It's 2012, and everywhere around me, people are making resolutions. Odds are, a lot of those sudden, flippant goals are going to fizzle out in a few weeks or a few months, as reality sets back in and life takes over. Some are dedicated enough to fulfill their resolutions, and those are usually the people who have been thinking about or wanting to do something very specific for a long time and are finally ready to fully embrace the change.
This year, I didn't make resolutions, but my toddler today showed me the importance of remembering to keep one important one. Sort of a non-resolution.
Showing grace.
She had a busy day today (went to the dentist for the first time at age 3 1/2 and did fabulous!) and then had lunch and played at the church library with my grandma and me (her great-grandma) When we got home, she was beyond tired, and started crying to sleep in my bed with me. (I had let her this past weekend for a good long joint nap, and she wanted to again.)
The cry turned into a full out fit and wail. "But I'll missssss youuuuuuuu". It was just because she was exhausted, she has no issues with her own bed typically, but I had to be strong and say no and put her in her bed. (which is awesome by the way and has the cutest owl bedspread!) I explained to her that sleeping in mommy's bed for a nap was a very rare occurrence and we couldn't do it all the time, and that if she acted this way she wouldn't get to again for a very long time.
She calmed down and I left the room and went to lay down on the chair for a minute to rest myself. I heard her hiccup a few times, but she was quiet. I snuck back to her room and peered through the crack in the door, and she was laying with her animals in her bed, just staring into space, and something shifted in my heart.
Grace.
I burst into the room, grabbed her and her blanket and animal up, and carted her to my bed. She said "where are we going? where are we going?" And I dropped her on my bed, tucked her in, and climbed in beside her. I said "You're going to sleep with mama today. Not because you pitched a fit, but because I want to show you grace."
She smiled and snuggled in next to me. "What's grace?"
"Grace is where you get something you want, that you don't deserve. You don't deserve to sleep in my bed because you were ugly and pitched a fit. But I love you and I want to show you grace. Because you know what?"
"What mama?" (she was listening SO hard)
"Jesus shows us grace every day."
She smiled bigger, snuggled in tighter, and fell asleep.
That's my new year's resolution. To show more grace. To try to demonstrate Jesus a little more often in the details. Isn't that what it's all about?
What about you? What's your resolution or non-resolution?
6 comments:
So sweet, Betsy. I love these moments the Lord shows us through our children. I remember once when my daughter (now 7) was around 3-ish and I had scheduled a lunch date with gma. I kept trying find childcare, thinking it would be great to have some "adult-time" with my mom-in-law. But God had other plans. To this day, that was one of the sweetest outings with gma and my daughter, a reminder of what He has given me, in her, for relationship. "He gently leads those who have young." I'm so glad he does. :)
Oh my goodness...This almost made me cry! What a sweet, grace-showing thing to do! I really like that she was able to be calm and content after a minute of tantrum-izing, as I call it, :D and then you showed grace and gave her something she wanted but didn't really deserve. That's a very sweet thing to do. And also, her little commentary/dialogue throughout your story was very cute. :D
Oh, Betsy! What an important truth you taught Little Miss today. So proud of you!
What an awesome post, and a great mommy moment! I won't lie, I teared up. As a mother with lots of little's this is definitely a resolution that I could get get behind (if I was into resolutions...) Thanks for a great, practical example of showing grace.
Thanks guys :)
That is so cute... Awe....
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