Most mornings I get up, stumble to the living room and my well-worn chair and say morning prayer before my kids wake up. Sometimes these mornings are already filled with kids chattering in their rooms or yelling through the door asking what's for breakfast. Sometimes the silence is deep enough to penetrate my heart and speak renewal.
After I say morning prayer I'm usually filled with the feeling that today is going to be a great day! I'm not going to fall prey to the usual temptations that bring me down. The triggers that make me lose patience with my kids, giving into anger over the everyday difficulties of a house full of children, giving into eating junk food because I'm tired or annoyed, putting off the necessary work that needs to get done because I feel lazy. I'm going to beat all those temptations today because I've prayed and I'm completely on track! Nothing's going to stop me and my day of holiness ahead!
But inevitably something or someone does. A child demands more of time, zapping me of the mental energy necessary to pay the bills. I discover a new mess, freshly made, and lose my temper on the children I'm supposed to be modeling love towards. I don't eat well and by the time my husband comes home I'm annoyed and speak rudely.
The flesh is so weak.
The flesh is so weak that very often just the regular, everyday, and ordinary things of life pull my soul down. It is our fallen humanity, our sinfulness inherited and brought upon ourselves that make even small acts of love tough. We are just like Saint Paul. He too felt the pull of sin when his heart and mind so much wanted to follow God's call to holiness. (Romans 7:19)
I may not be able to live up to my own expectations each day, I may fall to my sinful nature, but at every failure I am reminded that Christ has saved me. Christ hears my prayers for forgiveness each and every time, each and every new day.
At every failure I am reminded that Christ has saved me.Click to tweet
We are all part of fallen humanity and we all experience it everyday. Let's pray for each other and the difficulties we may be facing. Lord, help to return to You each day, to accept Your mercy, and to walk with You in holiness.
Christy Isinger is a wife and mom to five lovely, loud children and lives in northern Canada. When not homeschooling, she is a devoted reader of English literature from Jane Austen to Agatha Christie. She writes about the beauty of faith, life, and the home at her blog and is the co-host of the Fountains of Carrots Podcast. You can find out more about her here.
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