God Works Through Big Family Moms

 Deep down I’ve often worried that the hidden ministry of a stay-at-home big family mom is too hidden.  Having a thriving social life full of gospel-sharing opportunities is low on my priority list and impractical when I’ve been pregnant or nursing while homeschooling for nearly two decades and consider having only two children of eleven in diapers a win. How could God possibly use my life to spread the Gospel to anyone other than my husband and children? 

It’s a reasonable concern from a human perspective. Mathematically,  have few face-to-face, in-depth relationships outside my immediate family and only a handful of people I direct my limited bandwidth of time and energy towards.  How can God use my life when I’m at home ninety-nine percent of the time?

He reminded me of just how when I slipped out for a rare (think annual) coffee date to hear the backstory of my neighbor's salvation this week. 


Her story echoed the heavenly perspective repeated throughout Scripture such as in Isaiah 59:1: Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. 

My sweet new friend from down the street has been watching my life for the last two years as I manage the many affairs of our big family home. She has seen me work through the real-world challenges of extended family, politics that come too close to home and heard our backstory of what led us to walk the road less taken through homeschooling.

I almost cried when she told me that God used my life as one of many means of grace drawing her to repent and believe in Christ alone. 

How could this be? I’d never overtly shared the Gospel, confronted her with a hard close on heaven & hell or even pressed the topic. God must have used other means. I didn’t even give her a tract!

“It was because you were my friend,” she told me. “You just lived out your faith and were my friend anyway.”

I see now that I had denigrated the idea that a living example of a flawed yet earnest Christian woman saved by God’s grace could actually make a difference in the Kingdom of God. While I was just hugging my kids, giving my husband a playful pinch on the backside, laughing at something ridiculous, and offering her a cup of sugar-free lemonade, God was at work in and through me.

God knows how to accomplish His will and really does move in mysterious ways. Even though the reclusive life of stay-at-home big family homeschooling Christian moms who worry they aren’t contributing enough in overt ministry. 

God is not limited to my twenty-four hours in a day at least six of which I really need to be sleeping so I don’t turn into a scary mommy. God is greater than the limited bandwidth of energy, cheerfulness, and even willingness to be around other human beings than my household. 

The Creator of heaven and earth knows I am made of dust, recharge my internal batteries in quiet, relative solitude truly loves being ‘busy at home’ as an imperfect Titus Two woman.  He has a mission to accomplish to the ends of the earth and even stay-at-home homeschooling moms get to be part of it outside the scope of our homes. 

There will be seasons of this life of service where I am not pregnant, nursing or toilet-training toddlers. For now, it is a great comfort to know that God has everything under His sovereign control. There have been and will be moments of directly preaching and teaching the Gospel outside my four walls.

In the meantime and through it all, there remain the twenty-four hours a day (minus what sleep I get depending on if I have a new or teething baby in the house!) where His Amazing Grace shines through stay-at-home big family ‘jars of clay’ to accomplish far more than we could ever ask or imagine in this generation until the Lord returns. 

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If this blog blessed you feel free to join my Big Family Moms community where I have lots more resources and encouragement for moms like you overcoming struggles and growing in grace. Feel free to pop in here.

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