How To be A Busy Mom and Still Change the World Through Disciple Making
Before I became a mom, I was a really great disciple of Jesus. I had lengthy quiet times full of inspiring, passionate worship, deep dives into scripture, and journaled everything. My husband and I led Disciple Making Communities in the States, and eventually moved overseas to help catalyze movements in the Hindu world. Then kids came along. Instead of lengthy quiet times, I was happy just to drag myself out of bed in the mornings. It was a win if I got a deep dive into a cup of coffee in the mornings, let alone a deep dive into scripture. There was no time for Discovery Bible Study before someone needed to be fed or changed, and the rhythmic, daily grind of motherhood began. Needless to say, going out to start new DBS groups with my husband seemed like a distant memory.
It took me a few years (and full nights of sleep) to allow motherhood to reshape my view of being a disciple that multiplies. Through years with littles and all their demands, my love and fervor for Him and His presence never wavered. But my time commitments, pace of life, and the expectations of these two little darlings make my life look vastly different. So how can we, as busy moms, still change the world? I’m glad you asked.
Disciple Making Movements Start at Home
We are raising the next generation’s people of peace. Those people we long to meet—the ones who are catalysts for great moves of God—toddle around our homes, eat off our sticky floors, and climb into our laps with toys and books demanding our attention. Discipling these world changers starts now, while they’re under our roofs.
Our family practices something we call “Family Discovery Dinner” on Monday nights. Adapting the DBS questions available on the Waha app, we talk about a Bible verse we are memorizing for the week, and ask these questions:
- What are your thankful for?
- How can our family help each other this week?
- What do you think this Bible verse means?
- What are you going to do to obey God this week?
Love Your Neighbor as Yourself
Recently, I found myself wavering in my vision for parenting. Each day felt the same as the last. My world had grown narrow, barely reaching past our driveway. So I reached out for help and was led to a book entitled Parenting Without Regret: Raising Kids With Purpose, Not Perfection, by Jimmy and Laura Seibert. In it, Laura describes a similar feeling—she and the kids were cranky and needed fresh eyes to see past themselves. So she took the kids to a store and bought a gift for a friend who had lost a loved one. The kids prayed, asking God what they should buy, and the quietest of the bunch said they thought of a smiley face. Much to Laura’s surprise, inside the store was a purple pillow with a smiley face stitched on the front. They bought the pillow, wrote a note, and handed off the gift at school the next day. Later, the mom expressed gratitude for the gift. It turned out, purple was her daughter’s favorite color and she had been struggling to know if God was pleased with her or not. Here’s how Laura described what this experience meant to her kids:
Living this way makes faith come alive in our kids. It makes it more than a quiet time or a family devotional. Jesus becomes real to them. I believe my role as a parent is to help create environments where my kids can experience the presence of God, and then lead them in reaching out to others.
It’s in the small, everyday things—like a pillow—where our families become a spiritually safe place for others to open up to trust. Allowing the Holy Spirit to help you reach out to a neighbor or friend in your kid’s school could be the start of something great.
“Hi! What’s Your Name?”
Our oldest son might be one of the most extroverted people we’ve ever met. For his third birthday just after our second COVID lockdown, he asked almost everyday, “More people? More people?” His desire to make new acquaintances all the time stretches me endlessly! I don't always want to talk to the stranger at the playground or the cashier at the grocery store. But when our kids engage with strangers as we go, I’ve noticed how people light up. So I’ve started encouraging our kids to ask the most simple question of the people we meet: What is your name? It gets a basic conversation started, one that could be very short or could lead to regular interactions. I would never know my neighbor’s name is Kenny if my kids didn’t ask one day. I have since learned that Kenny likes to garden and has a small, yippy dog. I’ve also learned that a close family member died over the past year and he wasn’t able to celebrate some Hindu festivals because his family was mourning. This shift, from a guy who drives a blue car to our neighbor Kenny who is grieving, was because my kids asked this man his name.
Conclusion
Our kids take a lot of time and energy, and this can make our days feel mundane and insignificant. Yet when we start viewing them as people of peace in need of discipleship, our lives take on new purpose. When we allow our daily routines to be interrupted by divine interactions, we are catalyzing powerful moves of God, right from our home!
If you’d like to learn more about how you can make disciples while you tote around your kiddos, you can sign up here for the Disciple Making Course.
This article was guest-written by one of our Waha users. If you’ve got a story to share about your experience using Waha, let us know at stories@waha.app and we might feature it here!