Motherhood and the Ministry of Reconciliation

How Motherhood Plays a Small Role in God's Master Plan

Oct 14, 2024

It is a motherhood truth universally acknowledged that you can only have so many good days in a row. I know Jane Austen wasn’t a mom, but I think she would agree. So, when the first two days of our week passed pleasantly and seamlessly, leaving me feeling like a downright homeschooling goddess, I should have known that the next day would be what it was: an unmitigated disaster.

The two-year-old was cranky all morning and verbally berated me for things like offering him a graham cracker when he asked for a graham cracker. I also sometimes feel enraged by getting exactly what I wanted so who can blame him? Several of my other children also seemed to have awoken on the wrong side of the bed, one child’s grumpiness manifesting in an extremely short temper and sharp tongue and another, a stubborn refusal to do his math correctly. I said, “Joe had five dogs and two cats. Write a number sentence to show how many pets Joe had,” and he wrote, “4-2=6” just to spite me. This domestic bliss continued throughout the entire day until I finally retrieved everyone from practices and got home to get everyone to bed.

It would’ve been easy to look back on the day and see only the bad things. The way my children bickered through the Bible lesson on kindness. The way my three-year-old stole blocks from the two-year-old and then shoved him over. The absolute drama that ensued over a pair of missing football gloves. The way I was late to pick my son up from practice because I had to stop and talk to a child about what God says about the seriousness of our words and the power of the tongue. It would’ve been easy to write the day off.

But then…somehow, God allowed me to look back on the day and see it a different way. I could see the way a child apologized to me before bed for his bad attitude and the words of forgiveness and promise of new mercies I was able to give him. I could see the way another child humbly responded to my correction and the gospel conversation we had as a result. I could even see the three-year-old apologizing to his brother he’d just pushed over and suggesting they build blocks together.

I could see the beautiful moments shining, not just in spite of, but through the bad ones.

At the end of this day, the words from 2 Corinthians 5 kept echoing through my mind: the ministry of reconciliation.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

The word “reconcile” means to restore friendship or harmony. That implies that before reconciliation, there is disharmony. Before Christ, we are not friends, but enemies of God. Not just us, but the whole of creation, is at disharmony with God because of the pervasive poison of sin. Paul also talks about this idea of reconciliation in Romans 5,

“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, not that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:10-11).

This is really the grand, overarching story of the Bible: the story of God reconciling all things to himself. The very mission and ministry of Christ was the mission and ministry of reconciliation. Through him, God is reconciling creation and making peace by his blood (Colossians 1:20).

Motherhood is part of this overarching story. It is a piece of this mission and ministry.

As Christian mothers, we have been reconciled to God by the blood of His cross. Our trespasses have not been counted against us and now, we have been entrusted with the same ministry: the ministry of reconciliation.

Those words might make us feel like we’re going to be like Mother Theresa or Gandhi with some kind of luminous glow about us, smiling beatifically as we impart wisdom to our children, but perhaps we should view ourselves more as medics being deployed to the front-lines of battle. Peace is made where there has been war. Healing happens when something has been torn. Just so, the ministry of reconciliation is needed where there is brokenness and conflict. That makes our homes ripe for this ministry (my home is maybe a little overripe). That means that the sin and brokenness of our children are not disruptions to our work. They are the work.

As Paul Tripp says, “If your eyes ever see or your ears ever hear the sin and weakness of your children, it's never an accident, it's never a hassle, it's never an interruption; it's always grace.”

It’s easy to forget that when a day unravels as mine did, but this mindset might just change the way you see a “bad day.” Is it a bad day? Or is it an opportunity to be an ambassador for Christ? Is it God entrusting you with the holy ministry of reconciliation? It could be a beautiful chance for God to make his appeal through us and implore our children, “Be reconciled to God.”

The God of mercy is in the business of reconciling all things to himself, of making peace through his blood. One day, there will be no more enmity and no more disharmony. All will be restored. Until then, we are amazingly invited to play a role in this as mothers. It might be messy and imperfect and hard, but it is also a beautiful privilege.

As always, I’d love to hear from you. Drop a like and comment to let me know how you see the ministry of reconciliation at work in your home. Or just let me know about a bad day you’ve had recently. Did your child also use math as a weapon??? And if this post has encouraged you at all, please share.

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