No Grace For My Imagination

Sometimes you just need to read certain things; this morning it was a passage from one of my faves. We know my imagination can run wild; I've blogged about this before. With the trials we are going through now with Toph's ear infection (and thrush, and high c. diff levels), it is very easy for me to "go there." You know, worry and play the "what if" game. It's honestly a very tiring and none to pleasing task to fret; in fact, it sucks the joy right out of you and believe me, there is plenty for me to be joyous about.

This passage helps me; in fact, I'll be reading it a over and over again today; then praying about it so that I might actually apply it.

No Grace for “What If?”
2010 at 2:30 pm | by Carolyn Mahaney
Filed under Biblical Womanhood Fear Motherhood Series Current Series

"What do our mothering fears have in common? They are all in our imagination.

Our fertile minds generate countless scenarios whereby one calamity or another befalls our children: What if my son rebels when he hits the teenage years? What if my daughter doesn’t want to be my friend when she grows up? What if my son gets in a car accident? What if my daughter is diagnosed with leukemia?

After thirty-four years of mothering, I’ve discovered that most of the bad things I imagined never actually came true. But there have been other trials—ones I never anticipated.

That’s why Elisabeth Elliot’s wise advice has been invaluable to me in fighting fear: “There is no grace for your imagination.”

God does not sprinkle grace over every path my fear takes. He does not rush in with support and encouragement for every doomsday scenario I can imagine.

No, instead He warns me to stay off those paths: “Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil” (Ps. 37:8).

There is no grace for our imagination. That’s why our fearful imaginings produce bad fruit: anxiety, lack of joy, futile attempts to control.

There is no grace for our imagination. But God does promise sufficient, abundant grace for every real moment of our lives. That’s why the Proverbs 31 woman can “laugh at the future in contrast with being worried or fearful about it” (ESV Study Bible note on Pr. 31:25)

There is no grace for our imagination. But there will be grace for our mothering future--the moment it arrives."

"But God does promise sufficient, abundant grace for every real moment of our lives."

It's really nice to know that I can turn this imagination station of mine off. There is no grace for it and honey, there is sufficient and abundant grace for every real moment of my life.

I will also give thanks today because my little guy is 7 months old. Seven months old, smiling, laughing, happy to be with me, no matter where we are. We spent two hours in the hospital clinic yesterday to get an injection of ear infection antibiotic and he was happy as a clam. Yes, there is sufficient and abundant grace in my life.