I Will Most Gladly Spend and Be Spent for Your Souls: the motto of Christian motherhood

 I Will Most Gladly Spend and Be Spent for Your Souls:

the motto of Christian motherhood 

Where there is a praying mother, there is always hope.

J. C. Ryle

In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he expresses repeatedly his love for them, his deep heart of affection for them and for their well-being. As a mom, I have often resonated with Paul’s earnest appeal to the recipients of his letters, as he strongly urges them to know Christ and live for Him. Philippians and 2 Corinthians are two letters, that as I read them and pray through them, my own heart as a mother desires for my children so many of the truths expressed there. Near the end of 2 Corinthians, Paul says, “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls” (12:15). Reading that verse many years ago, I thought it was a beautiful expression of my desire as a mother. I want this to be my aim: to most gladly spend and be spent for the souls of my children. 

Looking at the words in this verse convicts me. “Most gladly” means experiencing pleasure, joy, or delight or with pleasure. “Spend” and “be “spent” communicate to expend, to be consumed, entirely spent. And the phrase “for your souls” indicates the purpose and conscious intent for which, in these verses, Paul gladly pours out his life. When we study the Scriptures, we want to be careful to not take things out of context, but when we consider that Paul often used the image of himself as a father and mother to those he ministered to (1 Corinthians 4:14-15; 1 Thessalonians 2:7,11; 1 Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4), and we consider the high call of christian motherhood, along with the love and affection Paul demonstrated to the Corinthians in this letter, I think we can use 2 Corinthians 12:15 as an encouragement to us as mothers to invigorate our souls in a glad pursuit of laying down our lives for the sake of the souls of our children. I am not saying that we follow a misguided, cultural child-centered parenting style. I am not saying that we unwisely deplete ourselves. What I do want is a passion in my heart to joyfully make the sacrifices my children need in order to love them well so that Christ is glorified. Will I most gladly spend and be spent for my children? Will I joyfully and with delight pour out my life? Let’s briefly look at several ways in which motherhood requires us to expend ourselves. 

Physically

It almost goes without saying, motherhood requires much of us physically. From the beginning stages of pregnancy, through labor and delivery, middle of the night feedings, through the constant “mom, mommy, mom” toddler phase, into the late night talks with teens and carpooling them everywhere, being a mother is physically taxing. When we are faced daily with the expending of ourselves physically to care for our children, it can be difficult at times to do it most gladly. We need to be wise in caring for ourselves and getting the rest that we can, but motherhood is physically exhausting especially in certain seasons. This requires much reliance upon the Lord for the strength, energy, and joyful willingness to serve day in and day out the lives He has placed in our care. 

Emotionally

There are no depths or heights comparable to being a mother. It is truly as if your heart is walking around outside of your body. As a mother you feel the things your children feel. Being a mother has filled my heart with the greatest joys and the greatest sorrows. As a mom, my heart is so full when my children are excited, happy, when they’ve accomplished something they wanted, when they’ve succeeded at a hard task, when they’ve persevered, when they show kindness to one another and others, when they’re doing well and feel confident, when they recover from being sick, or when we’re playing games, or throwing a football, or playing Lego Brawls (a video game which can get intense at times between myself, my 11 year old and my 8 year old), and especially when they’re walking in the ways of the Lord. There are so many things about being a mom that bring joy. But, as moms, we can also feel the depths of sorrow. When our sons and daughters are hurt by others, get cut from the sports team, when they hurt others or even themselves, when they fall down or get sick, when they struggle with an autoimmune illness or learning disabilities, when they lack confidence and self esteem and feel like a failure, when you know they’re struggling and maybe even depressed but they can’t talk about it and you can’t fix it, when they are entangled in sin, the list could go on. Becoming a mom places you on a roller coaster of emotions as we traverse the ups and downs with our kids. And through that, we as moms change and mature and learn to give all our emotions to God so that we are filtering our emotions through the truth from His Word. We know that despite the ups and downs, He is in control of every detail of our lives. And will we most gladly embrace these emotional highs and lows in order to minister God’s grace to the souls of our children, giving His comfort in their hardships and pointing them to His gracious gifts in their joys?

Mentally

As mothers, we make thousands of decisions for our children. And many times we overthink those decisions. There are nights spent laying in bed, anxious about the next day, month, or years our children have ahead of them. We can worry about anything and everything. But this is not God’s desire for us. When we consider being poured out, expending our mental faculties, on behalf of our children, we want to be wise in how we expend that mental energy. I think we can agree that rather than consuming our thoughts with worry and overthinking, we want to entrust our children to the Lord in prayer and seek His guidance. We want to make the best decisions for each child, decisions that will benefit them. We must evaluate, “What is good for the soul of my child, this child in particular?” This takes reliance upon the wisdom of God, which He promises to give to us when we ask (James 1:5). We will not always know for certain what is the best for them; however, we can commit ourselves to prayer and seeking God’s wisdom and then make decisions trusting His providence. Again, this demonstrates how much we must depend on the Lord to give what we need. Even in the day to day interactions, we want to engage with our children in such a way that we are investing in their souls. What word, action, comfort, or admonishment is needed for this child today? We will not always get this right. But one of the goals of our mothering is to build up our children. I want to give my full mental capacity to these children the Lord has given me. I don’t want to be distracted by fleeting things while I have the opportunity to invest in their eternal souls. 

Spiritually

Are we committed to spending our time and efforts in Scripture and prayer, not only on our own, but with our children, His words on our heart that we “shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up” (Deuteronomy 6:7)? This is perhaps the most important investment of our life. Are we diligently praying for our children? When Samuel confirmed Saul as king of Israel he said, “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way” (1 Samuel 12:23). We have the privilege and responsibility to pray for our children: for their salvation, their maturity in Christ, their fruitfulness for Christ. We pray when they are His and walking with Him, when they are living a prodigal life, and everything in between. We as Christian mothers have access to the throne of grace. Let us use it constantly, consistently, fervently for the sake of our children. Are we speaking of the Lord and instructing our children in the good and right way? What a joy to be an instrumental means God uses to introduce our children to the King of glory. This is worth most gladly spending ourselves for the souls of our children.

Being a mom is a gift. A gift we give to our children. The one who accepts them, loves them, prays for them, believes in them, encourages them, guides them, and points them to Christ. The one who prays with them when they’re scared at night. The one who holds their hand during a medical procedure. The one who cries with them in their darkest moments. The one who says, “You can do it!” The one who holds their hand for a time, but hopefully holds their heart for the rest of their lives and shares with them a love for Christ. A mother has the opportunity to give her children a portrait of the Savior, an imperfect portrait, but it can be a beautiful one nonetheless. Will we most gladly spend and be spent for the souls of our children so that in us they see the Savior and taste His goodness and grace through our words, our touch, our wisdom, our kindness, our sacrifice, our steadfast love? 

"Oh that God would give every mother 

a vision of the glory and splendor 

of the work that is given to her 

when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! 

Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; 

could she look into it's soul to see its possibilities; 

could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,

--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, 

and she would commit to no others hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." 

-JR Miller