The longer they are home, the more grateful I am—really. I love who my children are inside–and that somehow they are still all idealists.
Last night, after a dinner of homemade soup and a great movie, most of us were sitting around in our den looking at our computers and phones and checking to see if anyone had loved or noticed us in the last 2 hours. 
Then we all started commenting on statuses of friends old and new on facebook. Then we started judging a few pics and choices and things that had happened to people……
Then one of my kids said, “Just look at us, we are all sitting around being petty–we need to stop being gossips and get off of facebook and just keep enjoying this great night.”
He was right.
I can have a quiet time and walk out the door and be impatient with someone in my family who I love–and get angry.
I can be committed to encouraging women in the Lord and read all sorts of books and pray and have quiet times and still I am shocked at what silliness and selfishness can bubble out of my mouth without any contemplation.
Wretched woman that I am……
And then I read Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
“I came to set the captives free,” He said.
I am captive to my own human frailty, my own limitations, my own small-minded self.
But he saw me in my need and decided to have compassion. He gave me grace, He came and love and lived so that I would not have to live in this captivity to my own limitations of my human, sinful self.
Today I am so very grateful that He came, He forgave, He sees me as though I am not little in spirit, but He sees me with the eyes of His love that covers my fragile state of being.
I had cancer of the soul, and He became my anecdote, my healing.
The older I get the more grateful I am,
and the more I see my need and pettiness and selfish heart,
the more I am so very grateful for His grace
and the more I receive this grace in the midst of my own need,
the more willing I am to extend His grace to others, assuming that maybe, just like me, they need it, too.
And so today, I have realized that everyone in my life means well, just as I mean to be good, but has probably fallen short, just like me.
And today, I see that everyone I know needs His Christmas grace.
Sally, I love this blog and your books. I really appreciate this post particularly. I have four beautiful children. The oldest two are 16 and 14 year-old girls. There are many days when hurtful words are expressed. I feel overwhelmed by how to “fix” them sometimes. They are both good girls but their hormones seem to control their tongues at times. Your post helps me to realize that maybe I don’t have to “fix” them, I can let the Holy Spirit do that. I can show forgiveness and grace because I am certainly NOT perfect at all. Thank you so much!
So necessary and true after last night and a situation with my eight year old. The today the 6 year old came in and colored his responsibility pyramid for the first time…grace, grace, grace..
This was written for me, I just know it.
I am praying in one breath and using a harsh tone in the next. I am reading my bible and burying truth in my heart one moment and judging others in my mind the next.
Oh the grace, the amazing grace. Thank you Jesus.
The Lord has once again used you to touch my heart, thank you!
That’s why I named my blog Moms In Need of Mercy, after Hebrews 4:16, that we may approach the throne of grace with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need
I love a picture I saw on FB the other day that said, “I’ve failed a thousand times, but His mercy is new each day.” That so helps me with mothering three wonderful, high-energy, not easily compliant boys (and a newborn girl that is pretty easy still) 
I really never comment on blog posts, but I had to write and say Thank you. I have tears streaming down my cheeks as I write this because I have been sitting here at my desk angry at my 21 year old about something she has done… I was just thinking about how I would make sure to give her a piece of my mind tomorrow, then I caught myself and asked God to help me calm down and to not “bite the apple”. I didn’t want to say something that would make me a bad mom/person. I took a deep breath and thought I’d check my email and saw that you had sent a blog post. I feel so relaxed now. I will let the issue with my daughter slide… because now I have peace. I have failed my self many times and will continue to do so. I will pray for my daughter and give her my forgiveness, as Christ has forgiven me. Thank you Sally, for helping me see this. Merry Christmas and God Bless.