Modeling Grace

I must say that I am truly blessed and honored to work with some of the most intelligent, compassionate and loving people. We are all SO very different. Different backgrounds, cultures, upbringing....but similar in our love of people. We cherish our roles as mothers, wives, daughters, sisters and friends. Some of the best parenting advice I've ever received has been from these women. I want to share a nugget with you from my friend, Beth McAulay. The day before the last day of school, we had an in depth conversation about the woes of raising girls. Mine are about to enter the tween stage and she has full blown teens, so it seems we never run out of stories to share. We chatted that morning for a while about the upcoming transitions in school and life and upcoming plans for summer.

Last year, she shared with me that when she has to break some not so good news to her husband regarding something that one of her girls has done, she starts it with "Honey, our girls are giving us the amazing opportunity to MODEL grace and forgiveness." That hit me directly, since I feel most times I am the one that can easily fly off the handle while Kifaru is most times cool, calm and collected. Yes, I'm a Behavior Analyst and have been doing this for over 20 years, but I am also an imperfect parent who can always learn from others. I shared with Beth on this morning how her words of wisdom have stuck with me and how much they have truly impacted my parenting style. Two mornings later, after thinking about these words of wisdom, I asked Beth if I could share her words on this blog. Here is her beautiful response:

When I think about the opportunity to model grace and forgiveness with my own children, I also think about my clients. We are all just people. People trying to figure it out and making mistakes along the way. I think about how often mistakes are made when clients are learning new skills; and how if these mistakes are not handled as an opportunity to for me to improve my delivery or instruction, with grace and forgiveness, I could discourage the learning. I think about the mistakes I see teachers making with students and how difficult it is for some to reflect and apologize. I think about the mistakes I MAKE as a parent....then I practice a little grace, forgiveness and compassion with MYSELF.

I hope these words will impact you in a positive way as well.

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