“I Am A Woman” - Susanna Wesley

1669–1742

Mom had some explaining to do. Dad had gone off on a trip, leaving the church he pastored in the care of a substitute preacher and his large family in the care of their mother, the brilliant Susanna Wesley. Then he started getting reports that Susanna was leading worship services. In an Anglican Church circa 1700, this was scandalous. The Reverend Samuel Wesley demanded to know what was going on.

Susanna’s reply (as preserved for us by her son John) reveals her feisty spirit and deep devotion. “As I am a woman,” she begins, “so I am also mistress of a large family.” She went on to acknowledge her husband’s spiritual leadership of the home, but also accepted her own stewardship. “I . . . look upon every soul you leave under my care as a talent committed to me under a trust by the great Lord of all the families of heaven and earth.” By “talent,” she was referring to Jesus’ parable of the talents, sums of money entrusted to servants when the master went away.

This mother was scrupulous in her observance of the Lord’s Day. Besides just church attendance, they “fill[ed] up the intermediate spaces of . . . time by other acts of piety and devotion.” This meant Susanna would spend time “reading to and instructing my family.”

That’s where the trouble arose. “Other people’s coming and joining with us was merely accidental.” The kids told their friends, who told their parents, “so our company increased to about thirty.”

Susanna was further challenged by some visiting Danish missionaries. “Though I am not a man nor a minister,” she wrote, “. . . yet if my heart were sincerely devoted to God . . . I might do somewhat more than I do.” She became even more earnest in her spiritual conversations with her children and her neighbors, and neighbors kept flocking to her meetings. “Last Sunday I believe we had above two hundred, and yet many went away for want of room.”

Susanna Wesley was no revolutionary, just a devoted woman with a true zeal. As a result, she pushed the borders of conventional ministry. So how about you? How could you do “somewhat more” than you do?

You must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you.

2 Timothy 3:14