Parenting with Grace

This is a guest post by Tina Savasuk. Tina is a Christian, Wife, and Mama who recently left corporate America to be at home fulfilling God's highest and holiest calling for her life...ministry to her family.  She is constantly amazed by the depth of God's love, grace, and mercy and so thankful for every gift from Him.  She can be found blogging at: http://www.savasuks.blogspot.com/. 

I watched the movie Change of Plans several months ago (great family movie if you haven't seen it...don't worry this is not a spoiler). There is a scene where a young teenager knocked over some very expensive looking music equipment in his new foster parent's basement. I don't remember exactly how the foster mom responded but it went something like this: she put her arm around the teenage boy and spoke softly to him.

 
The other thing I remember is thinking, 'wow, I probably would not have responded like that.' Little did I know that God would make that image stick out in my mind and eventually use it in a very powerful way.

You see, I have found myself being a grumpy mom more often than not lately. Don't get me wrong, I love my children and I truly believe they are one of God's greatest gifts and I thank Him for them daily. But, I find myself speaking harshly and yelling a lot more often than I would like to admit. If I am being honest, I can recall many more times I have responded negatively rather than positively to my children and that breaks my heart. I started to cry out to God saying, "God I know that I am not glorifying you with my parenting. Please, show me, teach me, guide me, HELP ME!" True to form, God is so faithful. Almost immediately I had three resources right at hand. One was a blog post (on a blog that I don't even follow but I found through a retweet on Twitter) called Angry Mom's Anonymous. The second was a devotional from YouVersion called Parenting By Design. The third was a book by Tim Kimmel, Grace-Based Parenting.

These resources have been tremendously helpful in just giving me confidence and inspiration for changing my parenting style. But, sometimes the information seems a bit abstract. I read something and think, 'ok, but how does that play out in real life?' Then, God brings that scene from the movie back to my mind and I realize that is a picture of parenting with grace...That is how it plays out in real life. It's me putting my arms around my children and speaking gently to them no matter what the issue is. It doesn't mean that discipline is absent. It just means that Grace is present. Praise God for his guidance in life and especially this parenting journey.