Skip to main content

Finding Grace

As I go about my day, I am astounded by the number of things I feel I just cannot accomplish up to standards.  Now, one of those things is SLEEP, so I would ask for your grace as I muddle through these thoughts of mine.


I can't believe the number of things I feel are expected of me that i just can't.  That's all... I JUST CAN"T.


Keep the house clean.  And by clean I mean at LEAST picked up, never mind vacuumed and dusted.

Make the kids do some chores.  I can hardly manage chores on my own, much less get them to do them.

Get dinner on the TABLE for a sit down, prayers before, family-like dinner.  OY. Just eat in front of the TV already.

Get kids to fight less.  Stop pushing each others' buttons.  Not even happening here.

Keep the kids off screen time. I just need a little peace from the worry that someone will cry FOUL again!

Get my boys active and cooperative. At the same time that I am cleaning the house, cooking a lovely dinner, and generally trying to keep my mommy sanity?  Yup.  Trying.  The operative word being trying. The crock-pot is my friend.

OH, right, by the way...I'm working from home, planning lessons, teaching online, contacting kids who don't show up and I'm supposed to be making sure that all is okay in THEIR world.

GRACE.  I need a full measure of GRACE, and the one person really not giving it to me, is ME.



I am so glad that my heavenly father will meet me where I am, and give me all the grace I need.  The one person I don't have to try to measure up for is Jesus.  He knows my struggle, and more than all of the things above, reminds me that the ONE thing that matters is my HEART.  Am I loving those around me, even if we eat dinner in the living room in front of the TV all nights of the week?  YES.  Am I teaching my kids to seek Him, even if I can't always get them to get along with each other?  YES.  Do I need to give myself a break and stop worrying about my house looking and running perfectly?  Probably.  Jesus reminds me that if I don't need to be perfect for the KING OF THE WORLD, then why should I need to be PERFECT for myself or ANYONE ELSE?  If His expectations are so much simpler than mere humans, then there is only ONE I need to look to for my PEACE: the one giving me the greatest measure of GRACE there is.


But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas Love

  May the joy of the season envelop your hearts and minds this holiday and may the love of Christ be evident in your lives, as we set out to remember and celebrate the birth of Christ.  This sounds like an incantation that I would have heard at the beginning of the Christmas season in church growing up.  I’m sure many still hear something very similar.  This year, however, though moments can be peaceful, and joy can be present at times, the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas was characterized by somber moments and questions as we watched my husband’s father slip away towards eternity with Jesus.   Having put him to rest on a Monday, we now seek to settle our hearts and minds towards the God that is love on a Christmas Eve Wednesday. It is important to recognize that in the midst of a season characterized by joy many of us still deal with things that keep us from shifting our perspective towards the Lord.  It can take a focused moment and a bit of...

The Potter and the Clay

The Potter and the Clay: A Personal Reflection Jeremiah 18:1-6 says: ”This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.5 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” This week I have spent time feeling like that pot that just hasn’t turned out quite the way it was supposed to. God gives us free will, but I was wondering if I had used mine correctly to become that which God intended me for, in the end feeling like I really may have messed up somewhere. In reading Jeremiah this morning, I was reminded that God can and will do anything with what we give him, when we give it, if we are willing and ready to be molded like clay. ...

Created For All Good Works

God hit me between the eyes with a revelation yesterday, and my first response was to laugh at the obviousness of it. How often do we miss what God is showing us because we insist on being or doing something else?   My day job as a classroom teacher is highly demanding.  It demands energy, creativity, organization, communication, problem solving, flexibility, and quite honestly pieces of my soul.  I spend six hours a day being needed by other humans, told what to do by people who never set foot in my classroom, some never in my school, and hope that something I have said or done has inspired or encouraged a young mind.  The demands are many and the rewards rarely seen.  To be honest, it leaves me tired.   Coming home, then, at the end of the day to the demands of my own five kiddos, dinner planning, homework checking, lunch making, bedtime wrangling, leaves little space to sit in stillness with my own thoughts.  I want time to slow down and m...