Good morning afternoon everyone,

Philippians 2:16-holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

John 15:5– I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

The more I grow as a parent and learn my own shortcomings and discouragements the more I come to appreciate my mom and even her mistakes. You soon realize mistakes in raising children and in life itself are inevitable. By mistakes I mean maybe you might be too hard or soft on a child or yourself, or find that you’re too paranoid and don’t relax, or too wrapped up in your ability to make you or your child a "success". Whatever mistakes we make, the only way we can come to accept them and move on in reality is to understand grace.

Without understanding the grace of the Lord, we will have a very hard time allowing ourselves to be real with ourselves and with other people. Without grace, performance becomes the number 1 priority in all we do. "If I do this or that right, then things will turn out right" is the rationale. Not to say we shouldn’t give to the best of our ability a task or relationship, it’s just that if we think that it is our ability that brings about good and godly results, than we will be exasperated with life and even God Himself.

Grace can become an actual reality when we remind ourselves that the outcome of all good comes from God’s graciousness to us and not our own ability. What proves our ability to be vain, is when we feel we have done everything that we can to make a situation good and joyful, yet the results seem to never change or even get worse. I believe it is those times that God reminds us that our ability, no matter how savvy, educated, or experienced it maybe, if trust in God’s way through obedience and faithfulness is not upheld, then He won’t allow us to be deceived and rob His Son of the credit. Humility can come in many ways, but many times it is God’s patience to allow us to have years of gradual "fruitlessness" in a relationship or situation before we realize our ability is vain, and turn to completely trust Him and His grace for all good.

In His Love, Ld