When I was growing up, music technology was at an in-between state: between records and cassette tapes. You could go to the music store and choose whether you wanted to buy your music on a record or on a cassette.
Popular singles were available on a record for $0.99. I would save my allowance and buy the latest Top 40 hit on record, bring it home, and immediately play it on my portable record player. It was housed in a box that looked like a small suitcase, covered in a late-’70s pattern of muted mustard and rust. I set the record on repeat and played that same single over and over. Until I saved enough to buy a new one.
The things we love we set on repeat—whether it’s a song, a favorite movie, an enjoyable activity, or even a daydream. We mull over and dwell on what is important to us. We know lyrics by heart and memorize pop culture trivia facts. We schedule our daily routines around what we cherish most. In turn, these things shape our hearts and our lives.
Out of all the things we set on repeat, the one thing we need repeated most in our heart each day is the gospel.
The Gospel Is for Every Day
It can be easy to think of the gospel as an important truth for our salvation—that moment where we trusted in Christ as our Savior—and not realize its significance for the whole of our life. We know we need salvation from our sins. We know we need reconciliation with God. We know we need Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to free us from slavery to sin. But what about in the day to day? What does the good news of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection mean to the daily life of a mom?
Consider the things a mom does on a typical day. Perhaps she wakes up before everyone else and prepares for the day. Maybe she packs lunches for the kids or prepares homeschool lessons or sends off some last-minute emails before heading to work. Maybe she and her husband tag-team waking up the kids, getting them breakfast, and taking them to school. It may be that she spends the day at work, in and out of meetings, while also trying to check in with the pediatrician about her little one’s chronic ear infections. Or maybe a typical day involves running errands all morning with one kid in the front of the cart and another in the back while somehow also managing to squeeze groceries in among all the moving body parts.
In all that a mom does each day, wherever she spends it, the gospel has a lot to say to her. The truths of what Jesus did for her in his perfect life, sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection intersect with every moment of her life. It shapes her activities, labors, conversations, and even the challenges she faces. The sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice for her carries her through her weaknesses, temptations, and sins. It gives her hope in her motherhood, both in the joys and in the sorrows, in the mundane and in the hard.
The truths of who Jesus is and what he has done for moms doesn’t only affect us in eternity (and that’s a big thing!), it also affects our life in the here and now. And that’s why we need the gospel set on repeat.
The Gospel on Repeat
Since becoming a mom, I’ve found myself forgetting things. I call it having “mommy brain.” I’ve forgotten doctor’s appointments, only remembering when I receive a call from the doctor’s office wondering why I didn’t show. I often walk into a room and forget why I’m there. I put cereal boxes in the fridge and return juice to the pantry. And I always call my kids by the wrong name.
Humans are prone to forgetfulness. Putting clothes in the dryer and forgetting to start it can be irritating. Doing an entire grocery store run only to forget the one thing we needed may even be funny. Neither is as detrimental as forgetting the good news of the gospel or as harmful as failing to live out the gospel in our lives. Mommy forgetfulness pales in comparison to gospel forgetfulness.
As moms whose hearts are prone to forgetfulness, we need to remind ourselves of the gospel on a regular basis. We need to remember the good news until it saturates our hearts and becomes our personal anthem. Some people call this “preaching the gospel to yourself.” This simply means reviewing and reminding ourselves of who Jesus is and what he came to do. It’s appropriating the gospel to our lives. It’s setting the gospel on repeat.
What might that look like?
When we’ve sinned against our children, we remind ourselves that we have a great Savior who lived the life we could not live. We rejoice over his perfect record credited to us. We remember the death he died to pay for our sin. We pray and repent for our sins, asking God to forgive us because of Jesus’s sacrifice for us. We take great hope in the fact that because he ascended into heaven, he stands before the Father interceding for us.
When we face hardship or trial in our life or in that of our child’s life, we remember our Savior who left the riches of heaven to live in this fallen world. He knew what it is to be hungry and homeless, for he never had a home of his own. We remember the loss and grief he felt when his friend Lazarus died and the rejection and abandonment he experienced when his disciples left him when he needed them most. We remember his temptation in the wilderness where he never gave in to Satan’s offerings. Most of all, we remember the suffering he faced for us at the cross. Because he conquered death and rose from the grave, we know that suffering will have an end.
When life as a mom is busy and hectic and overwhelming, we remember our Savior then too. Because we are united to him by faith, he is our strength in all things. He sustains us with his Word. He gives us grace to endure. He is our peace in the chaos. Because he went to great lengths to rescue and redeem us from sin, we know he is with us in whatever we encounter in our day.
Whatever is happening in our life as a mom, whether we are wrangling our kids into the car, washing dishes, paying bills, or heading to work, the gospel is applicable. It matters to our life. In both the big and small things, it shapes who we are. Moms, we need to set the gospel on repeat, remembering who Jesus is and what he came to do.
Note: This post is a modified excerpt from Christina’s new book, Sufficient Hope: Gospel Meditations and Prayers for Moms, published with P&R.
Christina Fox serves on the PCA’s national women’s ministry team and is the editor of their enCourage blog. She is a writer, speaker, and author of several books, including Closer than a Sister, Idols of a Mother’s Heart, and Sufficient Hope: Gospel Meditations and Prayers for Moms. You can find her at www.christinafox.com.
