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Often when I tell other mums I’m a Christian, they ask – ‘Do you pray with your children?’  I think they might be trying to figure out if being a Christian makes any real difference to my life.  I tend to say something like ‘Um, yeah but it’s more than that…’ and then fumble my way through some attempt at an explanation.
If you ever find yourself in this situation, you may find the post below helpful.  Either way, I hope it encourages you.  I was given four to five minutes to answer this question yesterday at church (they did forewarn me!) and this is what I said:

I’ve been asked to answer the question, ‘What does it mean to be a Christian Mum?’ Let me just say that I’m not up here because I’m an expert. I’m not the most experienced mum here, or the wisest mum or the mum with the best skills. And I know as well that there are loads of different kinds of mums here. There are married women who are mums, single mums, there are mums with tiny children and mums whose children are grown up. So we’ve all got different experiences but I just want to spend a few minutes encouraging you – and if you’re not a mum please listen too because we can always learn how to better encourage mums in the church family.

I think we’d all agree that being a mum is hard. It’s a wonderful blessing and it also can feel like a huge burden. Your children are a precious gift, but they also take a lot out of you. Some days you feel great as a mum. Other days you feel like you’re doing a terrible job and you’ve got nothing else to give. Sometimes everyone thinks you’re fine, but you’re just putting on a brave face. Really, you’re lonely, sick and tired and stressed.

So what difference does being a Christian make in this?

Let me show you a few verses from Hebrews Chapter 4:

13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to feel sympathy for our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

v13 – God sees everything you’re doing. Not just what you do, but what you’re thinking and how you’re feeling. He sees you when you’re up in the night with a baby; he sees you going without things so you can buy stuff your kids need. He sees, and he knows. So if you feel like nobody sees how hard you’re working for your kids or how difficult your situation is, remember this. God knows.

That’s great news, but it’s also a challenge. That means God sees my bad attitude even when I hide it from everyone else. And God really cares about that. I might be serving my kids every day, but if I’m annoyed about it and feel I deserve better, then he knows that and it doesn’t please him one bit.

But there’s more good news, look at the next bit – v14-15. If we’re Christians then we have a saviour who knows exactly how it feels to be tempted. He knows how it feels to be unappreciated. He came to earth to give his life for the very people who killed him. I might think my kids don’t appreciate all the washing I do for them, but they’re not trying to kill me. So Jesus knows better than we do how it feels to serve ungrateful people, and he knows temptation, too. So we can ask him for help. We can approach him boldly. Even when you’re having a bad day – you’ve shouted at the kids and you feel guilty and rubbish, you can approach God boldly because Jesus has paved the way for you to do that.

(Read v 16) When we ask God for help we get mercy and grace to help us in our time of need. Being a mum is certainly a needy job isn’t it? We need all the help we can get! And we need forgiveness because we keep messing it up. But let’s be honest about that. You can admit it to your kids, and your friends, and most of all to God.

So three things: God sees you all the time; Jesus knows how you’re feeling; and God’s grace and mercy can help us every day.

One more thing – as Christians we have the unique blessing of being part of a church family, so it would be great if as mums we can keep encouraging each other and asking each other for advice and sharing wisdom. I’m sure we can all learn a lot from each other, and we can all use encouragement because being a mum is a beautiful thing, but it is also… tough.

Hello folks, a website called ‘Threads’ has posted an article of mine – do take a look:

http://www.threadsuk.com/god-always-has-tissues/

My daughter had a theological discussion over lunch yesterday. She’s four. She came home and told me something about Mary (the Jesus’ mum Mary) which I know isn’t in the Bible.  My knee-jerk response was something like, “Oh that’s not true, someone made that up.”

Thankfully, my four-year-old will believe pretty much whatever I tell her at the moment. As a parent, that’s a pretty nice feeling isn’t it? It makes us feel powerful – especially since parents of teenagers assure us it will not last forever. I guess that’s why you end up with lists being published of ‘Great lies to tell your kids.’ (I’ve never found that very amusing, myself.) But I think it’s true to say that in general with little children, the parents are the teachers and they take what we say as truth.

