell you about some stories we've heard from women in the Risen Motherhood community who have just seen the gospel transform their lives. We tell you about upcoming events, little sneak peeks, just behind the scenes of the ministry to really keep you in the know.
We hope that you will join us in that way and partner with us and if nothing else, partnering us through prayer is also incredibly meaningful to us.
Emily: Speaking of prayer, I know one of the things Laura and I have talked about a lot in 2020, even back in 2019, was how we want to grow a culture of prayer in our ministry and in our community. One of the things we implemented early this summer was called Kitchen Sink Prayers, which grew out of a day of prayer we did for COVID-19 in, I think, May or April. April...I don't know. We prayed.
[laughter]
Laura: April, it was definitely in April.
Emily: That was just such a meaningful experience. It was something we were so encouraged by and we were like, "We really want to be praying every week." If you've been following our social media, you've probably seen that square pop up every Wednesday and it gives you prayer prompts and a topic that our community is praying for together. The idea is that whenever you're at a kitchen sink, again, whether it's at your workplace when you're filling up your water bottle, or you are doing your dishes at home, or any number of reasons, washing your hands, washing little kids hands, that this prayer prompt would come into your mind and that you'd be praying for moms, different types of moms all over the world. We have just prayed for so many things.
Laura: It's been super fun and I feel like our community has really received them well, which has been fun to see. We've also heard your desire for a printable, which is funny because we actually talked about it prior to pushing these out. We thought, "Oh, this would be great to have printable," but we said here are the topics we want to cover, but each topic has all these focus areas and these prompts and a verse—we were not far enough ahead—basically, is the point. Hopefully next year, there'll be a printable for you guys to print out and follow along and pray something by your sink.
We do have plans for that. We definitely hear your desire. We love it when you guys share ideas. It's funny, because when you hear the same idea over and over, we're like, "Okay, we've got to do this."
Emily: It's good, because I know that I want it too.
Laura: Yes, it will be pretty by my sink.
Emily: I've been using a post-it note a lot of times.
Laura: That's a good idea.Then it falls down gets wet. I need to laminate it every week or something.
[laughter]
Emily: I don’t have time for laminating that. COVID.
Laura: Another big new update is that our website got an update, which is really fun. It's easier to search, it's easier to look for things. There's not a ton to say about that besides that it takes a lot of time on the back end, and then on the front end you get to enjoy, hopefully, something a little bit easier to navigate.
Emily: There is something I'm looking forward to, and I know all of you guys will as well.
Laura: What?
Emily: The shop.
Laura: Oh yes, Emily's favorite thing!
Emily: Risen Motherhood merch!
[laughter]
Laura: Emily is obsessed with merch.
Emily: It's because that's what I wear. I only wear t-shirts and soft pants.
Laura: I know We do our team meetings every other week. It'll be like basically every single person will have RM gear on, and if you don't, you're the odd one out.
Emily: It’s like “which t-shirt do you have in the rotation?” But we are going to have more than t-shirts this year.
Laura: We have really beautiful stuff. You guys, I'm more excited than I've ever been about the shop. We've got these beautiful handmade mugs. Handmade, did you hear that word? We also have a beautiful necklace. We've got these cool, what do you call those mom keychains? That's what our team calls them, but they're like those big ring key chains
Emily: Like that “don't lose your keys” chain?
Laura: Yes, you'll just have to wait to see, I don't know. I hadn't heard of them until someone showed us, but they're very popular. Then there is also lots of other stuff, but watch for dates. It'll be in November, we'll release more dates, and we'll also announce it on the show. You guys are going to hear about it, but definitely set your calendars because it just runs one week, and once it's over, it's over and we always get a lot of emails from people who just barely missed it. We do feel bad, but there's really nothing we can do.
Emily: We'll talk about it more, so stay tuned, but definitely be looking in November. Then the final housekeeping thing we wanted to chit-chat about is TGC Women’s Conference, used to be 2020, got rescheduled due to COVID to spring 2021. You can go to tgc.org to see when it's rescheduled. We'll have a link in our show notes. We are still planning to be there, if the Lord wills.
Laura: If the Lord wills. The Lord knows.
Emily: The Lord knows, we were supposed to be on some different panels, and do a live podcast. We're still excited for that and yes, we'll just see what happens. The Lord knows next week right now.
Laura: “The Lord knows” is the motto 2020. You just give it to him. Just put it in his hands.
Emily: Let's announce what we're doing.
Laura: We have a big announcement, and those feel like little announcements, compared to what we want to tell you guys, and which is that we are actually doing a “Best of Season” this fall. Going forward from here on out, we are actually going to be replaying some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We have quite a few reasons for doing this and we want you guys to know that this isn't a COVID decision. This decision was not made in March, but was actually made around 18 months ago.
