{Day 23} Interrupted by a Bathroom Break

Tuesdays are our busy afternoons.  We go to our homeschool co-op and then take Elizabeth straight to choir.  On other afternoons, we have lunch then rest time before doing anything later in the day.  Our bodies are used to that routine, so Tuesdays wear us out, especially Elizabeth.

Tuesdays also involve quite a bit of driving back and forth to these activities; the group we're a part of is about twenty-five minutes away.  Today the kids were extra tired on our way home from co-op and I had space to think.

I was thinking about the strange ebb and flow of life as human beings, particularly with regard to sin and forgiveness.  We kinda float back and forth between these two things throughout our days.  Sometimes we give ourselves and others the benefit of the doubt or simply extend kindness, and sin is unable to grow and expand in our interactions.  Other times, we're feeling cantankerous and encounter another in the same state, and "all hell breaks loose."  (That seems like  good phrase when talking about our sin, eh?)

Today I was feeling really tired and tense at the beginning of our co-op time.  No reason really, other than the tired getting to me I suppose.  On top of that, our little preschool class was a bit antsy.  I was not feeling all that gracious.  But when the sweet little one who I was finding most difficult to corral, and who is not yet potty-trained, asked me to take her to the bathroom, operation soften-Heather's-heart was put in motion.  In the midst of my frustration with her more difficult than usual day, I was given the opportunity to encourage her in her potty usage and left the bathroom feeling more at ease.  I had to speak kind words to her.  Being put in that position was exactly what I needed at that moment.

I was interrupted by grace as I drove around thinking about that situation and my own need for grace and encouragement when I'm having a less-than-cooperative kind of day with the Lord.  He's so patient and kind, and He's committed to the covenant He made with His children.  Reminds me of some verses I read this morning that jumped off of the page at me:

Many times he delivered them,
    but they were bent on rebellion
    and they wasted away in their sin.
Yet he took note of their distress
    when he heard their cry;
for their sake he remembered his covenant
    and out of his great love he relented.

Psalm 106:43-46

We're bent on rebellion, wasting away in our sins.  God hears our cry and sees our distress.  We forget (that's what most of the Psalm is about, Israel forgetting God.)  We forget.  But God remembers His covenant and relents out of love.

 And so we find ourselves interrupted by grace.

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Tomorrow we enter the final week of the series.  Crazy how fast this month has gone by!  Do you have any stories to tell?  Have you shared them with anyone?  Let's not be like Israel, forgetting and not telling about the wonderful things God had done!