thankful ...

3~ I'm thankful for forgiveness

I guess this is on my mind (still feeling guilty about the gym, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I had enough self control to quit eating this dang halloween candy) this morning. I've been having a tough time with my kids lately, the big kids in particular - but even Liam has become quite prone to "express himself" as of late! What does this have to do with forgiveness? Have you ever noticed how - generally - forgiving kids are? I used to wonder to myself, why do these kids love "her/him" so much - it was situations where I felt like the person was super strict or whatever ... now that I'm a mom I know why - kids forget, which sort of makes them super forgiving! Now, not that I'm naive to think my kids actually don't recall my yelling fits, we often discuss how even though I'm a mommy - I still do wrong things. Being a grown up does not make us perfect. It only means we really should no better! Annicka especially inquires as to why I do this, that, or the other thing. Recently I told her some of it is old habits I never learned to break - and once you've done something for all your life, it's super hard to stop (I also pointed out that's why it's good to try to break some of these habits as a kid)! In the heat of the moment my children may say they hate me and they've even said "I'll never forgive you" - but once we all cool down I can usually speak to them, apologize (if I need to), discuss it, and be forgiven!

I'm so thankful that God is so forgiving too! Where would I be without His forgiveness?