Heaps of Grace

This morning, I woke up at 6. Not on my own. Not because I set my alarm for 6. But by an angry child on the other side of the house yelling at the dog. Sometime in the middle of the night, she had chewed up a beloved book. I heard him put her in her crate and yell a few more colorful words.

I immediately thought, "Great. There the goes the whole day."

I looked up in the dark and said the Lord's Prayer. It helps me to focus my mind. Then I prayed Psalm 143:8 because it's what I needed: to feel God's love, and to know what to do. And then I just prayed. I asked for wisdom, for God's eyes to see my family with, for his words to speak to them.

Moments later, that child appeared in my doorway. "Mom, Nora chewed up my book!" His voice cracked a little, like he might cry. I said a few empathetic words, nothing special, pretty sure it was "Oh, no! Aw, man! That sucks!" With feeling.

And then I waited, expecting a meltdown. He said a couple more things about his book and how it was ruined, but then he went back to his room quietly.

I was continuously surprised throughout the day at how much more peaceful things were than they have been. For a little while, I tried to figure out what was different. What could have caused this change. Is it the slightly different routine? A better order to our day? Is it more outside time? Is it simply because I feel better so everything seems better? Did we finally do something right that connected?

Some of those things might be true. Some of them might be partially responsible in some way for the change. Maybe.

I know it's not me, though. I would screw it all up, if it was up to me. I spent yesterday just mad, with my little dark cloud following me around, raining on my head every now and then.

I am where I am by the grace of God. We make it to the end of each day and wake up every morning by the grace of God. If I do anything right at all, it is the grace of God, y'all.

"For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace." - John 1:16

"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given..." - Ephesians 3:8

When I finally caught up on the daily office, much of today's scripture was about praising God. I was reminded of a book I'm reading, where the main character muses (and he's actually quoting someone else but I can't remember all of it, also I'm paraphrasing): "What if God took away all the things we forget to be thankful for? Would we be armless and legless, without the people we love?"

"But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving..." -Philippians 4:6

 Basically, we got to give credit where credit is due and remember to thank God for the heaps of grace.

"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake.

... Praise the Lord." - Psalm 115

And thank you, Jesus, for this calm in the storm.