Grace and Gobs of Toothpaste

This bothers me so much, this gob of toothpaste left to harden in the sink and I count how many times I must have said before to rinse the sink after brushing teeth. It bothers me more and I hang my head and let it start to overwhelm.

I hear the accusing thoughts of “why haven’t you spent more time with them while brushing their teeth so that they have learned by now to rinse the sink until clean?”

And I pray in that moment and say “God, all of this… and it doesn’t stop.  There is no rest, no end to the mess and the pain and the should haves but didn’ts.  Why can’t I climb to the top of this mountain and just breathe? Just have accomplished one thing?”

I crawl to my quiet place to ask my whys and ask how to be grateful for all of this. The dirty, ugly, daily that seems unending, unchanging and so very weighty.

I remember there to ask for wisdom on how to get it into their thick heads and ears certainly clogged. Then I stop and just ask for wisdom on how to teach hard hearts truth.

Then I hear “Do you think all of this really matters? The hardened toothpaste in the sink and the cereal crushed underfoot on the kitchen floor?”

“Really does it make less of a man because of this? Focus on what makes roots go down deep into fertile soil and less on the messes that need cleaning up.”

Aren’t I called to serve even these little ones who make my agenda so extremely difficult?  Serve them by cleaning up the “I forgots” and the “I accidentallys.”

I have to choose to let these things go and cling to a new opportunity to teach with encouraging words and fresh wisdom, perhaps again and again, what they haven’t mastered yet.

Just like my sweet Jesus.

With tears in my eyes I consider how He’s cleaned up my messes without saying a word. Without pointing out it was the 22nd time I had done it wrong. But how He rejoices when I get it right. And how He covers me when I do it wrong, once again.

There are times for consequences for bad choices made. But where I am at and for what overwhelms me now, there just needs to be grace.

What do you need an extra measure of grace for with your kiddos right now? If you are tired of a particular battle with them ask God if just maybe you need Him to fill your heart with grace for that thing while you are waiting for them to learn it.