Lavish Grace

I don't think that I am alone when I say that in the midst of parenting I sometimes catch myself parroting my own mother.  It just comes so naturally to do and say the things I grew up with, the things that are so familiar and understood.  On the flip side, it is difficult for me to parent in ways that are unfamiliar and hard to understand.

I recently finished reading She's Gonna Blow by Julie Ann Barnhill.  In it she gave an exhortation to lavish grace on our children.  To paint a picture of her idea of lavish, she told a story about her grandmother covering a cake with loads and loads of frosting.  I too have one of these grandmothers whose fluffy chocolate frosting always almost equals the thickness of the light angle food cake below, so I readily latched on to the word lavish.  Yes!  I want to do this!  I want to coat, bury, envelope my kids with grace.  After all, that is what my Heavenly Father has done for me.

But here is where it gets difficult.  Grace is unmerited favor.  It is God's gift that He gives even when, especially when, I don't deserve it.  And, frankly, this is something that is so hard for me to understand.  Throughout school and work I excelled in our performance-based society.  I like to work hard and enjoy the benefits that "I deserve".  I even went through a period in my teens and early twenties where I hard-heartedly was a proponent of everyone "getting what they deserve".  In my human mind it just made sense.  And lately I have realized that while I have grown in my ability to extend grace to others, I still have trouble accepting God's grace towards me.  When I had a day of failures this week, and then my son got sick I started to pray that he would recover soon and that the rest of the family would not get his illness.  Then I stopped in the middle of the prayer and thought, "no, I deserve for the whole family to get sick."  I know I am not the only one who thinks this way because whole religions are based on the concept of atoning for one's own sins.

About God's grace the Bible says,

But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!).  For He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of His grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all He has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.  God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.  

Ephesians 2:4-9

I want it to be my daily prayer to have a deeper understanding and acceptance of my Heavenly Father's rich and unending grace.  For I know the more that I do, the more I will be able to lavish grace on my own beloved children!