This isn’t all bad, but I can see two problems with it. Firstly, we’re not always right. So if Miriam thinks I am the source of all knowledge, and one day she finds out I made a mistake about something (e.g. ‘Which is taller, Big Ben or Nelson’s Column?’ which she recently asked me loudly on a crowded bus), then how can she trust the other things I’ve told her? Hopefully one error won’t unravel everything I’ve ever taught her, but surely it may cast some doubt.

The second problem is that it’s quite a lot of pressure, isn’t it? What if I don’t know much? Or what if I do know some things but I’m not gifted at communicating those things to small children? If being a good mum means teaching my kids about stuff, then if I’m no good at that, am I no good as a mum?

So, what to do? Well here’s what I did with Miriam yesterday. I went back to her a few minutes later after I’d thought about it (whilst putting pyjamas on someone and extracting the baby from somewhere), and said this:
‘We know that’s not true because it’s not in the Bible. So next time someone tells you something you didn’t know about God or Jesus, come and tell me and we’ll see if it’s in the Bible. Then we’ll know if it’s true.’
It’s almost the same response, but not quite. By pointing Miriam to the Bible, I’m showing her that the Bible is our authority (since God is our authority and he’s revealed himself to us in the Bible). The flip side of this is that I am not the ultimate authority, so if I get stuff wrong it’s OK because Miriam knows I’m only human. God, on the other hand, never gets it wrong and never lies – not even to kids.

When I was little I remember my mum used to say, ‘Ask your Dad’ a lot – usually when I’d asked her the third or fourth probing question about a topic, and she’d exhausted her knowledge. She didn’t know the answer, but she was confident my Dad would (especially if it was something about cars or prog rock). And isn’t it a relief to know that we too can divert questions to someone else? Especially when that someone is the Lord. So if you think you’re not the best teacher, so what? You know the best teacher ever – his name is Jesus.

On Sunday we were hearing in church that Jesus’ teaching amazed everyone, even the Teachers of the Law and other religious big-wigs. And we were encouraged to hear that even though some people are really clever and use long words, and even know lots of stuff about theology, they’re not always right.  In Mark 12, Jesus put them to shame when they tried to catch him out with tricky questions. This is great news, especially when you don’t feel like you know much.

So isn’t it great that we can put our cards on the table with our kids and say, ‘I don’t know much, but let’s look at the Bible together and let Jesus teach us about our Father in heaven.’

The Bible has very little to say about Big Ben and Nelson’s Column, of course, but for those questions there’s always Google.

Hello lovely people!  As Mum in Zone One’s 1st Birthday approaches (!), I am trying to boost readership of my wee blog.  If you like a post and think it’s worth reading, it would be fantastic if you could share it on Facebook for me (or somewhere else?  I’m not completely social-network-savvy!).  I’m not twisting your arm or anything – please don’t feel obliged.  But I think only my friends can see it when I share a post on Facebook, so I know that when others share the link it rapidly increases the number of views.  So if you think something’s an encouragement, please don’t be shy – share away 🙂

More on the Birthday celebrations in the coming weeks…

My middle child started full time nursery this week, so I’ve had 2 and a half days of just me and the baby at home. If you’re at home and have children at school or nursery you’ll know how it feels to suddenly have a relatively quiet house, and not to know what to do with all the time you’ve got!  (I know one child is exhausting, don’t get me wrong!  But it is all relative.)  Time is precious, and I feel anxious to make the most of it. I feel a failure if the children get home from school and I am frantically trying to get the dinner ready even though I could have done it earlier.  I write lists and judge myself by how much I’ve ticked off.  And then there are so many opportunities to fill my time – what should I choose? I’m afraid to make the wrong decision and mess everything up. Should I help supervise swimming at school? Or should I read the Bible one-to-one with somebody? Or should I stay at home and take up that long-forgotten pastime – ironing? If you’re like me, you’ll find these choices overwhelming.

