So we were out of town for Father’s Day, and Kristen is really in-to eating fancy meals for holidays.  Yep, I WIN!  Okay, so anyone who knows me well can tell you that I love to eat, and the spicier the better. So she convinces me to let her take me out to dinner tonight after work.

Great!

Well sure, I enjoyed my meal very much but, truth be told, we all ate a few too many chips with that excellent queso.  Mmmm.  Yep. So, of course, you know what happened when our meals arrived … we were really pretty full, and getting the kids to eat was obviously going to be a fight.  Honestly though, we both said later that we thought they did pretty well eating up all the food they had ordered, for the most part.  About the time when the gentle reminders about eating all of our food started wearing thin, Hallie (who is now potty training, by the way), says adamantly, “Mommy, I gotta go potty now!”

Okay, okay, so mommy takes her to the bathroom, but before they leave the table, both Emmy and Caed have decided to join the excursion.

As soon as they’re out of sight the waitress comes over and offers to clear some of our dishes (pre-bussing, for you restauranteurs out there).  Suddenly I have a GREAT thought … and ask her to clear the kids plates away and to go ahead and bring them the ice cream sundaes that come with the Kids Meals.  So she does … one little scoop of vanilla ice cream and a big helping of chocolate syrup on top.

Emmy is the first to make it back from the pit stop, and this is what happened …

“Daddy, someone took my food!”

“Yep, sure did … I told her that you guys were done.”

“But I wanted to eat more so I could have ice cream!!!”

“Sure you did.  But I decided to let you have ice cream even though you hadn’t eaten all of your food.”

[Long pause with a faraway glance.]

“DADDY!!!! That’s GRACE!!!!  We didn’t deserve it, because we should have eaten all of our food, but you still love us and made sure we had ice cream, too!  THANK YOU!!!”

It was all I could do to keep my emotions together … just sitting there, next to this beautiful six year old, hearing her share the good news of grace to me using the simple metaphor of an undeserved dessert.

So we’ve talked about how mercy is not getting the punishment that you deserve, and that grace is getting the restored relationship with God that you don’t deserve, in addition to all the beautiful benefits you experience just by being in relationship with HIM.  I never deliberately thought about finding ways to teach this important truth to my children, and thankfully, God was gracious to provide me with an easy way to begin doing it, even when it isn’t comfortable.

So … here’s to the ice cream you and I don’t deserve, but that our Father loves us enough to provide.

-j.