Farewell 06: A Good Gospel Goodbye Transcript
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Laura Wifler: Friends, if you’re a little confused by that intro, that was my kiddos, Emily’s kiddos, and our other sister-in-law Becca Jensen’s children. So all my nieces and nephews—our whole family—all of the kids in there doing a special intro because today is the very last episode of the Risen Motherhood podcast. We thought it might be fun to have them on because we had all of our kids on the 100th episode of Risen Motherhood. So if you want to literally hear the way our children have grown over the years of the podcast, you can do that by popping on the intro of the 100th episode and then listening to this episode. It is wild to hear how the voices have changed. There are some young men’s voices in this new one. And we hope you enjoy that! Risen Motherhood wouldn’t be here without those kiddos. So, it’s fun to have them on.
Okay, I’m Laura Wifler. My cohost Emily Jensen will be joining me in just a moment, but gracious, you guys. We have finally arrived to the end. We have been talking about the sunset for so long, and it is just wild to me that we are at that episode. Emily and I are going to talk about it a little bit more in a few minutes together, but before I get to that, I did want to cover a few housekeeping things. Before we end up sunsetting—if you are listening to this on release day, friends, we still have a big party ahead of us. We have the Legacy Celebration party. Tickets for the in-person event are sold out, but we would love to have you join us for the free simulcast. So head over to risenmotherhood.com/celebrationparty to grab them. We are so excited for that event.
Just to give you guys a little bit of a heads up of what’s coming then after that—after our celebration party—we only have a few more days of the ministry. And we will officially stop producing new content on April 11, 2025. You’re going to see the auto responses on emails because our team is going their separate ways, but the good news is all of our articles, podcast episodes, and resources for moms on our website—they’re going to continue to be available for all of you for another year, throughout April 2026. So you have plenty of time to take it all in and share with your mom pals. Especially if this is your very first time hearing Risen Motherhood, don’t worry. There’s a whole archive for you to enjoy for the next year. If you do want to learn more about why we are closing or you have questions, there’s a link in our show notes that’s going to explain everything.
Finally, remember that Emily and I are going to continue creating content on our own platforms, so we are not going anywhere, friends! We would absolutely love to have you join us on our social media or via our email lists—however you take in your content. So go search for Laura Wifler and Emily Jensen, or go to our show notes for links to follow us.
And finally, this may be our last show, but, friends, there is so much more gospel encouragement where this came from. Our final book, A Million Tiny Moments: Reflections to Refresh a Mom’s Spirit, is officially on shelves. This book is our third book in the Risen Motherhood Legacy Collection, so, again, if you are looking for more content from us, don’t be afraid to go check out our books. They are also on audiobook. I’m assuming you might like audio since you’re listening to this podcast, and you can have Emily and I in your ears throughout the whole Risen Motherhood Legacy Collection if you get that on audiobook. So definitely check out A Million Tiny Moments. It’s filled with these short, gospel-centered writings, and it’s great to have on hand when you need a quick reminder that what you’re doing in the everyday moments of motherhood really does matter. Find that book and our other books anywhere books are sold. Okay, friends, it is time. Let’s get to that final episode of the Risen Motherhood podcast.
Emily, it's our last episode.
Emily Jensen: I have no words. End episode right now. Emily has no words.
Laura: Gracious. I think I started out—when we started recording this mini-series, we were talking about how we felt, and I was like, "I feel good," and I was peppy, but I feel weighty now that we've gotten to the last episode of the last mini-series in the last few months or month of Risen Motherhood. It's wild.
Emily: This is the last time, Laura, you and I are going to sit together—
Laura: Oh, that feels really sad.
Emily: —and record an episode of the Risen Motherhood podcast.
Laura: For Risen Motherhood, yes. There will be hopefully future things we record. This is wild. This really feels like when you are saying goodbye to a friend who is moving or someone that you're not going to see anymore or very often, and the goodbye is sad, and it's hard.
Emily: Fun fact: I was doing some research on the word goodbye this morning.
Laura: Oh, fun.
Emily: I was just wondering, “Why do we say that? Why don't we just say ‘bye’ or why don't we just say ‘farewell?’”
Laura: Or like, “Aloha, aloha?” “Hello, hello.”
Emily: I read that a long, long time ago—I don't know, English in 15/1600s—people would say—well, I'll get to what they said in a minute. When you said goodbye to someone, you really didn't know if you were going to see them again. They're going off on a ship, or they're going off on a journey or—
Laura: Life was risky.