I’m reading through the Bible in a year – only it’s taking me almost exactly two years. For three weeks I’ve been reading through Ezekiel. I must admit, I haven’t always found it the most inspiring fifteen minutes of my day. Phrases like ‘A sword, a sword, drawn for the slaughter’ (ch21v28) haven’t always seemed like ointment for my aching soul. It’s been quite difficult some days to think of how to respond to what God is saying. That’s obviously my fault, I’m not making a complaint here about God’s word! But God pronounces judgment through Ezekiel for many, many pages, and then the book changes. He starts to give Ezekiel very specific instructions about rebuilding the temple. At this point I was able to see that God was doing something really exciting – preparing this rebellious people to have God with them again. (But I still got a little bit fidgety during the passages about cubits and handbreadths – again my own fault.) But yesterday, I reached the end of Ezekiel, and what I saw there (Ez 48:35) almost made me want to start reading the whole book over again:

‘And the name to the city from that time on will be:
THE LORD IS THERE.’

Wow. How completely mind-blowing, that the LORD, the Holy One, would redeem his wicked people to the extent that he will even put his Name on them. He would mark them, ‘The Lord’s’, and not be ashamed of them. Such mercy.

And it struck me that I am in an even better position than those redeemed Israelites, because I am filled with his Holy Spirit. He doesn’t just put his Name on me, but the Lord lives in me and in my church family by his Spirit. Even though I am a sinner, who can’t even read the Bible for ten minutes without getting impatient, and who snaps at the children and rolls her eyes at her husband, The Lord has put his mark on me (Ephesians 1:13).

So I sat there thinking, “What shall I do about this?” And since I’ve been wondering what to do with the extra time I now have between 9am and 3.30pm, I wondered, “How do I use my time to glorify God’s Name in my life?” Even more pressure!

Then, in my “Bible in One Year” book, this was part of the New Testament passage for the day:

The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.  Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.  Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.  Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.  If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 4:7-11

Time is precious – that’s what verse 7 is alluding to, right? We haven’t got long! Argh! So what should I do?

• v7: Pray.
• Love people. Be generous with my home and food (v9) and gifts (v10).
• Say kind things, and serve in God’s strength (v11).

So my priorities should be to pray, be godly, and serve others. This is how I bring glory to God. It’s not the ‘to do’ list I write myself each day, but it’s God’s “list” for me (and it’s not actually a list!).

This will look different for different people, and it doesn’t mean that’s all you do. Maybe I need to get a job, or volunteer at my children’s school, or study for a Masters (ha ha!). But I must remember that God’s priority is not that I fill every unforgiving minute with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run.* His priority is that I bring glory to him by the way I speak and act.

So if you’re asked, ‘What are you doing with yourself now that the kids are at school?’, don’t be ashamed to say, ‘Praying and reading the Bible, for starters.’

And now I might just go and write ‘The Lord is Here’ on my kitchen wall.

(*From Rudyard Kipling, If.)

I’m feeling pretty smug. I just cleaned the bathroom.

I don’t know about you, but I find motherhood an emotional rollercoaster. You don’t have good days or bad days so much as good half-hours and bad half-hours. My husband or a friend asks how my day has been, and I don’t know how to answer. Once my husband heard me saying ‘Yeah, fine’ to a friend who asked that question; he proceeded to read out a text I’d sent him early that afternoon which simply read, ‘Misery. Misery. Misery.’

If you’ll allow me to generalise and make assumptions, here are some examples of Things That Make Mums Happy:

• Baby ate pureed food I’d cooked
• Child enjoyed first day back at school
• Toddler didn’t wet himself today
• Teenager helped with washing up without being asked to do so
• Breastfeed only took 15 minutes
• Managed to make it to 4.30pm without switching TV on
• Children ate their vegetables
• Made it back from supermarket without any child or mum having a tantrum
• Nobody woke us in the night needing a cuddle/a wee/some calpol/a good telling off

You can imagine the things that make mums sad are the opposites of the above. You could also add: hormones; loneliness; disappointment-with-self etc. Hopefully you see what I’m getting at. Sometimes things go really well and we feel wonderful; other times this is not so.

