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Five cups of hot chocolate and
a Netflix Christmas movie.
That's how Friday night ended.
That's not how, however,
how Friday night started.
It started with arguing....
...disrespect...
...harsh words...
...poor attitudes...
...battles of the strong wills...
That quickly rolled into a string of timeouts....
...lost patience....
...raised voices...
...and a ruined movie night...
"I guess that means no hot chocolate like you promised us, huh?" a little voice questioned.
I could feel every ounce of irritation bubble up within.
"How could she even think to ask that right now?"
I stood there, locking eyes with this desperate
growing girl--looking to seek a gift she knew she didn't deserve in the least.
I questioned her logic behind this request, and
back-and-forth we went...
...until another Voice entered into the conversation.
A Voice that completely overpowered me.
A Voice that reminded me of how many times
I have begged for mercy when I very least
deserved it.
A Voice that reminded me that even
as an adult, I still have poor behavior
that is not worthy to be forgiven,
let alone rewarded.
A Voice that reminded me of what I
never deserve but always receive.
A Voice that only had to whisper one word...
..."grace".
One simple word to remind me to check myself before denying this gift to anyone else,
most especially my own children.
Grace.
The most beautiful, undeserved gift of all.
A gift given to us by our Heavenly Father Above, in expectation of continuously sharing it with all those around us.
Because, grace?
Grace inspires forgiveness.
And forgiveness leads to setting down
some unbelievably heavy burdens in our lives
weighing us down to the point of stagnancy.
I looked into her eyes and knew what I had to do. For, how many times have my own eyes met God's in the very same way?
Five cups of hot chocolate and
a Netflix Christmas movie.
Neither were deserved.
Yet, both provided an incredibly sanctifying moment. And a beautifully unexpected teachable moment.
A moment to reciprocate the incredible and humbling acceptance of our Heavenly Father's forgiveness and mercy by the sacrifice of His Son, our Savior, in order to receive the reward of eternal life with Him--even as sinners.
A moment to pass along God's greatest gift.
Five cups of hot chocolate, a Netflix
Christmas movie, a heap of God's
amazing grace and an unprompted
round of sister apologies.
That's how Friday night ended.
That's now how it started.
Only God's grace has the power to support such an unexpectedly beautiful turn-around like that.
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