Grace

Grace.

I've been thinking a lot about this lately. What is grace? Its such a simple word. And I like to think I'm a reasonably smart person, but I can't tell you what it is. So I read the definition, and I guess I get it but it still seems like a concept that's a little far away from me completely grasping. Grace is unmerited favor.

Unmerited Favor.

Someone favoring you even though you don't deserve it, haven't earned it, don't have any right to claim that favor. Is that even a concept that exists in our culture? People really think they deserve everything, and when they don't get it, its an injustice. Is that really true? Do people who don't work hard deserve to have all the luxuries of those who do work hard? Do Americans deserve more luxuries than Africans, just because we were lucky enough to be born here? Americans seem to think so.

I've had to completely quit reading parenting magazines, they drive me crazy. For one thing, they make me feel inadequate for not making sandwichs and snacks that look like cute little smiley faces for every single meal. And another, they write articles about all the fun activities we should be doing with our kids every minute of the day. Well, I agree with these things in principle, except the magazines push everything to such extremes that they don't leave any room for real life. And the reason why this is related to thinking about grace is that the magazines make it seem like our kids deserve every single second of our time, and every thought that passes through our minds every waking minute. All our energy should be devoted to nothing but our kids.

I say, if that is really the case, we are going to be raising some unbalanced, self-centered children, and that's probably why our culture is heading down the wrong path. I love my kids. They deserve my devotion, time, love, attention, energy, and smiley face food making efforts. But don't they have to learn that they're not the center of the universe? Doesn't that mean that they have to see that I spend my time and energy on other things too? Ultimately, of course, I come back to them and they learn that family is the most important thing. But life involves spending time on the important things, and the daily necessities of getting by, working, cooking, cleaning, blah blah blah. So my New Year's Resolution is going to be to spend quality time with my kids more often, but also to quit feeling guilty when I ignore them and fold the laundry for a little while.