Three Gracious Minutes

Elijah Bean--3 years old

Isaac--9 years old

Evelyn--6 years old

When I look at them in pictures, I think that I must be so lucky--to have been blessed by such beautiful, grace-filled children. But, more often than not, I forget...I forget when they are yelling 'idiot' and 'I hate you!' I forget when it's 3am and Evelyn wants to sleep with us for the 500th night in a row and is yelling 'your daughter is sad in here--don't you care about me?!?!' I forget about it when Elijah is crying because he wants the green cup...not the blue one; and milk, not water...I forget about it when Isaac wants to do nothing, but play on the computer and talking to me is about the last thing he ever wants to do.

But then...then there are moments like tonight, when I'm tucking them in bed and singing the same song for the 1000th time, and Elijah looks at me, and smiles--'I love you mama' and he's slowly closing his eyes, fighting that last moment of sleep. And an entire week of feeling like the worst mother in the world ends with my precious babies in their beds, and me seeing a glimpse of grace. I pray I remember this moment tomorrow when they're slamming each others' fingers in the door and literally dragging poor Patches the cat around by its tail...