I was thinking recently, though, that perhaps my bad days might actually be my good days. Sound like great news? Let me explain.

I was listening to a talk from Mark Chapter 10: first we head that James and John, Jesus’ disciples, asked Jesus if they could be next to him in heaven, ‘Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.’ (v37). Cheeky monkeys! They wanted Jesus to make them great. They were very close to Jesus – closer than most. They saw an opportunity to be leaders of the pack; top dogs; heroes. And the sad thing is that to some extent, we all want to be recognised and rewarded. That’s what the world around us tells us we should do, too. The world applauds those who’ve ‘made it’ to the top of the ladder, especially if they’ve had to push other people out of the way in the process.

I imagine when James and John asked this of Jesus, they were feeling pretty confident. They must have felt they’d earned their places next to him. But of course, Jesus didn’t see this as their finest moment: “… whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” (V43-44)

God is not Alan Sugar (and vice versa, by the way). He doesn’t reward the proud. He lifts up the humble. And the next few verses of Mark 10 show us that beautifully. We see Jesus meeting a blind beggar called Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus is desperate. He doesn’t come to Jesus asking for greatness or with a long, articulate prayer. He’s begging for mercy: “Son of David, have mercy on me.” My Pastor once told me that if I ever feel I can’t pray, this is what I could pray. It’s really all you need. ‘Son of David’ recognises that Jesus is the King. And ‘have mercy on me’ acknowledges our desperate need. He only asked Jesus for what he needed, ‘Rabbi, I want to see.’ And once Jesus had healed him, Bartimaeus followed Jesus along the road.

Of course, Bartimaeus did physically want to be able to see, but in Mark’s gospel blindness is used to show us that we are spiritually blind, and we need Jesus to give us spiritual sight.

If you compare James and John with Bartimaeus, you’d think J&J are doing pretty well spiritually, and their lives are generally ‘in a good place.’ Bartimaeus, on the other hand, is a wreck. But looking at it in terms of their relationships with Jesus, actually Bartimaeus is much healthier spiritually because he knows his desperate need, and Jesus rewards him for that. He grants his request; he lifts up the humble.

So it occurred to me, as I listened to this talk, that on my worst days when I’m finding it hard just to breathe in and out without bursting into tears; when the clock slows down and I’ve hit a wall; when all I can pray is, ‘Help!’ and some other huffy-puffy, groany noises, that’s when I’m actually more like Bartimaeus. So maybe on those desperate days, Jesus considers it a day in which I’ve learnt to rely on him a bit more. So to him, that’s a good day. And, on my days when I’ve cleaned the house, visited the elderly, made paper machete with the kids (I’ve never done that) and got them to eat their veg, if I’m really proud of myself then perhaps Jesus doesn’t really see that as a brilliant day for me. Of course, I could do all of those things and be humble and thankful, but I think I’d be more like James and John, looking forward to the applause and medal I should be receiving any day now for being so blooming marvellous. I feel self-sufficient. So in short, my good days are often my bad days and my bad days are actually my good days!

So perhaps next time I wake up from a broken night feeling worse than I did when I collapsed into bed the night before, I can cry out for mercy and know that Jesus is teaching me to rely more on him. And this is exactly what I need.

I realise this doesn’t help you to answer the ‘How was your day?’ question. If anything, it makes it harder! Sorry about that.

I wrote a post last week about the persecution of Christians in Iraq. It wasn’t anything ground-breaking, but just an ‘I knew that already! Thanks so much for telling me!’ moment. In a similar spirit, here’s another lie I don’t want to believe (and yet seem to believe) about what’s going on:
‘You can’t help.’

