"Forgiveness" by Stacey Wooddell Imbimbo

Repent, then, and turn to God, 

so that your sins may be wiped out, 

that times of refreshing 

may come from the Lord - Acts 3:19

We were heading to the beach, meeting some friends at our favorite splash pad.

I was driving down Atlantic Ave thinking about how difficult the morning had been.  The kids were touchy and getting on each other’s nerves. 

 They were having a hard time listening and obeying.

There was lots of disciplining, reminding and redirecting.

It was slightly chaotic, and I was rushing around getting everything ready for our “fun day at the beach”. 

Then it happened….I lost it!   

It wasn’t pretty….

My words were NOT kind, my patience was GONE, and I had had enough.

Have you ever had one of those days?

In my heart I knew I had to do it….it wasn’t easy but it was so important.

I had to ask for their forgiveness.

I was wrong.

There I was, driving our minivan, letting them know that I was so sorry that I was not being kind. I was so sorry for the words I used.

Will you please forgive me?

As I watched from the rear view mirror, they were smiling saying “that’s ok, we forgive you” “we love you” “its fine mom”.

Children are such a beautiful picture of true forgiveness. 

They hold no grudges, they keep no record of wrongdoings.

We parked, hugs and kisses, and off they went to play.

It was such a great lesson for me as the mom.

 It was hard to humble myself to admit my failure to my kids. But, I was encouraged by their actions of quick forgiveness. 

As our children are following in our footsteps, watching our every move, hearing our every word, may they see us ask for forgiveness.

"Mother's Day" by Stacey Wooddell Imbimbo

How many times have you failed?

If you are anything like me, you lay in bed and think about the day that you just experienced.  You replay moments with your kids.  Good or Bad.  And usually I feel like I had a great day or boy did I mess up!

Mother’s Day was a mess up….big time!

It started out fairly early, kids thought 5:45am was a grand entrance into the day.

I had planned a busy day, church and then home to get ready for family coming over to celebrate.  We were getting together for Mother’s Day and my son’s 3^rd birthday.

I tend to over plan and over think.  See, I really want things to be nice…okay really I want them to be perfect.  I want to make and decorate a homemade cake, have a delicious meal, plus have the house looking clean and decorated for the party.

My kids are 3,2 and 1…so they tend to tear down the streamers, take off the decorative stickers, and not allow me uninterrupted time to decorate the cake.  The cherry on top was they all decided to not nap, which did not help my situation.

The clock was ticking, and I was becoming irritated, short, and basically ugly.  And I was directing all of this behavior toward my kiddos.

For the love, it was Mother’s Day.  I wasn’t even acting like those Hallmark cards depict a mother to be.

“Her children rise up and call her blessed” Proverbs 31:28….was far from what these kids would call me at this point.

And then it happened….that moment…straight from the movies…

The kids all came into the kitchen, homemade cards and gifts in hand.  “HAPPY MOTHERS DAY” they said…with lots of hugs and kisses.

And it hit me.

Hard.

FORGIVENESS.

They forgave me so easily.  They were not forced, or asked, or even manipulated. 

That just forgave me and loved me, just because I was their mom.

WOW

What a great reminder of God’s gift of forgiveness towards us.

He just forgives us, plain and simple.

No matter how many times we fail, and believe me I do it a lot.

 We are forgiven by our Savior…just because He loves us.

Psalm 86:5 “For you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive…”

TICKED OFF

TICKED OFF

Ephesians 4:31-32 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you”

I was focusing on a bible study, taking in great wisdom on teaching my kids about obedience and sacrifice, when the words on the page jumped off and punched me in the chest! It read, “When involved in conflicts with friends or siblings ask your child, ‘Which one of you is going to be like Jesus and sacrifice? Do you care more about your friend or about winning the argument?”

I took a deep breath and heard the Holy Spirit’s still voice whisper, “well, what are you going to do Sheila???” My husband and I had just had a little, eh hem,  disagreement 2 days prior and I was still holding on to some of the wounds from that disagreement. Sacrifice, what a concept! How can I teach this wisdom to my kids if in my own stubbornness I have not been the one to sacrifice? I am caring more about winning the argument then my own husband!! I am being no example for the Lord. I am definitely not being an example for my kids!!

The next part of the Bible study that focused on marriage was on; yep you guessed it, conflict. I have always been a bit afraid of conflict. Coming from a long line of divorced women and seeing much conflict in my parents’ marriage made me not even want to get married. Conflict =problems=escalation in emotion=misery in my eyes and I did not want misery! She said something in that study that struck me. She said conflict is not necessarily a sign that your marriage is in trouble. It is an opportunity God is using to grow us up, make us more like Him, and bring Him glory! We need to change our mindset and stop looking at conflict as if it’s a bad thing.

James 1:2-4  “Consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

What we fight about is rarely the main issue. We need to remember that if we handle conflict in our marriage properly it can produce great results and what an example we will be to our children if we hold on to this!

How are you doing in this? Has something happened in your marriage to give you the opportunity to be more like Jesus today?

*Some information courtesy of Mom's on  a Mission from Rio Vista Church

                                                         Reliving my Regrets…..or Not

James 3:2, "Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way." (NLT)

I was pulling out all of our Christmas stuff tonight and came across a box of memorabilia from our wedding. I nostalgically looked through the box and came upon our wedding video. Now most people would think awe how sweet, but there is a story to our video. You see, I had had a VERY stressful morning and drove myself and some of my bridesmaids to the wedding late. I parked on the wrong side of the church and then had to dodge arriving guests as I dashed past the alter in an attempt to make it to my bridal room. Needless to say my stomach was in knots and tears flowed from my made up eyes. All of the craziness and stress ended there and I ended up having a beautiful, magical day that I will never forget! However, when the video guy came around to interview me I was so unprepared that I blabbered how this started out to be the “day from hell” Yes!! I said that!! I immediately felt bad for what I said but for some reason didn’t mention it to the video man and of course that is the end of that story. We never showed our video to anyone and had even purchased copies for our families that were never given.

               This is not the first and I’m sure won’t be the last time my big mouth gets me in trouble. I struggle with this, anyone else? Though this problem persists I see it getting better daily as I stay in step with Jesus. The bigger problem I have is the guilt that comes along with the statements. I have a very hard time letting myself off the hook. Thank God I have a gracious husband who encourages, forgives, and loves me through this! I have said hurtful and rude things to my children also. That is the hardest for me to forgive because I felt the pain of harsh words as a child and I know the damage they can do. The one thing I didn’t have is a sincere apology to go with it.

               Moms, I don’t know your story but I know we all fall short of the Glory of God. When you do, and you will, stay humble. Your child’s spirit is on the line. This may not be easy and man is it a humbling experience but when they see that you make mistakes too and that you are willing to submit an apology to them it will impact them more then you can imagine. I have admitted my wrongs to my children. I have very humbly come before them and I have watched the fruit of them humbly coming before others when they are wrong. I have seen a crushed spirit rekindled from a simple sincere apology. And the guilt has lifted from me in those moments along with a stinging reminder not to do or say that again.

1 Corinthians 10:13

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it 

Prayer:

Heavenly Father we come before you knowing that we are not perfect. We ask that you would help us to be filled fresh with Your Spirit daily. That our thoughts and words would reflect who You are. Please help us to humble ourselves in the times we give in to our flesh and say or do the wrong things. Help us to fight our pride and ask for forgiveness to those we hurt and thank you Lord for the eternal forgiveness we don’t deserve but You so graciously give. In Jesus name . Amen!