There is a blog post I wrote on this site called, “The Key.” The key was the grace of God. There’s a page in my prayer journal that has scrawled across it: Everything is Grace. When you are teaching your kids to read and to multiply and to recognize the difference between mitosis and meiosis, don’t forget to teach grace.
You aren’t going to raise perfect children because you are human and they are human. There’s no perfect way you can teach them. There’s no perfect way you can raise them. Teaching them rules and enforcing them may create a nice family picture on the outside, but it will never teach your children grace, and we are saved by grace. Do you want your children to act good or be good, act like a Christian or be a Christian?
The Old Testament is two-thirds of the Bible. Its main point seems to be humans aren’t perfect and can’t be. God is God and we’re not. God is good and we’re not. God is all things wonderful and we’re not.
And it would be a sad story, but for grace.
Grace gives God’s goodness and all things wonderful to us, namely Himself. He gives us the grace to be patient, to love, to understand, to teach, to learn, to live, to laugh, to forgive, to try again, to turn back, to heal, to help, to rejoice when our world and our life is far from perfect. He gives us the sun, and the rain. He provides for our needs and then some.
One of our family expressions is: God provides cake too. For a time, about a decade ago, my husband decided he needed to leave his job. We decided we would live by faith and trust the Lord to provide. One evening right around the time we had made our decision, a Roma man, just an acquaintance of ours, stopped by with all the leftovers from his fruit and vegetable cart that he hadn’t sold that day. It was the only time he ever did that. And on his way over, he had picked up a cake for the kids from the store. We feasted on the fresh fruits and veggies—and the cake. We said to our kids, “God doesn’t just make us eat our vegetables. He gives us cake too.”
So let your kids eat cake, the sweet grace of God. Teach your kids grace, the good God who knows we’re human and can’t do it on our own and so made a way to be there with us always to help us out. Make sure your kids know they will never be “good” apart from Christ in them, but that God sees them perfect in Christ Jesus. And make sure they know that God doesn’t just give us what we need, but cake too, just because He can, just because He loves us. God loves your kids more than you do. Make sure they know it.
We needed this today. God is good. Thank you for reminding us of these truths. May you be richly blessed.
We are starting back to school today after a month off. Thank you for this blessed reminder.
Just stumbled onto your blog looking for some curriculum. (We start tomorrow! 😳) Really loved your post today about grace. Would you mind if I shared it on my personal page of fb? I think it would bless others. 😊
Thank you for sharing your years of curriculum.
It’s public, so feel free to share.
Your words are such a blessing. The Grace of God is the hallmark of our faith, and without it, we’d all certainly be in trouble. I thank God for you and the wonderful work you’ve done with the Easy Peasy curriculum. As we embark upon the new school year, your words are a great reminder to rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ, in every area of our lives. God bless!
what does that grace look like practically? How do you allow the grace, but not give in to kids to entitlement and such….stuggling to find the grace to teach what it truly is in our life. I don’t want them just to behave, I desire for them to be deeply rooted in their own freedom relationship in Christ….
I would say that it expresses in rules and discipline coming from a place of love, not out of a place of authority, control, submission. That forgiveness be freely and easily given and received. That we all show how we need God’s grace. That we all recognize we’re called to perfection but none of us are there. That they know they can’t be “good enough” — that we don’t earn our salvation or God’s love. That they are loved just the way they are, but they are called to be like Jesus and are always on the path toward that high goal.
This brought me to tears and is exactly what I needed to read today. Thank you. <3