Let’s not settle for satisfying ourselves with the lesser things of this world.

We were made by God and for God.

You were intentionally created, just the way you are, to glorify Him.

He calls you a masterpiece, dearly loved by the king of Kings.

We are invited to partner with God in His kingdom work,

in both the small, mundane tasks, and in the scarier things that require stepping out of the boat.

When we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, we can do whatever He’s asking us to do, our job is just to trust and obey, to walk by faith and not by sight.

Will you take his hand when he asks, “will you drop what is comfortable, and come follow me?”

This week we’re discussing motherhood in light of the gospel. Is motherhood a woman’s highest calling? 

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Welcome to weekly coffee talk with Agape Moms! Grab a bev, pull up a chair (or iPhone screen) listen and share your nuggets of wisdom with our Agape Moms community.

This week we’re discussing  the theme of suffering in light of the gospel. If you missed our blog post, link is in profile, or just a post or two back.

Please share your ideas below (as well as on our Instagram or Facebook community) and tag any mamas who’d be encouraged or who would have some valuable things to share with us as we all inspire each other towards Jesus. Cheers!

Question: What’s your knee jerk response when suffering strikes? What lies do you tend to believe about God or yourself when this happens? What truth combats these lies in light of the gospel?

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Our gospel-centered resource recommendation this week is “Suffering” by Paul Tripp. This is recommended by our guest blogger this week who shared about how God worked in her life in a big way during her suffering, scroll down if you missed it! She quotes,

“Suffering has the power to help you see where you’ve been completely blind but didn’t know it. Suffering can bless you with a joy that’s independent of life being easy….Hardship can turn envy into contentment and complaint into praise.”

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No matter what you’re facing this week, be encouraged that our God is the God who sees us and who doesn’t leave us alone in our pain. The World tells us that we are strong when we achieve, but the Lord says we are strong when we are weak, because that’s when we finally start relying on HIM, 100%.

Christ uses our struggles to point us back to our desperate need for Jesus. He uses difficult circumstances and people to refine us, making us more like Him, as these things drive us to our knees in prayer, again and again. God uses suffering to reveal His nature and will to us in deeper ways, and thankfully He works everything out for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose.

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Welcome to weekly coffee talk with Agape Moms! Grab a bev, pull up a chair (or iPhone screen) listen and share your nuggets of wisdom with our Agape Moms community.

This week we’re discussing  the theme of suffering in light of the gospel. If you missed our blog post, link is in profile, or just a post or two back.

Please share your ideas below (as well as on our Instagram or Facebook community) and tag any mamas who’d be encouraged or who would have some valuable things to share with us as we all inspire each other towards Jesus. Cheers!

Question: How do you keep Jesus at the center of your day, and your kid’ days?

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Agape Mom’s Gospel-centered resource recommendation this week is the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd Jones. (We got it with the audio cd’s too which are great for the car!)

Yesterday on the Agape Moms blog, we talked about the importance of establishing rhythms of grace that help point our kids back to Jesus in the flow of life, teaching and modeling for them how to depend on Jesus and live for the glory of God.

A few resources were listed, but we wanted to be sure to highlight this starting point that really helps to lay the foundation for young hearts.

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Do you ever wrestle with mommy guilt, being overwhelmed and at the end of the day, hoping you are doing enough, especially in the area of teaching your kids about Jesus? The good news is that the gospel frees us from the pressure to perform and it reminds us that we will never be a perfect parent, nor we can we fix our kids, make them choose to eat their veggies, let alone choose to follow Jesus with their whole heart. But we can continually point them to Jesus in everyday messy mom life, and one key way we do this is by creating rhythms.

Establishing rhythms of grace has become a central aspect of my motherhood in a very concerted effort to push back against my mommy guilt and the tendency of my heart to try to fix things with a more legalistic approach. When we establish rhythms vs. schedules, we are more likely to implement the heart behind it, instead of keeping a rule just for the sake of keeping the rule, and trusting the rule to fix vs. the Person of Jesus to transform from the inside out

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Our greatest fear should not be failure in the eyes of the world because we are not measured on the same visible scale of success, our God knows the motives of our hearts and actions.

Our greatest fear should be gaining the whole world yet losing our souls in the process of striving after the unquenchable lust for more: more things, more achievements, more money, more fame, more (fill in blank.)

Instead, may our lives be consumed with the pursuit of knowing Jesus and making Him known, even though this is never easy or the default inclination of our hearts.

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 Today on the Agape Moms Blog we are sharing an amazing article by Jeff Vanderstelt that inspires us to rethink Halloween and live on mission for Jesus in our everyday mom lives. Tell us your plans or how your Halloween will be different this year in light of the gospel.

