Today’s Guest Author:  Meredith McGhee

I’ve always had a crafty/DIY-loving side of me.  For me, this brand of artistry is where creative expression meets frugal invention.  A book I can take or leave, but give me something to do with my hands, and I’m in heaven.

In the last year, this creative urge has found a new outlet: painting and distressing furniture.  A gift of some out-moded furniture with good bones was all I needed to get the creative juices flowing in that direction.  As I have begun to learn this craft, I’ve sought input from others, both friends and online bloggers I’ve never met. 

My current project is a dining table.  Before attempting to work on such a highly used piece of furniture (we have four kids; need I say more?), I did some extra online research.  The words of one blogger I came across have stayed with me, but it wasn’t because of her winsome words or story of success; it was because of her struggle.  Despite having already painted and distressed at least half-a-dozen pieces of furniture, she made a significant gaff on her dining table – she failed to prime it first.  She couldn’t even account for why she had omitted that step, but that table peeled paint like a ripe banana.

So out in the heat of her garage, she stripped every last piece of paint from the surface of the table to begin again.

“I should know how to do this” was a very strong message I carried into the journey of parenting.
A good student, a high achiever, raised in a Christian home and wife to a pastor, I expected I should do things very well, and that I should know HOW to do “that”.  (I may have needed to learn furniture distressing, but parenting – hey, I got “this.”)

Yet 6 ½ years, one daughter and three sons later, let me just say:   I was in over my head. 

I came across this saying again today: “God won’t give you anything you can’t handle.”  I’m sorry, but that is just not true!  (See 2 Corinthians 1:8 for Scriptural support on that!)  Of course He gives us things we cannot handle – handle alone, that is.

In 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, the Apostle Paul spoke of a thorn in his flesh.   (Stay with me here – no, I’m not calling my kids thorns in my side; only in some moments, right?)  But the connection here is this: While we’re not told what this ‘thorn’ was, it was clearly a circumstance that, with some regularity, confronted Paul with his own weakness.   And this was the Lord’s good pleasure.  When Paul pleaded with the Lord for it to be removed, Jesus’ reply was this: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in your weakness.” 

My weakness, then, is a good thing?
My not having all of the answers; not knowing how to or being able to do all things well – is good?  Oh yes, in combination with HIS ever-present GRACE, 
HIS inexhaustible STRENGTH, 
my weakness and imperfection – the part I get to bring to the table – 
is the perfect contribution.

I don’t know about you, but I’m game for that.  That I can do.  And that’s all He asks.  In fact, He says that’s the posture in which He receives the most glory – His strength is made perfect there.  Hmm.

Sounds like a pretty great place in which to bring up some children, don’t you think?