On the weekend nights in high school the big thing to do was drive up and down Main Street and through the city park. There was also usually a stop at Ranglers, the convenience store, for a snack. 

 I especially remember those occasions where I was hungry, but short on change. Ranglers had these yummy deep fried posadas for which I had an addiction. If my wallet was empty,  I'd open that ashtray and start digging for coin. I'd stick my hands in the unknown crevices of my maroon bench car seats and slide my fingers down underneath, on the floorboard, hoping to find a few quarters. Sometimes the searching was messy. 

I found myself doing the same today, only this time I collected coins from the cup holders and those strange built in pockets on the door that nobody intentionally uses. I came up with just enough for a medium-sized Dairy Queen dipped cone for my daughter. With only seven cents to spare the lady handed chocolate therapy on a cone through the drive-through  window. 

"Funny" I thought to myself,  "how we lack what we think we need sometimes, but with a bit of grit and a lot of grace we pull through". 

This time I wasn't talking about food. 

Life can be overwhelming for our kids. I hear them, teens in particular,  frequently talking about the amount of pressure they feel is placed on them these days. If I felt so much weight at such an early age I've blocked it out. It's 9:46 pm and my fifteen year old is just getting a shower without having wasted much time this evening. 

If our kids are overwhelmed we're usually overwhelmed too, being that a mother's empathy is the strongest kind. We want to fix it. With fierce determination we rack our brains on how to remedy their problems, how to make smooth their rough places. 

May we show our sons and daughters that there's an end to a day's labor. So as the sun sets, so should our toil and terror. 

Of all the thoughts of God that are 

Borne inward into souls afar, 

Along the Psalmist’s music deep, 

Now tell me if that any is 

For gift or grace surpassing this— 

“He giveth His beloved, sleep”?

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning

We've a soft place to lay our head.  We've a God with a plan. 

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Isaiah 46:27

Like that hunger for deep-fried posadas that fill the empty place, may we hunger for God in the midst of our grasping for what we need, and when it's time to rest. May we teach our children, and remember for ourselves, that along with our grit comes grace.