I don’t know if you’re on a mailing list with Open Doors are Barnabas Fund or Tearfund or any similar organisation – if so you’ll know the feeling I get when I see the envelope on the doormat or the email heading in my inbox. Do I dare read it? And then I do, and I stand weeping in the kitchen over a mother in Nigeria, who is just like me except she lives in Nigeria. And I might find I can send off some money, tick the GiftAid box and know I’ve done a bit to help. But it never feels like enough.   And the lie echoes around, ‘You can’t help them. You are powerless. And all your crying and your worrying about them won’t make their situations any better.’ If only I’d become a Politician or an Aid Worker instead of a House Wife.

It is true, of course, that worrying about those families in the Middle East, or Africa, or North Korea, won’t help them at all. But I am actually powerful to help them, because I have the ear of the President. No, sorry, not the President – the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I don’t even have to dial a number. He hears me, even if I don’t speak out loud. Can he change the situation in Syria? Iraq? Nigeria? North Korea? Ukraine? Gaza? Of course he can.

Even my kids can effect change in this way – the way of prayer, that is. I recently heard a 3-year-old, when asked by her dad what a Christian is, say ‘They’re people with brown skin who live in other countries.’ Her Dad was pretty embarrassed about the brown skin comment, but I actually thought it was beautiful. It showed me that, probably several times a week if not daily, her mum sits her down and says something like ‘We’re going to pray for these Christians because they are being treated badly…’ So what this 3-year-old thought of when she heard the word ‘Christians,’ was the persecuted Church. Isn’t that a challenge?

I’m not going to give my children details of the dangers these brothers and sisters of ours face, but I can give them enough to equip them to pray, and in doing so to teach them that we’re part of a Global Church, and that we trust our God to answer our prayers.

Ephesians 6:18 says “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” The world thinks we’re naïve, delusional, mad or worse. But the Bible tells us to pray, and tells us that God hears us. ‘The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.’ Since in Christ we are righteous, this must be true for us.

A couple of weeks ago my husband went along to Parliament Square to pray with a bunch of strangers (Christian Londoners) for another bunch of strangers (Christian Iraqis). It didn’t make the headlines, and no legally-binding agreement was made. But that gathering was more powerful to change the lot of the Iraqi Christian than any gathering held in the House of Commons that week. Thank the Lord he does use the politicians and the diplomats and the soldiers, but doesn’t that all start with the prayers of his people?

“But I don’t know what to pray.”
If you don’t know what to pray, why not start with ‘Lord, I don’t know what to pray!’ Satan would love it if we never started because we didn’t know how to start. Remember this from Romans 8, which comes slap bang in the middle of a bit about suffering: ‘In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.’ (vv 26-27)

“It’s hard to believe that prayer makes a difference.”
If you need more inspiration to pray (and who doesn’t?), try looking up ‘John Piper prayer causes things’ on Youtube. I watched it at an 8am prayer meeting once and it certainly woke us all up! As he says there, “It is simply staggering that the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe would ordain that prayers cause things.”

The trouble with having a blog about motherhood is that you’ve got to be a mother, and being a mother doesn’t give you much time to write on a blog. So please bear with me when I’m gone for a few weeks! I’m afraid you might not like this blog post much! I was really challenged by a sermon last week and I’ve tried to articulate it here. Read it if you dare!

I read an article a while back about HIP parenting. No, it doesn’t mean you listen to Pharrell while you spoon feed – HIP stands for High Investment Parenting. This is when the family life revolves around the child’s or children’s education and extra-curricular life. You can probably think of a few problems this may cause, as could the writer Anna Maxted: ‘Middle-class parents intent on giving their kids the childhood they never had may be putting their families at risk.’ But in the UK, and I suspect many other societies, this has become very normal. And if someone looked at my family, would they see HIP parents? Do our lives revolve around our children? And if so, is that wrong?

Jesus could have been anything he’d wanted to be. You think your child has potential? How good do you think Jesus was at carpentry? Public speaking? Hebrew? He could have ruled the world if he’d wanted to. That’s what Satan told him in the wilderness (Matt 4:8-9), and that’s what Peter tried to tell him in Mark 8, when Jesus told the disciples that he needed to die and rise again. This plan seemed like madness to Peter, but Jesus could see the bigger picture.

