This morning at breakfast the kids were eating great and I spied our devotion book lying on the table and I thought, what a great opportunity to read a few verses to the kids! I got the book and read one verse. As we began to talk about it, Anne wiped cream cheese off her face with her sleeve and as I started to remind her to use a napkin, her arm shot forward and knocked over a half-full cup of milk which spilled all over the table.
Instead of calmly cleaning it up I got angry and irritated and frustrated and grudgingly cleaned up the milk while grumbling and ranting about her carelessness and how she spills more often than any of the other kids (I don't even know if this is true), and was just all together ungodly.
As I took the sopping rag back into the kitchen it struck me at how ironic the situation was. Her spilled milk gave me a perfect opportunity to show God's love and grace in a simple mistake. And I failed miserably.
When I came back to the table I apologized to her tear-filled eyes and felt like a complete jerk. I asked the kids what the would remember most from that morning: the Bible verse I read or the way I acted when Anne spilled her milk? Abbey tried to give what she thought was the "right" answer and said, "the Bible verse!". So I asked her what the verse was and, of course, she didn't know. Then I asked her how mommy acted when the milk spilled and she said, "Not good and not nice."
I proceeded to try to explain how I was very sorry and how I will try to act better next time and that even Moms make mistakes and need to be shown grace. I'm not sure if they "got" it or not, but it was a good reminder (at least for me) of how our actions can show God's love and grace (or our own failure) sometimes much more than our words can.
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