Grace Upon Grace

I thought parenting was going to reveal my strengths,
never realizing that God had ordained it to reveal my weaknesses.

Some days parenting is tough. That quote above ^ hits the nail right on the head.

Lately I’ve had feelings of failure, when I hear my kids’ bad attitudes I know what I am actually hearing is echos of my own heart and attitude. I’ve been realizing my own need for grace.

We need days of failure because they help humble us,
and through them we can see how God’s grace is poured out on the humble.

I mess up, I get frustrated and yet my children still love me. These last few weeks has honestly felt like the biggest example of earthly grace I have ever seen and felt.

I snap at Raeca and she hugs me and tell me she loves me.
I am frustrated at Ephraim and yet he still wants me to hold him until he falls asleep.

They are teaching me so much. And while the refining process is not fun, it will be worth it.

The weaknesses, failures, and sins of our family are the places where we learn that we need grace too.
It is there, in those dark mercies, that God teaches us to be humbly dependent.
It is there that He draws near to us and sweetly reveals His grace.
Paul’s suffering teaches us to reinterpret our thorn.
Instead of seeing it as a curse,
we are to see it as the very thing that keeps us “pinned close to the Lord.”

We are commanded to give them the law so that they will be crushed by it and see their need for a Savior.
The law won’t make them good.
It will make them despair of ever being good enough,
and in that way it will make them open to the love, sacrifice,
and welcome of their Savior, Jesus Christ.

All quotes in this post are from Give Them Grace by Elyse Fitzpatrick.

What have your kids been teaching you lately?