Forgiveness

Today I gave the kids back all their toys.  And it felt great.  Partially because I was tired of having more toys in our room than theirs and partially because they would never earn all their toys back one at a time by being good.  Because its hard to recognize the good they do when you are constantly in a fire fighting mode.  Unfortunately, often the one causing the trouble is the one being dealt with and the others are being ignored.  Its just the way it is right now. Just being honest.

And I think about God's forgiveness for us.  We mess things up and we innately feel like he is holding it over our heads and we will never earn back his love, his blessings, his goodness.  But he is able to forgive completely. Completely.  All the goodness of God returning to our lives and he only asks that we are sorry and ask for forgiveness. And honestly, he didn't take his goodness away to begin with just because we messed it up. Yes, there are consequences for our actions and sometimes God does discipline us and it isn't pleasant. But he is always there. His goodness is always there for us.  He doesn't leave us, even when we are at our worst.  We always see the bad in ourselves. We always expect to be punished.  And think we deserve to never see God's goodness because we failed Him. But that's our thinking and not his.

Because he doesn't hold grudges or wait for the moment to make us suffer.  He forgives completely and waits for the moment we realize his grace is sufficient for us.