Grace Not Guilt

My friend and I get together every Thursday.  We talk, laugh, let our little people run amuck, quietly read to one another, while we chat about everything from the Bible to how to fold a fitted sheet.   It is a good time, a restful time (restful for our souls - between the two of us there are 6 itty bitties under the age of 6 so physically we usually are not always"resting") My friend, whose blog you can read here ~ Abiding by the Cross ~ aptly named our time "Grace not Guilt".  One of the common threads in our conversation was leading us down the path of guilt...we would share the blogs we read and compare our lives to these other women who seemed to have it all together;  the mothers whose children can recite whole passages of scripture, who can explain the Pythagorean theorem and whose homes look so neat & tidy all.the.time.  I could go on and on but I think you get my drift.  It wasn't these ladies'  fault for making us feel inadequate....it was our own insecurities, it was the enemy screaming in our ears..."YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH" Guilt came pouring in.  But Grace was not far behind.  Grace from Father to tell us , "you aren't good enough but I AM, so hope in ME!"  Our lives are not to look the same, how boring would that be.  We don't have cookie cutter children who are perfect all the time, or homes that look like they came out of an issue of Southern Living, or marriages that experience no struggles.  We live life in the trenches.  Life is messy.  Motherhood is messy.  Marriage is messy.  But through it all God holds it and us all together.  He pours his grace over us and we wake up every morning to his new mercies just for this day.  We don't give in to the guilt, we give in to God.  And however messy life gets we strive to honor our good Father who will honor our efforts and give us GRACE.

2 Corinthians 12:9 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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.