Day Sixteen: Creating Home (Forgiveness)

*** I just realized I goofed up my "scheduled posts", you'll get an influx tonight ***

As a mom,
I have in my mind certain behaviors or mistakes that I can tolerate,
and wait for my family members to grow out of.
And there are things that I don't think I handle too well-
And than there are situations that I dread EVER happening
to our family or home life.

This summer, we had one of those "Dreaded Situations".
I am here to declare,
loud and proud,
that the night of discovery did NOT look pretty in our home!!
I handled it exactly how I imagined I would
in my wildest nightmares!!
Again, let's repeat,
it wasn't pretty--

But about 15 minutes into the carnage,
I miraculously stepped back from my own emotion,
and looked at the situation with a broader perspective
(I seem to use that word a lot)
I did what every good family counselor advises against,
and I said "Let's go to bed and resolve this in the morning"

Oh sometimes disobedience is best. So to bed we went,
and the next morning it didn't look so bad at all.

I determined that I would exercise some restraint on lecturing
and let natural consequences be the most significant teacher
for this situation.
I learned a lot from this situation-
I learned to see a daughter of mine,
as a daughter of God,
and I got to truly experience what Godly forgiveness
feels like from His perspective.
I didn't realize how stepping back allowed me to
truly see the beauty and goodness in the child
who had just made a bad choice.
It wasn't life threatening, or even eternally harmful,
but it was a decision that worldly eyes
would have seen tarnish,
but Heavenly Eyes saw growth!
I hope that we don't have to do this again,
BUT I am so grateful that I got to experience
the true gift that FORGIVENESS at home
offers to both the forgiven and the forgiver.

Try to step away from hurt or pride or anger
and just truly FORGIVE in your home-
it is an amazing gift.