Fields of Green: Titus 2'sday- On Grace

Titus 2'day, based on Titus 2:3-5, is my regular Tuesday installment where I share the great advice others have given me about parenting or about what I'm learning along the way.

Sometimes, when it's late at night and you have a million things to say and write and be and do, you just have to shut down. When your back hurts from carting a 19-lb baby in and out of the car all day and you went to Costco at 8:15 with an over-tired kid because there was literally nothing left to eat, it's ok to take a break. It's ok that the floors need to be Swiffered. It's ok that the thank-you cards aren't finished. It's ok that the laundry room is full to the brim. It's ok that there is dust everywhere and that you still need to paint the trim in the bathroom. Sometimes it just needs to be ok to go to bed at a reasonable time, because tomorrow is a new day and everything will eventually get done.

Sometimes I just need to tell myself that over and over, and I thought someone else might need to remember it, too.

"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." Ephesians 2:4-9