The Beautiful Life

Thank you for grace

Thank you God for grace, because I sure needed it today.

Surrounded by a flurry of white paper snips, I lost my temper, “Why do you do this to me?  Why can’t you clean up after yourselves?”

Instant silence.  Bruised little hearts.  Oops.  I’ve done it again.

I’ve let my desire for order and control and neat-ness override my judgment.  I’ve given in to anger and venting my frustration, when I could have chosen something better.  Something gentler.  Something that left these child-hearts that I’ve been entrusted with intact.

Was it worth it to steal the joy of my children over a few bits of paper, easily cleaned up?

God I need your grace today.  To choose the better thing.  To choose love and mercy and…grace.

At lunch time, my three year old prayed.  Not his usual “thanks for the food, help us to have a nice day” prayer, but “God, help Mommy to hear your voice.  Amen.”

Father, let me hear your voice.  Your voice of grace.  Your voice that gently guides and corrects.  Your voice that draws me.  Let me remember that we are all works in progress, and that every day, little by little, step by step, we are being conformed into your image.  Not by our striving and sacrificing, but by your grace through the power of your Spirit.  Let me give grace as I have abundantly received it.

“I am not what I ought to be,
I am not what I want to be,
I am not what I hope to be in another world;
but still I am not what I once used to be,
and by the grace of God,
I am what I am.”
–John Newton