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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

Real Moms Need Grace

March 20, 2015 by HappyGoStuckey 16 Comments

I am often shocked by how much grace I need. How many new mercies I find myself requiring each and every single morning.

Especially as a mother. Way back when I wore purple yarn ribbons in my pigtails and unicorns on my sneakers, I wanted to be a mom. My mom practically has a Master’s degree in nurturing others. She served us all so well that she often fell asleep at red lights just to catch up on rest. She loved us all and loved us fervently. I saw what it meant to truly sacrifice for another and I wanted to be someone’s mother way back then.

And now, when I look into the little faces looking up at me, I cannot help but wish sometimes that I didn’t mess up so often. But more than I would ever want them to have a perfect mother, I want for them to have a REAL mother. To see that real moms love big and mess up sometimes.

One day, I hope they will be in my shoes– and when they look back as I often do, I pray that they will remember that in this imperfect house, we loved big and forgave much.

As they look at themselves, I pray that they give themselves the GRACE to know that love is risky and people are flawed.

And more than anything that we would want to teach the upturned faces that look up at us and follow close behind us, I pray that they see that REAL moms need grace.

Real moms can be tired and cranky and impatient and oh yeah– sinners in desperate DAILY need of a SAVIOR. 

And maybe just one day in the far off future, they will grow up to be real moms in need of grace too. I pray they grab hold of that grace from God’s own hand every day. That they never lose sight of the fact that grace is more than just something we need when we mess up, but it’s the lifeblood that keeps us daily in His service and always at His feet.

“Grace isn’t about having a second chance; grace is having so many chances that you could never use them throughout all eternity and never come up empty. It’s when you finally realize that the other shoe isn’t going to drop, ever. It’s the moment you feel as precious and handmade as every star, when you feel, finally, at home for the very first time. Grace is when you stop keeping score and when you realize that God never was, that His game is a different one entirely.”

–Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet

I’m back linking up with the Five Minute Friday Party Girls today! Check them out over here—

Growth in the Quiet Places, (or why I only need one shoe.)
What I learned in March

Comments

  1. Jolene says

    March 20, 2015 at 4:23 pm

    Such great encouragement!

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      March 20, 2015 at 4:24 pm

      Thank you Jolene!

      Reply
  2. Jolene says

    March 20, 2015 at 4:23 pm

    Such great encouragement!

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      March 20, 2015 at 4:24 pm

      Thank you Jolene!

      Reply
  3. E Wright says

    March 20, 2015 at 4:27 pm

    Cynthia, your post is rich in wisdom and full of encouragement. Thank you. Thanks also for including the quote from Shauna Niequist. Blessings to you my FMF neighbor. 🙂

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      March 20, 2015 at 4:33 pm

      Thank you! I’ve been reading a lot of Shauna lately so she’s seeping into my thoughts a lot! 😉

      Reply
      • E Wright says

        March 20, 2015 at 4:45 pm

        You are welcome. Shauna is a gifted writer.

        Reply
  4. E Wright says

    March 20, 2015 at 4:27 pm

    Cynthia, your post is rich in wisdom and full of encouragement. Thank you. Thanks also for including the quote from Shauna Niequist. Blessings to you my FMF neighbor. 🙂

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      March 20, 2015 at 4:33 pm

      Thank you! I’ve been reading a lot of Shauna lately so she’s seeping into my thoughts a lot! 😉

      Reply
      • E Wright says

        March 20, 2015 at 4:45 pm

        You are welcome. Shauna is a gifted writer.

        Reply
  5. amypboyd says

    March 20, 2015 at 5:17 pm

    beautiful beautiful grace !! Thank you for such encouragement.

    Reply
  6. amypboyd says

    March 20, 2015 at 5:17 pm

    beautiful beautiful grace !! Thank you for such encouragement.

    Reply
  7. marlen816 says

    March 24, 2015 at 11:58 am

    Love this! We do need grace and often times to not allow ourselves to accept it. Or is that just me? This quote from Shauna is awesome – “Grace is when you stop keeping score and when you realize that God never was, that His game is a different one entirely.” Visiting from FMF =) Have a great week!

