Control & Grace

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.

—Ephesians 2:6–7

When I’m in a really busy season, I want control. Woe to the people who mess up my house, because when everything else is swirling, my impulse is to control whatever I can. And what I can control, basically, is my countertops. The people who mess up my house, of course, are the three people I live with, two of whom are little boys whose whole existence, basically, is messing stuff up. That’s how it should be. You’d think that when the pressure’s on, I’d relax about things like hanging up coats and putting away shoes. In some super-awesome twist-of-crazy, however, the more demands on my time and mental space, the more mental space I want to put toward neatness.

Instead of control, I need grace. GraceGraceGrace. Grace for my tired self, grace for my kids, grace for my messy house. And I’m learning, slowly, surely, to soften my grip, to ease up on the control, and instead, to dwell in grace.