Emily: They live in another part of the world, and it's really difficult to travel. There was a sense of—people used to say, "God bless you." That was the customary way to say goodbye.
Laura: Like a sneeze.
Emily: Yes. [Laughter]
Laura: God bless you.
Emily: God bless you. That was how you said goodbye—you said, "God bless you." In writing, people started to shorten this because they would say, "God bless ye." If you shorten that to a contraction, it looks like GOD/B/YE.
Laura: For bless.
Emily: “God bless ye.” It was like they had this contraction.
Laura: Very interesting.
Emily: If you read that on a paper, it looks like the word “goodbye.” In the 1600s—Google, so, whatever, this may be totally made up—but supposedly, people started to say shorthand. “Goodbye” was shorthand for “God bless you.”
Laura: So interesting.
Emily: In this show today, we are saying goodbye, but we are also sending you on your way and praying that God blesses you, listeners and community, as we send you out—
Laura: Emily, way to come with the content.
Emily: —to carry on “risen motherhood.”
Laura: This is so good.
Emily: You know what I thought this morning when I was with my coffee? I was like, “Man, I am Googling to the depths of the internet. I am doing nothing productive right now.” I actually felt bad. The Lord redeemed.
Laura: It's productive.
Emily: The Lord redeemed that time.
Laura: You just blessed all of us, and me included. That was so good. God bless you. Goodbye. Oh, that's beautiful. After 260-plus episodes and nearly ten years of doing this, it really is hard to know how to say goodbye. It feels like we have hit the end of an era. Risen Motherhood for you and I, Em, has really defined our last ten years.
Emily: That is true.
Laura: It will always be this huge part of us, and I think we will always look back and remember it very fondly. We wanted to take a minute to just leave all of you guys on a note of joy and blessing—like Emily said, “God bless you”—and really see this as a gospel goodbye.
Emily: I feel like, man, that word “gospel”—we've said it a billion times on Risen Motherhood, but to break it down, what that really means, if we're taking those truths from Scripture and we're applying it to the situation, it's like, hey, if you're in Christ, we're in Christ—we're all part of the same family and part of the same kingdom, even when we're not together.
We're participating in the same ministry. Whether you're in a local church or in para-church ministry, or you're doing another thing online, we are still in this together. In that sense, it's not goodbye. Also, because of heaven, it's not goodbye—
Laura: I love this part.
Emily: —forever. It is just goodbye for now. We still have an eternity of time to be together. I literally think, “Oh, we're going to meet women who were impacted by Risen Motherhood in heaven and get to share stories and get to know each other.” Oh my goodness—there's still so much to do.
Also, just because we're gone does not mean God's work is done. It is absolutely not done. He's going to continue his work. It's going to abound even in our absence, praise the Lord. This work has yet to be accomplished, but one day, it will. God will accomplish what he has started through the gospel. That's going to be something we all get to rejoice in.
Laura: I love that. I think we want to share today some of the last few things that we've wanted to say that we believe are most important. As we get to that, I think Emily’s and my hearts—and as we started talking about the sunset and ending Risen Motherhood, we both repeatedly were like, “Okay, yes, Risen Motherhood as a ministry is ending, but the concept of ‘risen motherhood’ never ends.”
Risen motherhood is a way of living. It means living in light of resurrection—what we've been talking about. You can continue risen motherhood in your own life and in your own home. We truly hope you do that. It just means that you know God, you obey him—that your identity is found in him and that his love, his grace, and his truth flow out of you and your motherhood and beyond.
As we go here, it is something that's sad, but it's also this beautiful passing of a baton. We hope that you will still grab friends and have conversations and meet with other moms about what you're learning. You'll confess your sins, you'll pray with each other, you'll live that risen motherhood. Remember, you still have one more year to listen through the shows and to access our articles and do all of that. Today is our last day for our podcast, but there is still more time to really work through the content.
Emily: As we're passing the baton to you guys, we want to encourage you again, like Laura said—please continue to have these conversations in your local church and in your local community and with your friends or with your friends that are across the country or across the globe. And you can do this over the phone or whatever that looks like for you. If you have felt led or felt prompted, we want to encourage you: start your own Instagram account or TikTok. We need Jesus on TikTok, YouTube. Whatever it is that you feel led to do, do it.
