A Taste of Grace

Whew! It's been a busy week!

We are down to the final week of school, and for our family, that means it's the week of the big performance! On the last day of school (which is tomorrow), the children will sing, dance, recite, and play the piano for their grandparents, aunts, and several friends. This year, they will also be presenting individual science reports that they researched and wrote. All of this happens in our living room, which means I'm cleaning and decorating the walls with their art work and posters. It's very exciting, but oh, a lot of work!

So, I haven't had time to write more on modesty. I've been itching to write more on that subject since finishing A Return to Modesty, but that will have to wait another day or two, because today, besides getting ready for the performance, I am helping a friend out by watching her four children. And as I listen to her children and my children, ages eight months to nine years, bounce between joyful play and selfish fighting, a thought passes through my mind.

How do you teach children to be gracious?

I know children go through a phase where they become very legalistic. They have a hard time seeing past rules, fairness, and justice. But that doesn't stop me from trying to teach them to understand why a two-year-old doesn't share, or why we should be forgiving when a person runs into us on a bike. I think some people are born gracious, but most of us have to learn it. And the only way to learn to give grace, is to receive grace. You don't know what it is until you've had a taste of it.

I want to be a more gracious mom. Not a push-over mom, but less nagging and more understanding. I want to be the one who gives my children their first taste of grace, and I pray that by doing so, I will raise gracious children.