Last night I received a lesson and hopefully taught one as well. It was the bedtime hour and I was putting the kiddo’s to bed. My youngest daughter requested some juice in a sippy cup to place beside her bed. She got used to doing this during a recent battle with the flu so I didn’t mind agreeing to said request. My middle child heard the request and decided she would like a little bedside refreshment as well. One problem…she has been known to sleep right on through her “potty alarm”….if you know what I mean.
Knowing that she would have this “issue” and trying to avoid a further problem, I kindly explained that she probably shouldn’t as it might lead to her wetting the bed. Since I am a softie when it comes to my girls, the hour was late and I didn’t have it in me to argue…you guessed it, she got a sippy cup too. Everyone went to bed without a hitch and I enjoyed the next 2 hours of catching up on some work in my home office. That’s when it happened.
Small footsteps
Sleepy child walking in my office
Quivering lower bottom lip
Embarrassment on her little face
A tear forming in her eye
Decision time for daddy…..
In that instant I knew this could go one of two ways. While my human nature was screaming “I TOLD YOU SO”, there was a still small voice. It softly whispered “be careful here Dad, you’ve got this childs heart and maybe even her future understanding of God right in the palm of your hand. Don’t blow this!”. After confirming that she had, in fact, wet the bed I decided to take a route she wasn’t expecting me to take.
Grace.
I motioned to my little one to come and sit on my lap (thankfully she had already changed her pajama pants). I then wrapped my arms around her and simply, softly whispered that I knew it was an accident. I explained that Mommy and Daddy know what we are saying when we ask them to not do certain things. I then told her I loved her, it was okay and that we would go clean up her bed. Within 10 minutes she was back in bed, asleep and her heart and spirit were still intact. Hopefully one day she’ll remember that her father’s love is like that of our Heavenly father.
How many times have I done what I knew I shouldnt have done? How many times has it gone as predicted? How often have I experienced Gods grace in those circumstances? Lesson learned and hopefully…a lesson taught.
Grace.
Your Turn: Ever given or received a lesson in grace?
*originally posted March, 2009
Great blog Aaron. I think our society would be a different place (especially our Christian society), if more fathers took their roles with that mindset. What a mind-blowing concept that we fathers are our childrens’ most influential example of the heavenly Father.
Thanks Matt. Sadly I have probably been guilty of missing those moments or screwing them up more often then I get them right. In that case, I am seeking a bit of grace myself too. Thankfully my kids offer grace to their dad too.
I’ve been shown grace many times. One incident stands out though. I had to reverse my car out of a very crammed parking space. I reversed very VERY slowly while looking at my rear mirror and keeping an eye on the cars parked on both sides.
Not until my car stopped moving did I realize that I’d already hit the car double parked behind me. When i saw that the OWNER of the car was there, I panicked. I got out of the car and examined the damage I had caused. It looked bad, real bad! He estimated the damage could easily cost $1000. $1000?!! wow. I immediately went into panic mode because I didn’t have $1000 just laying around. I couldn’t stop apologizing. After we exchanged contact and insurance details he looked at me and said “Don’t worry about paying for repairs, I got it”. I stood there stunned. We said our goodbyes, I got in my car and I just broke down and poured my heart out to God. I felt undeserving of that kindness for my mistake, but at the same time, overwhelmingly grateful for it.
To make things even better, when I stopped at a red light, I noticed the bumper sticker of the car in front of me:
“There is no other force in this world that is greater than GOD’S POWER.”
I couldn’t help but smile at the comfort of God’s control over everything.