One thing we would love to see as we go out is for there to be motherhood ministries that focus on the timeless truths of Scripture—that don't focus on division or tribes or lifestyles or methods. We've had enough mommy wars—that we would see more ministries rise up that gently welcome moms in Christ and find unity in him.
Laura: I love that. We want to go through some of our—a short list of hopes that we have for when Risen Motherhood ends and that you as a mom living risen motherhood would do some of these things. Our first thing is just that, as risen moms, you would wisely discern the voices that you listen to and the resources you consume, knowing not every resource is an overflow of God's truth.
Emily: Again, this is the books you read, the podcasts you listen to, the women you follow on social media. By all means, we do not have to walk on eggshells or live in fear, but I think one of the exciting things about living risen motherhood is, as you're growing these deep roots into God's Word and you're understanding who he is and what he commands, you can approach the things that you're consuming with more confidence.
I know that we have tried really hard to recommend resources over the years—to try to model that for you, to try to vet things and share things—but just again, never take someone's word for it. Our recommendations will be gone, but really, truly, you can—if you're filled with the Spirit and you have the Word of God and you have good community around you—you can sort through the things that are out there and make wise choices.
Laura: While Risen Motherhood may be done, you can chew the meat and spit out the bones. We've said that a lot here—that it's not only reading and consuming resources that agree with you or that always align with your way of thinking, but that as you grow in discernment, you can continue to really take what's helpful and get rid of the rest.
We would love to see moms checking resources against Scripture rather than just blindly consuming. We know it can be really easy when an influencer or a mom pal recommends a book and, "Oh yes, this was recommended," and not really check the resource—checking some of the content. It's not to say you can't read something that's recommended. That's a great way to find out about resources, but just be someone who doesn't blindly trust.
Finally, we're hopeful that all of you remove influences in your life that don't push you towards holiness and add in ones that do. That's just—as you surround yourself with different media and books and all the things, people—that you would consistently be vetting those things and saying, “Does this person, resource, etc. make me want to be more like Christ or do I actually feel like they're pulling me away spiritually?” And to really be ruthless about what those things are and how to either add them into your life or take them away.
Emily: Another thing that we hope is that everyone listening would be plugged into a local church and a local community that encourages you in your walk with Christ. I think this is part of what gives us confidence to be able to step back—because we know that God is doing his most important work in and through the capital C Church. You are not alone. You do not have to do motherhood alone.
You have heard us talk about this over the years. There is nothing like having a community around you that is asking you questions and helping you process things through the lens of the gospel—through Scripture—that's checking in on you in the hard days and in the good days, who's encouraging you and giving you hope, someone you can confess to—all of those things are so important. If you haven't yet and you've thought, "You know what? I have a personal faith, but I'm not really connected to church or church isn't really my thing," we would just really challenge you to go pursue a local body of believers, meet together regularly with them, and sit under the Word of God. It will change you.
Laura: I think you and I have found so much blessing from this. Frankly, for all of you listening, so much of what we share are things that we learn in our local church community. I know right now, Emily and I are working through Revelation in our Bible study, and it's been just such a sweet time of growth and talking with other women and making connections. So many of those truths then get applied in our regular, daily life.
I like what you said, Emily, that, hey, if you haven't really made a commitment to the local church, or maybe you're attending church and you're not really involved—you're just showing up on Sunday and then quickly leaving—just to be brave and courageous and to maybe say, "I'm going to get involved in this one or two or three things." Just ask God to show you.
I know recently, I was talking with a friend who had moved to a new town, and she was saying that she just felt like she had no friends, and she was so lonely. In fact, even had had conflict with some of her colleagues where she felt like she didn't have—I don't know, almost like enemies. Felt like, "Man, I'm just not clicking with anyone."
I said, "Let's pray, and let's just like ask God for a friend. That's going to be our prayer." Two weeks later, she texts me, and she's like, "I think I found my friend." It was just such a gift—to take time and pray and ask God for what you need. Maybe where you're going to church, and you're afraid, or you don't have this one thing, pray and ask the Lord for that and just trust that he will show up for you.
Emily: Another thing we want to just send you out with and hope for you and charge you and challenge you to do is make it a priority to study God's Word. Boy, that's another thing I think we've said a lot over the years. We know the little years with kids are so hard, and they're so tiring, and you feel busy. I think it can be tempting to think, “Hey, later on, when my kids are older, it's going to be easier to be in God's Word regularly. It's going to be easier to think about my theology or what I believe about things. It's going to be easier to pray.” I don't think it does.
