Exasperation and Grace

Sometimes I become so exasperated, frustrated, angry, embarrassed and humiliated in face of my children's' behaviour during church that I'm close to tears and I feel like fleeing rather than staying in the presence of the congregation witnessing the situation.

I suppose I notice a lot more of the behavior issues than most people in the congregation (I certainly hope so) but I really get about to the end of my rope sometimes. Besides that, I can hardly imagine that some people in the congregation don't think my parenting is seriously deficient and insecurity about that makes me just want to crawl in a hole.

Not to say that there aren't issues, but I have to tell you about the grace that happened again today. I apologized to a person I don't really know who I thought might be particularly unhappy about the disruptions caused by my kids. They smiled and very kindly (and I believe sincerely) told me it was alright. Whew. Thank you, thank you, thank you, again.

This is the context in which I hear "...you have graciously accepted us as living members of your son, our saviour, Jesus Christ..."