Emily: A long time ago.
Laura: 12 to 18 months ago, in conjunction with our board. We just want to talk you guys through what to expect and why we would make a decision like this.
Emily: Each week we are going to be pulling a show from our archives. Laura and I have talked through this, prayed through this. In fact, I remember when we brainstormed this list for the first time in a vehicle coming back from Michigan.
Laura: Yes, from Revive Our Hearts!
Emily: We've been talking about this for a long time. We have specifically tried to choose episodes that we feel like are going to still be really impactful in what we're going through in 2020. We've gone through them, we've re-listened, and we're going to record a special intro to every show. You're going to hear us pop in and maybe give any updated information or just reflect on that show a little bit. You are going to hear our new recorded voices every week, but then there's also going to be a little bit of that content that we've already released before, that we hope still sounds really fresh in the new season that a lot of us are in.
Laura: It's funny because Emily and I, we've already like she said, selected the shows and re-listened to them all. It took a little bit of juggling to figure out and make sure that these were the right mix of shows to put out. There were a few times where I listened back and thought, "Oh, wow, we have really changed. We sound really different." That just helped me to realize how much we've grown and changed, but also how the gospel never does. So many of the truths that we shared in these shows, whether they're a year or five years old, it's amazing to see how the gospel in them still rings true.
Emily: Confession. I was convicted as I was listening through a lot of these, because it's interesting looking back. Some of them, maybe we recorded four, almost five years ago. We had babies and toddlers and I had still such an idealistic view of motherhood, and as I was hearing myself talk about what it would look like to apply the gospel and live it out and motherhood, I feel a little bit weathered and a little bit calloused by the years and tough things and tough experiences. I found myself convicted of things that you and I've heard a lot because we have listened to every one of our episodes a lot of times.
Laura: Yes, a few times.
Emily: I was shocked at how those truths were still penetrating my heart, and were convicting me anew and were causing me to repent and turn back to the Lord and say, "Yes, Lord, I don't want to turn away from your ways, because life is hard and because I feel like-- I don't know, I tried that 30 times and it didn't work as well as I wanted to, so I give up. I don't want to give up. I want to keep being faithful to the Lord." In some ways, I was just really encouraged hearing “fresh mom” Emily and Laura share the gospel, because it was true then and it's true now. I'm just excited for you guys to re-listen to this.
Laura: Even if you've heard them, we are hopeful that you'll still listen again. We know a lot of you guys are new. Risen Motherhood has really changed and grown in the past five years, and many of you have not gone through our archives and listened in.
Emily: There's like over 160 episodes.
Laura: Yes, there's plenty of content there, but we're hopeful that this season will meet you where you're at, even though these were recorded in the past. We think they're still really, really relevant for today. We're just excited to put these back out there. I am a little bit fearful—not fearful, that's probably the wrong word—but maybe I feel like, "Oh, I sound so immature." Then I know I'll listen to myself right now five years from now and think the same thing, so praising the Lord for growth.
Emily: Praise the Lord. That was one of the things we talked about when we were considering doing a best of season, it's just how much has changed since we started this. Laura and I often talk about how we started in our basements, we were not living in the same city, we were recording remotely, over Skype, and we didn't set out to make this nonprofit that was reaching women all over the world. We were just starting out to respond to something and that God had led us to do right then and share the Gospel with the few people that would listen. And here we are.
We became a nonprofit, we have a lot of new arms and aspects to our ministry that we didn't have when we started out. It's important we think to stop and reflect on what God Has done and where he may be leading us next. That's just our heart as we were looking back.
Laura: Yes, and I think that that leads us well into the rest of the “why.” Part of it is that, "Hey, we've got all this great content, a lot of people haven't heard it, it could still be encouraging, so we'd love for you guys to hear it again." Then there's this other side to it, where I think as we mentioned, this has been in the works for, at least, a year if not longer, of our desire to have time to just take a break. After five years of recording the show, as Emily said, a lot has changed and a lot in our personal lives.
I think back over the past five years, and I think those are the most eventful five years in my entire 33 years of life. They were very eventful.
Emily: Some of the most suffering you and I have experienced has happened in the last five years.
Laura: Absolutely, a lot of hard stuff. I think that for us, I feel like I went through a pretty big season of burnout. I've been more public, probably over on my personal platform. I've shared a little bit here on Risen Motherhood, but just thinking through how can we maintain ministry for the long term and how we can keep doing this? Emily and I want to do ministry until we're like 80, 90, 100 years old.
