Finding Grace

 

During my quiet times the past few weeks I have been reading "Grace Based Parenting" by Tim Kimmel.  So far I am really loving it.  I've felt for awhile that some things needed to change in our family.  Not that things are necessarily bad, but I have been feeling this tug that some things just needed to change.  I think it's good to evaluate from time to time.

I checked the book out of the church library but I am thinking of buying my own copy because there are so many things I want to highlight. It just seems to hit me where I am at.

...Sooner or later,  our children must ultimately have an encounter with God through His son, Jesus.  But what is it about Jesus that inclines us to cast our lot with a simple carpenter from an obscure, ancient village? It's because of His grace-grace He has shown us by first purchasing us from the depths of our lost condition.  It's His grace that loves us when we're being foolish, or stubborn, or selfish, or mean-spirited.

Grace sounds like a great tool to have in a parent's toolbox. It's hard bringing out the best in children when they seem committed to bringing out the worst in us.  We need something that can slip through the creases of their tough facades. God's grace has a way of melting itself into the hardest of hearts.

Grace can also help us know what matters and what doesn't. It helps give kids a lot of freedom to simply be "kids" and keeps you from living in a reactive mode as they go through certain stages. Without grace, you can turn high standards and strong moral convictions into knives that cut deeply into the inner recesses of your children's heart.- Tim Kimmel

Grace.

I am am trying to define what that should look like in our home.

Grace isn't giving in and letting my kids do whatever they want.  Neither is it cracking down so hard and getting on them for every little mistake.  

When I read Tim Kimmels description of what grace-based parents should look like, it was like taking in a big deep breath of fresh air.

Grace-based parents spend their time entrusting themselves to Christ,  They live to know God more.  Their children are the daily recipients of the grace these parents are enjoying from the Lord. If you watch them in action, they appear to be peaceful and very much in love with God, They are especially graceful when their children are the hardest to love....Grace-based parents have a keen awareness of their feet of clay. They understand their own propensity to sin. This makes the grace and forgiveness they received from Christ much more appreciated....

Ah, yes.  This is it.

I desperately want our home to reflect Christ.

I realize that our children learn by example.

That means, it is going to have to start with me.

Grace has been freely given to me and yet, I struggle to show it to the ones I love the most.

I have been on my knees as of late beseeching the Lord to convict my heart, show me where I am wrong, so that I may give others grace.

I am so so thankful that He who began a good work in me has promised to see it to completion.

I can rest my hope in that.

Even on my hardest most graceless days.