Grace Missing

You must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 3:18

I’ll never forget the night I spoiled our family’s downtime and bedtime prayer.

Mark came home around 8:30 p.m., exhausted with back pain after leading four sports camps that day with young children. He could not wait to recline! It was a big day for our daughter as well. She found out who her teacher for sixth grade would be, which we celebrated only briefly because it was past her bedtime.

Unfortunately for them, my physical battery had been depleted an hour earlier. I was not even thinking about who I belonged to. I was preoccupied with trying to please everyone and, most of all, my mama self! You may know the one: the mama who has cooked, cleaned, chauffeured, washed laundry, ironed laundry, folded laundry, put away laundry, mailed the wedding gift, decorated the birthday cake, and delivered a meal to the neighbor, maybe while holding down a full-time job!

Dinner had been served and the dishes were cleared by 9:00 p.m. My work wasn’t finished yet. I still had camp certificates to complete for my husband before morning. I was frustrated and ungracious when Kali didn’t want to go to bed. She just wanted to talk, and I was too tired to listen.

My grace battery had run down too! Instead of exercising God’s supernatural grace, strength, and power, we all missed a sweet catch-up time as a family because of my rigid routine and wanting my own way, which is sin. Thank God that He is committed to revealing our need for Him and growing us in the grace and knowledge of Him, even in our failings.

God reminds me most of His sweet grace when I fail to extend it. His grace prompts me to confess my lack of it, receive forgiveness, and be restored to those I have been short with. Grace always feels so good when it is received from family members and the Lord!

“There’s no other place to grow in grace, Lord, than with you.” Read Hebrews 4:16 and take the message to heart.