Laura: No, it doesn't.
Emily: It doesn't get easier. There's always going to be things that are busy. I know I look back now on those years and see I actually had some really, really sweet times of growth with God that didn't look like your traditional quiet time with a mug and a candle and no kids crying but looked like me reading Scripture on my phone in the middle of the night or singing hymns in the middle of the night or praying on walks with my kids in strollers. You can grow, and you can be in the Word of God in any season. It doesn't have to look perfect.
Laura: I think, to anyone who's further along—maybe has kids where our kids are at or maybe even older—our hope is just that you continue to prioritize getting in the Word. That even with all the crazy busy schedules, the late nights with kids, all of the bigger emotional things that we're dealing with—it can be really easy to just be like, "I have too much on my plate," because it really is emotionally taxing in these years.
Yet our prayer for you is that you would see God's Word as a firm foundation that you can stand on and recognize that, while the whole world feels like it's changing every single day with what it's telling us to do and who to be and what the research and recommendations are, Scripture stands forever.
Our hope for everyone truly is that you would be diligent in finding times to get into God's Word. It does not have to look like the classic way but just that you would be creative with that. You would spend time memorizing God's Word, listening to music, joining a Bible study, like we talked about—whatever it takes to get you that accountability to be growing in God's Word. Even turning off this podcast right now and turning on the audio Bible. I think it can feel like, "I never have any time," but we make time for the things that we care about. Our hope and prayer is that Risen Motherhood moms would continue being in the Word.
Emily: Another one is that you'd talk to your kids about the gospel. You would talk to them about God. You don't need a Bible degree or, like we were talking about, a special moment over a candle. It doesn't have to be this quiet thing where you're all sitting around on the couch looking at each other with the Bible open. It can be natural and holistic. Also, you don't have to be weird—where it's, hey, I'm finding literally every single moment all day long. I'm annoying them with the gospel.
Laura: [Laughter] Don't be too heavy.
Emily: When you love God, and you're walking with him, it's just this natural overflow of speaking about him normally and finding ways to point children to God. Also, just thinking—when you're sharing the gospel, you don't have to give this full presentation every single time. When we say that—when we're thinking about these big principles and truths—what we mean is just simply: it's a little nugget. It's a little thing at a time. It's a little bite. It's a little seed. You're trusting that over time, those things are taking root and making a big impact.
Laura: I remember this feeling really scary, especially whenever I was a younger mom—when I didn't have a lot of practice. If this is something that's new to you, it does take some courage to spit it out and practice and get used to it. I think what's great is that motherhood is a great testing ground where there's a lot of grace for you to try to draw those gospel connections. I like what Emily said of not belaboring a point or feeling like, "Man, I got to go through the whole presentation of the gospel here." But trusting that those little inputs are really going to make a difference. I think not being afraid to admit that you maybe don't know an answer. I know as we have middle schoolers now, their questions are getting harder, and they're getting deeper, and I'm like, "I don't know. Let's search Scripture together." That has just been really sweet of saying, “We'll Google it together.” Maybe there's a website that has some answers—a trusted site.
I think, too, when you're feeling nervous about it, know that God knows where you're at, and it's okay for you to grow in this skill and to not be perfect at it. I think the thing that I really love to remember is the generational impact that it really has—that these little inputs hopefully are producing mature Christians down the road who then are also investing in their kids in this way. It's just really exciting to think. Emily, you have that one post that's like, “If you carry the gospel—"
Emily: Oh, once a week—
Laura: If you share the gospel—
Emily: —then by the time they're five, it's 260 times or something.
Laura: Which is crazy.
Emily: It's a lot.
Laura: It's crazy. Imagine for eighteen years.
Emily: Another thing we would love for you to walk away with is just this knowledge that, hey, within the bounds of God's commands and his good designs, there are not going to be two motherhood journeys that look exactly alike. We have talked so much about this at Risen Motherhood. I don't know that this has really caught hold yet in general culture—social media world.
I still feel like there is a lot of sense of division or feeling like we really want our motherhood and our choices to be exactly the same, down to the type of clothes we buy for our kids or down to the type of music we listen to or the type of shows. I don't know. I feel this way. Sometimes I still bristle inside when I'm like, "Oh, this mom would let her kid do this, and I wouldn't let my kid do that." I have to literally just shake. I'm shaking like, "No, no, no, no. That can be okay."
