“Why do I need to keep telling you the same thing everyday?”

I asked, sounding quite miffed.

The answer came swiftly:

“Why Do I Need to Keep Telling You Things too?”

All the frustration drained out of me, leaving me feeling sheepish.

That was God asking me the exact same question I was asking my kids.

Why do we expect that God’s Grace will be available to us when we aren’t willing to extend the same measure of Grace to our kids?

We will reduce our constant feeling of frustration and anger towards our kids when they don’t act the way we want them to if we keep the following in mind:

• Kids will always be kids: While it is true that we need our kids to behave certain ways and do certain things, we should also remember that they are kids and they will act their age. And acting their age could mean sometimes forgetting instructions you have given, getting too playful and ignoring some instructions  (not to willfully disobey, but just because play time seemed more gratifying at the moment). We need to remember that they will act their age – and sometimes, even act younger than their age.
• They Are Human: Just as parents are not perfect people,just striving towards it, so are kids not perfect. We need to remember this and cut them some slack when they don’t act the way we want them to.

• Your Expectations Should Match Their Capacity: Our expectations for our Kids may just be too high sometimes! We know that we want our kids to be able to master some life skills, but the truth is that it wont happen automatically. The kids will need to grow into the reality of those skills we are trying to pass across to them.
• We all are God’s Work-In-Progress: As a Work-In-Progress, I am not perfect and so I will stumble sometimes. I will not be able to keep up with a facade of having it altogether sometimes. If its fine for me to drop the ball a few times, then it’s okay for my kids to do that also.

We should never forget that we all are a Product of God’s Grace and this same Grace should be extended to our kids.

In what areas do you need to adjust?

I’ll love to read from you. Please don’t leave without letting me know what you think.

Your Fellow Imperfect But Graced Mom,