Being a king on earth wasn’t enough – Jesus was building the eternal, perfect Kingdom. He had chosen to suffer and die to rescue countless believers, bringing them into the Kingdom to worship God forever in the new creation.

Usually I am in the habit of seeing life a bit like Peter did in Mark 8 – meaning I see the here and now, and I want it to be brilliant. I want to enjoy myself; I want to triumph over my daily tasks; I want glory in this life. But that’s because my view of life, and God, are too small.

After Peter had rebuked Jesus for predicting his death, here’s what Jesus said, not just to his disciples but also to the crowds:

‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.’ (8:34-35)

Jesus denied himself many things: a glittering career; fame and fortune; a throne; even his own life. But for what? For the gospel. So it seems to be that if I want to be Jesus’ disciple, then I need to deny myself and take up my cross. I don’t know exactly what that will mean, but I think it would be a good start if I set aside my own sinful desires every single day, and asked the Holy Spirit to show me how to follow Jesus instead.

As parents we deny ourselves many things: sleep; expensive luxuries; personal space; sometimes a successful career; adult conversation; a clean and tidy home. But for what? Well, we could do all that and still not be denying ourselves in the way Jesus means it here. If we’re doing it just for our children, then we’re not living as disciples of Jesus. Our ultimate goal should always be for God to get the glory. That’s a challenge, isn’t it?

And how should this affect the way I treat my children? What about their potential? What if they’re extremely gifted at football, or reading, or gymnastics, or the flute? Wouldn’t I be a terrible mother if I didn’t put as much energy and resources I could into making sure they realise that potential? Well, let’s see what Jesus says:

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.’ (8:36-38)

My fear should not be that my son will miss out on a football career and I’ll be to blame. It shouldn’t be that my daughter could win X Factor but will never know because I can’t afford singing lessons. My fear should be that my children gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul; that they will be ashamed of Jesus when he comes back to judge them. I need to see the bigger picture. I need to invest in their eternal lives, not just in the next 80ish years.

Please don’t read me wrong here. I’m not saying that we just lock our children in their rooms and teach them nothing but the Bible until they’re 18, ignoring their God-given talents and attributes and dismissing all other activities as worldly and wicked. But I hope you’ll agree that in our Western soccer-mum driven, extra-curricular mad, HIP parenting society we are not in much danger of neglecting our children’s gifts and talents. I believe we’re more in danger of (inadvertently) teaching our children that they need to get the most out of this life, using the skills they’ve got. Jesus didn’t do that, and he’s the pattern we’re supposed to be following.

The wonderful thing is that although Jesus says ‘deny yourself’, in the long run it’s not really denying ourselves is it? We deny ourselves here and now, but long term we gain everything. We inherit eternal life. ‘For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.’

 

Did you know that in India alone there are over 2000 people groups unreached by the gospel? In Britain, as a reached nation rich in resources, it’s right that we should put world mission front and centre in our churches. Yes, people in the Home Counties need to hear about Jesus, but they already can. Children in Saudi Arabia are pretty unlikely to know anything about the Lord Jesus, so let’s give some thought to that.

On our church weekend away last week there was a theme of diversity in the church. We looked at Revelation 7: ‘After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.’ Do you see? In heaven the church is diverse. We won’t all merge into clones. So we need to do two things:

• We need to preach the gospel to every people group God has made.
• We need to celebrate diversity in our churches, as we unite as brothers and sisters in Christ.

This is a tough task, and to many mums it might seem like mission impossible. World mission is something that other people do. Maybe when my children are grown up, I’ll be able to start thinking about world mission. But at the moment, I’ve got enough on my plate, and I don’t have opportunities to take part in world mission, even if I had the energy.

