Grace in Unexpected Places

Ladies, if you’re wondering about what to get your husband or your dad for Fathers Day, how about some good summer reading. In his recent blogs Al Mohler has offered some suggestions on some new history books, including a synopsis and quoted section from each. Check them out.


Potty Training. Oh how those 2 words fill my mind with horrible flashbacks. The tears, endless laundry, carpet scrubbing, and tantrums make my heart beat faster even now as I type. Needless to say, potty training my first daughter was not a gentle and easy process. I began training her at age two and was not fully successful until she was close to 4. Everything you hear not to do…I did. I could write a book: “What NOT to Do When Potty Training.” I remember a wise woman suggesting, “Have you prayed?”

Prayed for potty training? No…I never even thought of it.

Well I am delighted to tell you my third child, my first son, is out of diapers and accident-free at two and a half. Hallelujah!!!!! I have not changed a diaper in three weeks and I have not yet come down from the clouds. Our God is a God of mercy!! Many things were different this time around. I waited to start. I prayed. I asked for help from other moms, and honestly I didn’t DO much of anything else. I not only learned from my earlier mistakes, but God revealed to me an important lesson. When I attempt to do things on my own, in my own self-sufficiency, I usually fail miserably. At the last Family Life meeting, “Busy?”, Mark Prater said something that stuck in my mind. He said that “self-sufficiency disconnects us from grace”. Trying in all my power to potty train my daughter left me weary and burdened because I was disregarding the grace and strength available to me through my relationship to Jesus Christ. This helped me to see that when I am not seeking God by reading His Word, meditating on Him daily and praying, I have chosen to rely on my own strength and resources, even though I know from experience and from God’s word that they are insufficient. Not only do difficult duties like potty training become a trial, but the overall busyness of life becomes a trial too.

I am learning that diving in to grace through regular time with God opens my eyes not only to the futility of self-sufficiency, but to the sufficiency of grace that God showers upon me because of my Savior.