Emily: Till I die.
Laura: Till we die.
Emily: Go see Jesus.
Laura: That's right. We have just been asking the question of how do we sustain it, while also being full-time moms to our kids? We have some help, but we really want to invest well with our children, with our families and our local churches, and those to be some of the primary ways that we invest. We also have this ministry that God's given us and I think we've just been wrestling and talking through how do we sustain that and live a quiet life still?
We came off the book launch last September, and it was huge. It was a bestselling book. I think that it was so great, and it was amazing to see, but it really set the trajectory towards more, more, more, more, and more. That definitely came with a lot of pressure towards doing more things. And those are great things. Exciting things. We are so thankful for those opportunities. I think also we were both feeling pretty weary and feeling, perhaps, desiring to do contrary to what is typically done when you launch a book. You would think you'd launch more books, and you would do more and more things. I think we were both feeling the call towards saying, "Let's just take a step back and reevaluate and see what God has next for us, not just in public ministry, but also in our personal lives and to be able to do well at home first."
Emily: Amen. I think that it's easy to get caught in living a reactionary life. Especially when things grow quickly, or you get a lot of new opportunities quickly, to react and respond. One thing we've seen other people do, people that have long sustainable ministries, is to take seasons and to take times to pause, and reflect, and search their soul and be quiet before the Lord and be proactive and say, "What is God leading me to do next?" To lay it all out on the table and be willing to have God take them in a different direction. I think Laura and I were both really drawn to that idea.
As she mentioned, we went through this process with our board a year or year and a half ago of like, "What does it look like for Risen Motherhood after it's been open, after it’s been producing a podcast for five years, to just ask the Lord?" We're going to pause for a moment and say, "What would you have us do next?" One of the strong calls on our heart, of course, is to be faithful to our lives as moms. COVID-19 has changed a lot of things. It's just God's timing that came along with it. We did not plan that, but Laura and I are making different school choices in the fall, than we've done in the past, Things are out of our control there. Life and motherhood looks a little different.
Its all just coincided in God's perfect timing. I think that word sustainable really rings true. It's not sustainable based on, "Oh, let's only just do what feels safe and right for us," but it's more like, "What is wise, Lord?" Knowing that Christ has paid it all, and we're just here to serve for the short time that we're on earth, we want to run as hard as we can, but not run and then pass out.
[laughter]
Then ask somebody to drag us for a while.
Laura: I sort of did. I'll be really frank, I started down that path. That's one of the big reasons for this. It was certainly a mutual decision, but I think that one of the big reasons, I will confess, that I probably ran too hard, and then life events that I couldn't control, but also some things I could. I feel like I have a burden to share with women, so that they “don't do like me.” Also, “do like us,” or “do like we're trying to do,” with wise wisdom in our lives now, we're saying, "Hey, how can we be sustainable? How can we run this race well? How can we do it for the long term? How can we act counter culturally, I think, too, and not be caught up in what probably the world would encourage us to do in order to live a purposeful life or in order to live a fulfilling and meaningful life, but instead recognize the fulfillment and meaning and purpose is really in giving God glory?" We were made for glory. We were made to give God all of that glory. I think having to pause and ask ourselves these questions is always really, really healthy.
Sometimes you'll make different decisions, whenever you're really thinking through that lens. I'm so thankful that I can give God glory by being at home and being a mom. That is just as purposeful, just as meaningful. In fact, at times, probably more. My quiet work that goes unseen and that nobody knows about at home is giving the Lord glory. To me, that is so hard. I have a harder time saying, "What does self-control look like? God, how can I follow you and obey you and the same with my children, when I feel frustrated and upset? What does it look like to have patience and glorify him there in that quiet moment?" Honestly, it's harder for me than sitting down in front of this microphone and recording.
This is a hard thing, but that private, quiet relationship with God and obedience to him is what reveals where we're really at. If our goal is to grow more and more in the likeness of Christ every single day, ministry is certainly refining, don't get me wrong, but motherhood, is the grindstone. As I think about, "Well, if my goal is to become more and more like Christ, to be prepared for eternity, then I want to do what's going to do that." Sometimes it is taking a step back from the show.
Emily: Yes, because we've seen, and you guys have probably seen it too, because you're on social media these public influencers, speakers, and people that are Christian fall away. They get fame and their income starts to rest on saying inspirational things or releasing book after book after book, or it becomes this performance. Laura and I are in tune with those things. We watch those things too, and it's scary. We see how fame and followers and having the pressure of needing to say spiritual, encouraging things online, can really sow seeds of hypocrisy or can bring up imposter syndrome and depression and doubt and all kinds of things.
