The Mercy of Parenting

I had a really great idea...as we planned to leave for Louisiana I thought it would be good to begin our second day driving as early as possible. If we left at 4:00 A:M I would be able to get in several hours of peaceful driving before the girls woke up. I relished visions of driving down an empty road, cup of coffee in hand, with peaceful sleeping babies in the back. Ahhh....

This is when you know you've become a really lame grown up, when you find yourself day dreaming about a peaceful road trip. Don't get me wrong, I love spending the time with my family. But, there's just something about changing your fifth dirty diaper at a rest area in 100 degree heat in Alabama that makes flying seem like a better idea.

So anyway, I put my plan into action at 4:15 A:M. I packed us up from Erin's grandmother's house in North Carolina, put the girls in the car, apolgized to Erin for insisting we left so early, and took my seat. All was going according to plan, except for one thing, we were low on gas. When I stopped to fill up at 5:45, the girls woke up....for good. Within twenty minutes my vision of a perfect peaceful morning was turned upsidedown. Karis was throwing up, Grace was crying in dramatic hunger pains, and Erin was revisiting the issue of my judgment in getting us all up so early.

As I looked in the rear-view mirror at Karis' sad and sleepy face I was struck with my own selfishness. I had planned the morning arond fulfilling my own vision of autonomous freedom. I did not want to be hindered with baby troubles. God's purposes in using babies as sanctifying tools of redemption are staggering. Jesus insisted that in order to enter the Kingdom of God, we must recieve it as a child (Mark 10). A child... utterly dependant, utterly helpless, and utterly needy. This is what we are, and in realizing this, we come to see the face of a Father, who is more fatherly than anything we could have imagined. For me, this is the mercy of parenting.