I know a momma who feels so guilty about an accident 14 years ago, it chokes the life out of her even today... and the life of her child, as well.
Have you ever "done wrong" by your kids? Let "fly" when you should have held your hand or held your tongue? Looked away for just a minute and something really bad happened throwing you into a spiral of self doubt, loathing and guilt? Or maybe you just think you’re generally a lousy parent, if not all the time, often enough... Good news: GRACE! All of us have experienced the misery of falling short of perfect parenting; sometimes with little to no consequence, sometimes with far reaching consequences. My friend has yet to acknowledge her deep rooted pain and so blame and excuses continue to rob her and her entire family of ownership of their circumstances and the joy of grace abounding in their lives. I can surely identify.
But 2 Corinthians 12:9 offers us this: But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
God intimately knows our every inability, our every failure and I believe he longs to stand in the gap, make us whole and set us free; for better parenting, for better everything. Choking on old habits, old patterns, old guilt is insufficient and inconsistent with God’s desire for His children. He has made a way for us to take hold of his grace anew and afresh every day. We can’t change the past by disliking or disagreeing with it, but we can confess our shortcomings and let God’s grace and mercy fill in years of hurt and disappointments. This sets us free to be the parents He created us to be: loving, forgiving, nourishing, both soft and strong at just the right times. My prayer for each of us is that we will continually strive to let go of the past, let grace do its work in us, and let joyful parenting become our new normal.
Thank you, Jesus!
Elizabeth