Grace

Grace is one of the traits I admire most in people. Sometimes it's in grand form... fighting cancer, keeping your head up in a tough situation, taking the high road... but many times the beauty of grace is simplistic and brief. Witnessing it is something I take immense pleasure in... but I struggle with how to teach it to the children. It's a difficult thing to point out regularly... as it can be mistaken for kindness, an equally admirable characteristic, but more common and simpler to teach.

I've searched definitions like Webster's on line, http://www.webster-dictionary.net/definition/grace,"The exercise of love, kindness, mercy, favor; disposition to benefit or serve another; favor bestowed or privilege conferred."

Too antiseptic for me... So it seems to me the only way to teach the children to recognize and act with grace is to try to show it as often as possible and point out the examples when they show it and when we see it. I in no way believe this to be easy.

Owning your failures... forgiveness... strength... love... kindness... recognition... patience... it's everything you try to do as a parent... maybe that's why I witness it there. The seasoned mother who can transfer all those traits in a two minute phone message... the father who patiently sets and baits hooks for his young sons untangling lines and teaching instead of fishing himself on a rare day off... the mother who lets her kids "cook" with her for hours even when she's exhausted because she knows it makes them feel like they belong... the parents of the wheelchair bound child who never let her suffer for it because they're too busy taking here everywhere and doing everything with her as if she weren't... the father who coaches three soccer teams for his kids and still manages to compliment another parent for working the concession stand... the parents who's son gets JD but hardly skips a beat with anything he loves to do because they make it their mission in life to do so.

I feel exceptionally blessed to be surrounded by all kinds of graces every day, and even though I don't always succeed I try to emulate them... As far as the teaching children to recognize it, I'm thankful I have more time. It's a difficult lesson.