 

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Hi, I’m Laura, and this is Agape Mom’s first #fridayintroductions since I launched our website, instagram and Facebook page two months ago. As new mamas join, I thought it was time to share about the person behind the screen and the mission of Agape Moms. I’ve loved meeting many of you and linking arms with other gospel-centered mamas and ministries for the sake of more women knowing the gospel!

First things first- you must know how ecstatic I was in this picture simply because

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For centuries, the early church called their small gatherings around the table, “The Agape Feast,” or The Agape, which is the Greek word for God’s unconditional love for us and the unconditional love we can have for each other in Jesus.

The early church was devoted to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. They did this in their homes and it overflowed into all of life, leading to them gaining favor with all the people, and the LORD adding to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47) And when persecution hit, they scattered, and the Agape Feasts continued in homes, believers continued to make disciples and the church was an unstoppable, underground movement. It was a lifestyle, not just a Sunday event.

Agape Moms desires to see this sort of lifestyle restored to not just moms lives by gathering in Agape Moms, family style, missional communities, but

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The Rethink Church, Rethink Mission Conference and Facebook Live event was a response to Francis Chan’s latest book, Letters to The Church, which is our resource recommendation this week. This Facebook live event fanned the flame after reading the book.

Make a date with your husband, friend or gather a group for an evening to watch, worship, pause to meditate on scripture and rethink everything in light of God’s Word. And we do hope you’ll pickup Letters to The Church by Francis Chan. See past post for link!

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Agape Mom’s resource recommendation this week is Letters to the Church by Francis Chan. This book couldn’t convey the vision and mission of Agape Moms more clearly, and the areas that Francis Chan struggled with the western church are the same ways that the founder of Agape Moms, Laura DiLeonardi struggled with, and it led to the birth of Agape Moms and Agape Family.

If you have been struggling with church as you know it, and recognize the disparity between what the early church was and what we’re experiencing today, we urge you to read this book and free yourself from thinking beyond the status quo, opening your eyes to see how God is calling each of us to make disciples and build his church, right now, exactly in the neighborhood, job or circumstances you find yourself in.

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God’s transforming love and grace continually changes us from the inside out. Unlike the love we experience and giveaway, God’s love never runs out, and we cannot quench His grace. When we really grasp this, it catapults us into loving and obeying God with reckless abandon.

So today for your Monday motivation, instead of bringing your A-game, dwell on the reality that Jesus has already won the whole thing. Don’t promise to try harder to be better today, rest in God’s magnificent, finished work on your behalf, and allow your joyful gratitude to propel you into a Spirit filled and empowered day!

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Our worship song this weekend is Build my Life by House Fires. This is an anthem of worship that doesn’t stop there, but the overflow propels us into living lives bent on loving others because of what Christ has done for us. Make it your anthem with us! (click for link)

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Have you heard of the Jesse Tree? Every year, I share about my family’s love for this tradition, it has become a central part of our Christmas season, daily keeping Christ at the center of Christmas. 

Agape Moms is so excited to tell you about Gospel-Centred Parenting’s brand new Jesse Tree ornaments and guide because it is a GOSPEL-CENTERED version of tracing Jesus through the Bible, all the way up to His birth. Other Jesse Tree’s may not make the gospel connections that this one does, and it’s so important to make that leap, especially for young hearts. 

I can’t think of a greater gift to give my kids then seeing the grand story of God with Jesus as the hero, discovering Jesus on every page, in every story and application in the Bible.

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Agape Mom’s gospel-centered resource recommendation this week is Missional Motherhood by Gloria Furman. She digs deep into scripture in this book, painting God’s high view of motherhood, all while filtering it through a Christ centered lens. There is also a 7 week study version of this book, but it doesn’t dig quite as deep as the book.

From the back cover: “There's no such thing as “just” a mom. Despite the routine tasks and mundane to-do lists, motherhood is anything but insignificant. God has designed motherhood as part of his greater plan to draw people to himself―instilling all women, whether called to traditional mothering or not, with an eternal purpose in nurturing others.

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Monday motivation this week begins with a question: How would your motherhood look different today if you didn’t live out of a place of fear, but instead a place of knowing how deeply loved and accepted you are in Jesus? Scripture says when we live in fear, we are afraid of punishment (1 John 4:18), but in Christ, we’ve been rescued from that.

When fear creeps in, ask yourself, “What am I not believing about the gospel right now? What lies am I believing about myself or God?” Run to scripture for truth to anchor your heart. Remember, you are an adopted daughter of God, you are no longer an

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