But maybe we need to take another look at our situations. No matter who we are, if we’re Christians we can be praying for people all over the world. What an amazing thing, that we can partner with missionaries and Bible translators all over the globe by turning to God in prayer. At the moment it is Ramadan, and I’ve been given a booklet so that I can pray for Muslims each day of Ramadan (http://www.30-days.net). What a wonderful thing, that we can make a difference by coming to God in prayer in our own bedrooms.

This has got me thinking more about the School Gate. When I had my first baby, I spent a year and a half wanting to make friends with local mums and not really managing to do that. Then I had another baby, so making friends with anyone became even more difficult. Then, just as I had another baby and no time to make friends or even make a cuppa, I arrived at the School Gate – a place where even the most reserved, reticent or rude mother finds it hard not to say hello. You see pretty much the same people ten times a week for 39 weeks of the year. Come on, even if you’re shy it’s easy to pass the time of day. Nobody can call you OTT because you crack a smile. And if you are really shy, there’s bound to be one or two mums there who aren’t. Let them be the facilitators! My lovely friend organises coffees and day trips with the mums in our daughters’ class. All I have to do is turn up.

And if you live in an urban area like I do, you’ll find you can do world mission round the corner from your house. I’m probably not going to travel to Northern Iraq to evangelise the Kurds, but praise God! He has brought a surprising number of Kurds to my school gate. I don’t plan on moving my family to Afghanistan any time soon, but the Lord in his wisdom has brought Afghan asylum seekers to my child’s classroom. And almost certainly I will not be moving to Berkshire to share the gospel with the super rich, but I can witness to them, too, at my humble school gate while they spend their weekdays in London. And if your school gate is made up of people just like you, and not multicultural in the slightest, then God hasn’t put you in that mission field by accident. Local mission is no less important than world mission. These people need to hear the gospel, whatever their tribe or tongue.

You’re hopefully thinking, ‘Catherine I’ve been doing this for years, what’s your point?’ But if you’re a bit daunted by the idea of School Gate as Mission Field, here are a few ideas that might help:

1. Talk to people. That’s a good place to start! I have spent years honing my abilities to talk to strangers, usually spouting completely uninteresting bits of information that I can laugh about later. But I’ve found that this waffling does tend to put people at ease! (A recent low – or high? – point: ‘Oh you’re from Finland?… My son looks Swedish!’) I’m not suggesting you learn to waffle – you should of course just be yourself! But I heard an evangelist once say that you can’t preach the gospel unless you start by talking to people. And if that means you have to start watching Eastenders when you’d rather be watching University Challenge (or vice versa) I’m afraid that’s a price you might have to pay for the sake of the gospel!
2. Pray for wisdom. Wonderfully, the school gate really has too many people for you to make friends with. Ask God to guide you towards people you can genuinely connect with, and who might be receptive to the gospel.
3. Don’t discriminate. Sometimes I think, for various reasons, that I won’t ‘click’ with a certain person. This is a terrible attitude, coming I think from various irrational and sinful prejudices. How refreshing it would be if we could love everyone and not turn a blind eye to some. God’s already surprised me that I can genuinely get on with people who say phrases like, ‘And do you have a place in the country?’ And why should I be surprised? Shame on me.
4. Include your children. It would be a wonderful thing if our children saw from a young age the need for everyone to hear the gospel. God wants to glorify himself, and what better way to show people his glory than to share with them the news of his great rescue? Our kids can pray with us for their classmates and their families.

You have opportunities that many people in your church don’t have. Your pastor might do the school run, but he can’t really start asking mums for their phone numbers and inviting them for coffee. People working in an office do make friends with their colleagues, but the work they’re doing can often prevent them from having in-depth conversations about life and death. And loads of Christians – the elderly, the unemployed, and many with jobs – just don’t have contact with many people the way you do. I waited three-and-a-half years to make friends with mums, and I’m thankful to God that I now have several. I love having friends! Friends to share coffee with; friends to get advice from; friends who understand that 5pm feeling; friends who desperately need to hear the amazing news that Jesus Christ is Lord.