A few days ago, we were having a rough day here at La Maison McKenna.We were in a car wreck and then the very next day my daughter Elodie came down with a cold and an ear infection. Everything was all out of whack, including my attitude. Which meant that my heart was out of whack.

Jered and I decided that it would be a good idea to go to this little deli downtown for lunch. But first, we needed to swing by the car place where our van was and pick up some things that were left in it after the accident. We were missing a whole bunch of baby gear that I decided I couldn’t live without for another day. So we got in our sweet rental car and headed for the car-fixer-upper place.

Well now. Apparently, someone — who shall remain nameless — misread the directions, and we ended up driving up and down one of the busiest streets in Greenville for half an hour looking for our van. It finally dawned on us that we have these fancy devices called cell phones, and so we called someone who knew where the place was and were finally able to find it.

And they were closed.

On Friday.

At noon.

Which probably means they were out for lunch. They were probably at the super cute deli that we wanted to go to. Wouldn’t that be ironic?

Who’s in charge here?

At that point, what started off as a simple “hey let’s swing by that place and grab some stuff” had turned into a 45 minute ordeal filled with a lot of sighing from me, frustrated glances from me, and passive-aggressive one-word sentences said by me. Jered had some things to say as well, mostly about how the universe was obviously out to get him because we were hitting every single red light possible, and missing our turns because the road signs weren’t visible enough. He actually said, “Seriously, universe?” a couple of times. And I was like, “Yeah, seriously, universe?” And then we were both like, “Wait, are we even Christians?”

It’s funny how inconveniences show us where our hope really lies.

We decided to just go back home. Elodie had started getting upset, my head was beginning to throb, and Jered’s patience was running thin. To redeem the outing a little we stopped at a little cafe/grocery store on our way home where we got to eat a little lunch. That was nice. But it also turned out to be the calm before the storm. The storm erupted as soon as Elodie was strapped back in her car seat, and we were stuck right in the middle of it. There was no way out.

She hadn’t screamed like that in months. All I could think about was the fact that it was my fault, because I wanted to stop at the cafe in order to salvage the outing that had turned out so badly. Even though I knew it was coming up on her naptime, and even though I knew she wasn’t feeling great in the first place because of her ear infection. My fault. Mea culpa. What a terrible mother I am.

So we sat there, trapped inside a $30,000 rental car, with our 11-month old shrieking, our emotions soaring and our pride hurting. When we finally made it home I took my sobbing child up to her room and attempted to create an environment in which she would settle down and take a nice, long nap. She did settle down, eventually, and she did nap. For about 25 minutes.

And then the screaming started up again. Even as I held her in my arms and assured her over and over again that I was not going to put her back down, she sobbed on. It took at least 30 minutes for her to stop crying. Do you know what finally did the job?

Curious George.

Who knew that that little monkey would make her so happy? Seriously. It was freaking adorable. She stood up at the coffee table, looking at the tv, and bounced and laughed and stared and squealed. From that moment until we put her to bed four hours later, she was a delight. She watched that monkey for the entire four hours. Just kidding. It was more like 20 minutes.

God never tires

As she watched TV and I watched her, I couldn’t stop thinking about how easy it had been for me to shut down earlier when things weren’t going the way I had planned. In an instant, my attitude had gone from good to terrible, all because of my circumstances. I realized that I am far more immature than I am willing to admit. I have far more control issues than I ever knew. I am a far bigger sinner that I dare even imagine.

But also, I am being sanctified. And so is Jered. We have the privilege and the blessing and the gift of going through this life together, with all the highs and all the lows. And now we have a daughter, and she is watching us, and learning from us, and she needs us to show her Jesus by showing grace to each other.

She needs us to show her what it means to live by faith when we’re stuck at a red light or when we’re slamming into another car going 45 miles an hour. Because all things require faith. All things require grace. Grace and faith come from God and He will never tire of giving us what we need.  That’s what I need to teach my daughter.

Do you need some grace today?
Video: Tony Campolo on how we are fuelled by grace
What to do when God has you waiting