Messy Fingernails and a Lesson on Grace

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We had a few minutes to spare yesterday morning before we needed to leave for church. I know, that’s a bit shocking! It shocked me too.

I thought about sitting down and scrolling through my newsfeed. 

I thought about curling my hair.

I thought about eating breakfast at the table instead of on the road.

But I didn’t do any of those things.

Instead, I grabbed my five-year old’s hand and asked her if she wanted me to paint her nails. Her eyes lit up with delight, and she immediately ran for the bathroom where the polish is kept. Evidently, I wasn’t following quickly enough because I heard her ask her daddy to “reach the nail polish. Mommy and me are gonna to paint our toes.” He obliged and quickly retreated from the female frivolities while I found my place on the bathroom floor with the door closed to lock out the little brothers and started to paint her toes.

“How about I paint your fingernails, Mommy?”

Part of me screamed, “Wait a minute. That wasn’t part of the deal. I’m going to church right after this, and she makes such a mess when she paints.”

The other part of me quietly whispered, “You have been meaning to intentionally build into her. What better way to let her know she is important than to let her do your nails for church?”

So there I sat while she painted my fingernails holding in the urge to grab the brush from her fingers and fix the mistakes. She giggled and chatted about being girls and doing our nails when her brothers couldn’t. We delighted in painting our nails and connecting with one another.

When she was done, I walked out of the bathroom while resisting my desire to clean up the edges with a cotton swab, gathered my stuff, and headed to church eating my breakfast on the way.

As I sat in church, my nails, smudges on the cuticles and all, stared up at me through the entire sermon on grace, and I realized that my nails were a little bit like my life. In reality, God can do everything perfectly without my help. With just a word, the world was formed. With just a simple command he calmed the seas. Yet, he chooses to use me despite my weaknesses and messiness. Isn’t that grace?

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” 1 Corinthians 12:9

Just as sitting on the bathroom floor with my daughter while she clumsily painted my nails brought us closer together, so it is when God extends his grace over my clumsy attempts to serve him. It is in those times of sincere service to him that our relationship deepens.

My challenge for you today is twofold.

1. 1. Dear momma, is there an area in which your perfectionism is causing a barrier between you and your child? What can you do this week to let go of the need to have things “just so” and extend grace while bonding with your child?
2. Let God’s grace cover your weaknesses as you seek to serve him in whatever he has called you to. What is he asking you do to this week? Obey him and bask in his grace.

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