This Little Light of Mine
| 2016-10-12 00:00:00 -0400
Missionaries overseas have the opportunity to shine the light of Christ beginning with the tiniest members of their family.
My husband, our two children and I are missionaries in Salerno, Italy. My husband and I served in Naples for three years before church planting in the U.S. for a few years. In 2015 we made our way back across the Atlantic to be part of Nuova Vita Church Salerno, where our main responsibility is to work with university students and young people — think the under-40 crowd.
Who am I ministering to and who am I living out the gospel in front of the most? The answer is my kids.
I had no idea what my role would be because of our two children. I knew that the first year would be spent getting them adjusted to the culture and establishing our home. But beyond that, I had no idea what I would bring to the table — or rather, how I would use my giftings outside of motherhood.
We are told to go and make disciples in all the world. I’ve spent the last nine years trying to understand how to live out the Great Commission, but as I try to figure out my role in Salerno, I have been reflecting on this question: Who am I ministering to and who am I living out the gospel in front of the most? The answer is my kids.
The most important thing I will do is send my children out into the world as adults who follow Jesus with their whole hearts, who understand what it means to pick up their cross and follow him. This is a great responsibility — one that I don’t take lightly — but one that I sometimes forget to make the focus of my mothering. I too often allow the stresses of life, the tantrums and fits, the disobedience, the lack of energy — and sometimes what I feel — to overshadow it. God forgive me.
When my children leave “the nest,” I want them to go into the world seeing it through the lens of the gospel. I don’t want them to have an American worldview or an Italian worldview, but a gospel worldview.
This is my great task…to prepare, teach, show and encourage them in the ways of Christ. If they are the only two people I disciple over the next fourteen-plus years, then I will count the time well spent. I could reach all of Salerno, but if I fail to show and teach my children what it means to be a follower of Jesus, what have I really accomplished?
God gave two children — two of his children — to raise not in a religious household, but in a household that lifts up and makes much of his name. This responsibility, this great task, has driven me to my knees in prayer — prayers that he works and moves despite my weaknesses and sin, prayers for discernment and wisdom as I teach my children, prayers for learning how to rest in Him when the days are long and my patience is short, prayers for the ability to do everything in love even when I don’t feel loving.
And the Italians we have in our home notice these things. They are paying attention to how we love them, to how our children behave, to how we respond to bad behavior. They are paying attention to everything. And they see something different. I live in a culture that is filled with disrespect between parents and children. A culture that shames children into good behavior, which doesn’t work in the long run. A culture that has no idea what discipline outside of a good slap across the face means. But maybe if they see something different in our parenting, we will have the opportunity to talk about Jesus.
Discipling my children has a much broader reach than I will probably ever know.
God give me what I need to do it well.