As Laura was saying, we really want to continue to pour into our own relationship with Christ and our own church community, because we are just so confident that if our own walks with the Lord are thriving, and if we are learning and growing with him, if we are at peace and at rest, we are finding joy in him, it is going to spill and spill right out of our mouths…and on to this podcast.
[laughter]
Laura: We need that moment of levity, thank you. We were both getting heavy.
Emily: But we are confident that the best way to serve you is for us to be healthy, and we are.
Laura: We are healthy.
Emily: I think we can both say that we are. This is again, not reactionary, this is planned, but I think that's one of the reasons why. As you're hearing this podcast, we really hope you will receive this not as, "Emily and Laura have given us something that we've already heard," but Emily and Laura, whose heart is to try to serve you while also having a little bit of space, so we can continue to grow with the Lord, pray about what's next for Risen Motherhood, and still encourage you. We want to be good stewards of the things that we've invested a lot of time in, and our team has invested a lot of time in, over the years.
Laura: That is it. Emily just recapped very well. Speaking of, she hinted towards this, is that there are changes coming to Risen Motherhood, which we are so excited about. I feel like we don't want to give away too much yet because we're still in the planning stages of exactly what it will look like. Just know that we are coming back with all new fresh content in January 2021. Hopefully, we are all going to see the day.
[laughter]
Right now, it's if the Lord wills. If he wills, we'll be back in January 2021, and we will have fresh content, it will still be Emily and I's voices.
Emily: We're not going anywhere.
Laura: That we know of, if the Lord wills. Oh my word. No more.
[laughter]
Anyway, we're excited to do a little bit of a shake up and do some things differently. I feel like we both have creative itches that need scratched, and we want to try some fresh things. We want to try some new formats, but like we said, it will still be Em and I, we're not going anywhere. It's going to be our two voices, probably more than ever before, in fact. We love working together. We have a great relationship. We still have such a great time together. We don't want any of that to change. Get excited. I think 2021 is going to be a bangarang year.
Emily: Yes, we are already reading and studying, taking notes.
Laura: We get to study for shows! I feel we've never had a chance to really do that. What you heard on the R|M podcast is like, the well. It's like, "This is what I know and I'm going to share it with you." Now hopefully, we'll get to do a bit more research and looking into things to be able to really serve you—like we said, we want to serve you really well. How can we set up scaffolding to do that?
Emily: All right, to bring this to a close, full circle from something we talked about earlier in the show, is we want prayer to become more central to the culture of our ministry. We want to just pray for you. Laura had this passage from Philippians 2 come to mind, and I just started studying Philippians. This is really timely. We think that this is so relevant. I'm just going to read it quickly and then Laura is going to pray for you guys.
"If then there's any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit intent on one purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.
Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is working in you, both to will and to work according to his good purpose. Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure children of God, who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation. Among whom you shine like stars in the world, by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. But even if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrificial service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. In the same way, you should also be glad and rejoice with me." (Phil. 2:1-4, 12-18)
Laura: Father, God, I thank you so much for the community of Risen Motherhood and the women that you have brought into it. Lord, thank you for each of them, and just that they all desire to pursue you in their motherhood. I pray they desire to live out the gospel, and for their thoughts and minds to be just transformed by you. Lord, I pray that for each of the women today that you would just encourage them in the gospel, that they would remember that there are women around the world that share the same love, that are united in spirit and we are intent on one purpose—and that is to give you glory, God.
I pray that we would remember in the hard moments, and in the easier, lighter moments, that you are Lord over all and that you rule, and that you are sovereign, no matter what's happening. Even though it feels like things are really crazy this year, and it feels like a lot is up in the air and there are a lot of unknowns, I pray that you would remind us to just shine like stars in our generation. That we would shine the light of Christ in our homes with our children, and our husbands and our local communities and our churches and our mind too, Lord, and in our interactions with social media.
I pray that all of us would labor for the gospel. That we would not labor in vain, but that we would know that you are working everything according to your good purpose. Remind us of that truth. Help the Holy Spirit to prick our consciences and remind us of our goal. Help us to follow you and to trust and obey in everything we do. It's in your name we pray. Amen.
Emily: Amen. We are, again, so excited to be kicking off a fall season of these “Best Of” episodes of Risen Motherhood. We know you are going to hear the gospel in each and every episode. We're going to continue praying for you throughout the fall. If you want to follow along and catch up with every single episode, every Kitchen Sink Prayer, all the things, follow us on social media at Risen Motherhood on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Like Laura said, you can visit our beautifully redone website at risenmotherhood.com and we are really excited to journey with you guys this fall.
Laura: Thanks, friends.
Emily: Thanks.