We are not going to be the same as our sisters, our sister-in-laws, our neighbors, our influencers. There's going to be so many gray areas and ways that God has uniquely designed us. I think we would really love to see moms stopping this in its tracks—refusing to speak in these broad-brush, stereotype, mean, judgmental overgeneralizations about “moms that do this” or “moms that do that are this way. They're not loving their kids.” But to just try to be more loving, more cautious and not add things to the gospel of, “Yes, the gospel . . . but also you need to do X, Y, and Z in order to be good.”
Laura: I think our hope as Risen Motherhood comes to an end is that moms would continue to grow in compassion for other moms and see that they are doing their best or to trust that. Also to just be curious about different lifestyles. I think what we immediately do is put up a wall because we don't want to feel judged, or we don't want to feel inferior because someone's doing something different, but instead, why not try curiosity on?
We're hopeful, too, that you would just be cautious in how you speak about other moms and that there would really be a guard on moms’ mouths as we have conversations and we have fun and we spend time together, but that it wouldn't edge into gossip or it wouldn't edge into speaking down on somebody else or even a general type of motherhood.
Sometimes it's not even about a person. It's that movement you've seen or things like that. Having thoughtful conversations is very different than just railing on something. Then too, as a mom who's living risen motherhood, that you would really draw boundaries where you need to and just recognize you don't have to be friends with everyone. That's something we talk about a lot here. There are certain friends or family members that like, "Hey, we just don't talk about that topic." It's not edifying. It's not helpful in our relationship. Just learning to get along with one another in a harmonious way. That's really our prayer.
Emily: Finally, we just want to encourage you to grow in your relationship with God and your love for him. Most importantly, make him central and preeminent in your life. It's like that verse that says, "Beloved, flee from idolatry" [1 Cor. 10:14]. That's this big category in Scripture that encompasses downstream—almost every other sin that we do has to do with who or what is on the throne of our heart and who we're giving our loyalty to.
This is the central piece of the gospel—that God is Lord over all. Jesus is Lord of lords, King of kings. One day, every knee will bow before him. We get to decide whether that's in this life or whether that's later. You don't want it to be later. You want it to be now. I just think there's so many distractions. There are so many things that are good, and they are things that keep us busy—whether it's sports or activities or little crafts that we want to do with our kids, or we're really passionate about creating food for our family or whatever all of those things are that we really love and we're really excited about. But then Jesus is sort of like—this sense that “I'll get to Jesus later. I'll put him off 'till tomorrow. This other thing feels like it's creating more reward and immediate blessing in my life.” But to really—no. Cling to Christ now—make him first.
Laura: I love thinking about how in twenty years—thirty years—there might be hundreds of thousands—I don't know, maybe even millions—of children who have heard about the gospel and accepted Christ at a young age at the prompting of God's work through Risen Motherhood and the lives of moms. Just that idea that someday, maybe there are millions of children who have moms that walked with God more closely because of maybe one little tiny thing they heard on a podcast one time. It sounds crazy. It sounds almost impossible, but who knows?
We've talked about God duplicating fruit so many times and that sometimes it seems like nothing's happening, and then, eventually, there's just a harvest of abundance. Who knows what the future brings? No ministry is perfect, but we're so grateful that you're here with us and that you are just a mom who desires to grow and to learn and to change. We are praying consistently that God would keep working in you long after the ministry is over.
Emily: Speaking of goodbyes—speaking of “God bless you”—we want to leave you with a benediction. A benediction, if you've never heard that word or you're like, "Well, that sounds like an old churchy word," is really just a prayer of blessing. We're going to read a few of these blessings here because we want to be really specific, and hopefully this will make it easier for us to choke out. There are a lot of benedictions in Scripture. All of this is adapted from Scripture. We'll include the references in the show notes. This is our hope and our prayer for every single one of you.
Laura: May “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” [2 Cor. 13:14].
Emily: “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” [Rom. 15:5-6].
Laura: “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” [1 Cor. 15:58].
Emily: May “the Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” [Num. 6:24-26].
Laura: May “Christ . . . dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” [Eph. 3:17-19].
Emily: May “the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” [Col. 3:16-17].
Laura: “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 Thess. 5:23-24].
Emily: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” [Eph. 3:20] . . . “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God” . . . to him “be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” [1 Tim. 1:17].
