We needed it. That little boost of grace. I felt the need for it all day and was praying that my words would be kind.
They were words of frustration much more often than I wanted.
Between the three of us, someone has been sick every day for eight days now. There hasn’t been much sleeping and there have been more than a few tears. We had to miss church again. There is nothing I like less on a Sunday morning than sitting at home with one of us sick. I want to be in church. I want to see and hug my friends. I want to catch up on people’s lives. I want to worship with my church family. I want to learn more and I need to be refreshed. I felt sorry for myself this morning (not proud of it, but it’s true.)
There are so many hard things in life right now. I have dear family and friends with major struggles in life and I can’t help them. I can’t even visit much. My kids are sick, I am struggling to get my business flowing, trying to be enough for both of my girls. And I get tired. Exhausted really. Waiting for some light in the darkness. Waiting for the sun to burst through. In reality, waiting on God.
Waiting for His healing.
Waiting for His provision.
Waiting, longing for a word from Him.
After a day of my girls both making bad choices, acting out, and getting crazy, I was ready for bedtime. I try hard to see behind the behaviors, to look deeper and find what is causing them to act out. I got there with one today, but couldn’t wrap my head around it. I know it’s not supposed to be logical and it certainly wasn’t. I usually find relief in seeing the root. Today, it just left me frustrated.
So by the end of the day, the girls had lost all the numbers on our chart, which meant there would be no bedtime story. Usually the numbers are a great motivator and they very rarely lose all the numbers. Today there was no question. They didn’t even argue it. They knew.
Once they were tucked in, child #1 asked if they could have a story and I reminded them that there were no more numbers. Child #2 said good night.
And then.
A quiet voice said, “Mom? Could we get a little boost of grace tonight?”
The other voice asked what grace is and once again, I got to explain God’s grace that covers all of our sin. Wipes it out as if it never happened. As far as the east is from the west.
And the struggles of today all melted away as I spoke of God’s great grace. He offers it so freely to us. And tonight, I got to offer it to my girls. To give them a dim reflection of His grace here on earth. And in turn, God’s grace flowed out over me, and I got my boost of grace, too.
