Undoctrinated Daughter

And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ. – Ephesians 4:32

A perfect example of the cycle of screwing up, needing forgiveness, and doing it all over again the next day or “grace” for short can be found in parenting. And if you have no idea what I am writing about, I have an endless supply of “sorry” over here – just call me.

Just when I think I have this whole parenting thing down filled with love & joy and patience & grace, pee hits the leg. Yes, literal pee. Picture a porta john. Picture said porta john filled to the brim with. . . all the stuff that fills the john. Now picture a 4 year old prancing out of her shoes in desperate need to use said porta john. Also, picture mom who had to use the said porta john out of desperate need and begging the plastic throne to not need her 4 year old to also pay homage. Alas, those plastic gods just don’t answer. And so, here we go into the tight rectangular plastic throne for my sweet girl to use the potty. After wiping down EVERYTHING, I still decided the best way to handle this was if my girl just sat over top my leg (seemed like a great idea at the time), but as I was wrangling her over my leg in our tight quarters, she let loose. The heat, situation, lame attempt to watch my son play baseball, hanger, all the things kicked in and that pee was the end of my attempt to keep calm and carry on. I snapped at my babes, pee stopped mid stream (but not the full stream that hit my knee, flowed down my calf, soaked my sock, and puddled in my shoe), held her over the pit of poo, and she finished her business in silence. I wiped her down, me down, and exited the throne frustrated and angry.

My sweet girl caught that frustration and anger immediately and tears began to flow followed by her sweet little “I’m sorry, momma.” Ugh. . . I did it again.

That evening as we prepped for bedtime, I took her sweet little face, nuzzled nose to nose, and told her, “I’m sorry, baby. I’m sorry mommy snapped at you in frustration. I do need you to listen to momma’s directions, but mommy didn’t need to snap. Do you forgive me?” And in that sweet little voice, she did. “We always forgive. Right, momma?”

Right. We always do. Humility and forgiveness are quite the pair. The bible is filled with passages about grace, humility, and forgiveness. Why? Because we are in constant need of all three. What my youngest kiddo didn’t know, was that I humbly asked my Savior for forgiveness first. What she did know was that we have an endless supply of screw-ups and mess-ups over here, but we also have an endless supply of grace and forgiveness too – just like our Savior.

Forgiveness is essential to our relationships. Forgiveness is essential to our faith and understanding our why. Forgiveness is what drives our compassion and kindness and in all humility, forgiveness connects us to our Father in an intimate and authentic way because we all desperately need it from each other but most importantly from the One who paid it all, and He already gave it willingly and without question or doubt.

Friends, forgive. Choose forgiveness today. Don’t live hovering over the pit of poo. Wash yourself (leg, sock, and shoe) with His love and forgiveness – after all, His mercies are new every morning (and His wipes are endless too).

XOXO, Loni