This morning I woke up (for the third time) around 7:15 am, pretty tired after also being up around 2:30 and around 5:30. Dear sweet little brother is doing well, but his timetable is a bit out of sorts, you see.

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I cradled our precious bundle in my arms, my eyes still sleepy and closing on their own, and lifted my head to the Lord to say:

Lord, give me strength for today.

Now here’s the backstory to what a prayer like that means from a girl like me.

If I ask the Lord for strength first thing in the morning, I am asking for the supernatural ability to be a mover and shaker when I don’t feel like it. I’m asking for the strength to be a perfect Mom to the Bear and to Little Brother. I don’t want to step out of bounds or say anything I shouldn’t. I want to be a perfectly supportive wife and continually warm and welcoming to our darling house guest/helper. I want to tackle at least two loads of laundry — including stain treatments that have been awaiting my attention — fix a decent lunch and a delectable dinner, and do it all with a smile on my face. And heck, if I get a chance to bake something tasty, you know that’s on my list, too. {And all of these things must be interspersed in between nursing and help-the-baby-nap sessions, usually every couple hours.}

I was happy to be beginning the morning with prayer, even when I felt so tired. And as I settled in for a moment for Little Brother to enjoy his breakfast, I grabbed the One-Minute Devotional book Morning by Morning by Charles Spurgeon, which was sitting on my bedside table.

These words met me on the page:

Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. {2 Timothy 2:1}

I’m asking for strength, and I’m being told to find it in grace.

The Lord met me with these words to say that I am better off finding strength in His grace than asking for strength so that I can use it as my own, to try to be perfect. In His grace, it is okay that I’m tired. I have a newborn, after all. And it’s okay if I’m moving slowly and can’t accomplish everything on my list today. Grace is telling me it’s okay that I’m not perfect. Jesus is the only perfect one, and as Spurgeon explained it, like a reservoir emptying into pipes, His grace is ever-ready to pardon, to cleanse, to preserve, to strengthen, to enlighten, to bring life, or to restore. I imagine I might find an impartation of wisdom in His grace, to clarify what should be on my list today.

“Grace is always available from Him, freely and without price.”

So instead of seeking the strength to make a good performance today, I’m finding the strength that His grace affords me — a human being before a human doing — to rest in His goodness, without anxiousness or a furrowed brow of fret.

Jesus says:

Don’t worry — Each day has enough trouble of its own.

In Him we live and move and have our being.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Apart from me you can do nothing.

If I stick close to the Source, I find it again and again: it is Amazing Grace.

So, I’m a little too tired to put together a Travelling Tuesday for you today. But I’m confident that there’s grace for that. You are welcome to travel to Se7en {the life and times of a homeschooling Mom of 7 +1} where I’ve been featured on Se7en’s Missionary Focus. {What an amazing woman, behind that blog!! So inspiring.} I’ll be around, of course, but I’ll be resting in His grace.

xCC