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      March 24, 2015 at 12:09 pm

      Definitely not just you, me too! Her whole book deals with this, it’s called “Bittersweet” and has really been a treat. Thank you for stopping by!

      Reply
  8. marlen816 says

    March 24, 2015 at 11:58 am

    Love this! We do need grace and often times to not allow ourselves to accept it. Or is that just me? This quote from Shauna is awesome – “Grace is when you stop keeping score and when you realize that God never was, that His game is a different one entirely.” Visiting from FMF =) Have a great week!

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      March 24, 2015 at 12:09 pm

      Definitely not just you, me too! Her whole book deals with this, it’s called “Bittersweet” and has really been a treat. Thank you for stopping by!

      Reply

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Hey There!

I'm Cynthia and I'm so glad you're here. I am an introvert with an extrovert's love of gathering people together. I love good books and capturing moments. Whether you visit me here or on my own front porch, I'll be the one holding the Iced Coffee for us both.

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Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all the answers, yet.

While you sit in a season of waiting,
the calendar can often be a cruel companion, reminding you that days go by, weeks, months— with what feels like very little change in the right direction.

Perhaps you can easily assent to: 
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

but you strain to see just how it will be when: “...a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12)

Wherever you and I are today— whether we wander, wait, stand firmly planted, or some pressed together combination of all three — we can take heart.

We are not alone.
And this will not be wasted.
What seems to be an unending blank space, an indefinite pause, is a space for new things.

Long before all is made right, and whether or not it all is tied up neatly with a perfectly crafted bow— we can know this:

We do not have to know the outcome to be faithful today.

✨Joy is not disregard for reality as much as it is obstinacy against despair.✨
Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. T Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. There. I said it. These days I’m gravitating to the true & the beautiful as rest for my weary self... and I wonder if you are too.

So much so, that I’m starting a new little offering, it’s called “The Feast: Wonder for the Weary” and the first issue goes out this weekend. It’s a bit more personal (okay this first one is WAY more personal. 🤭) It will be a little bit of everything, all with the goal of offering REST to both the feasters & foragers alike. If you’re already a subscriber— no need to do anything, if not— click through my bio to “keep in touch” and join the feast.✨
We are a people of both lament and praise. We hol We are a people of both lament and praise.

We hold questions without answers— yet we hold them in hands already full of good things.

We hold our daily bread, our daily gifts, and we hold the daily closeness of the God Who Sees.

The God who is no stranger to our lament, and Who Is the reason for our every hope.
He does not grow weary of our asking. Of our need to be told again, He will. 

You friend, are not invisible.
You are seen and cared for by the God who does all things well. (Even when they feel anything but.)
Married love ambition: making the kids roll their Married love ambition: making the kids roll their eyes at our “gushy-ness” as often as possible. 

President & CEO of the Lance Stuckey Fan Club— in every season, but especially on days like today.
Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty k Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty kitchen.😍🌧📚

On this chilly Saturday, we spent entirely too long browsing for books at our library and then all came home to a fire, mochas, and cocoa, respectively. Of all the things we do not know at this very moment, we know the gifts abound, and are worth counting.

PS, if you haven’t spread whipped cream on a foil-lined baking sheet to freeze, and then cut out cute shapes with cookie cutters to top your coffee or hot cocoa, may I suggest you get thee on that at once.
“If God sends us on strong paths, we are provide “If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes.” — Corrie Ten Boom

✨File under, things to save in a fire.✨

The prayer journal pictured here contains six months of the hard & the sweet.
Six months of prayers asked & answered for ourselves and for others.
Six months of seeing through prayer, not how it changed our circumstances necessarily but how it changed us.

I always appreciate a record like this— being able to clearly see the paths we are led down, rocky though they may be? Priceless.

The ways God has come near us & drawn us to Himself again and again are written on these pages and I’ll treasure it forever.

Also pictured: Psalms Illuminated Scripture Journal. Highly recommend. Thank you always, @allifarnell
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it th “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

While scrolling through my photos today, my heart was heavy to realize how far back “before” was.

Before masks and distancing, before loss, before other, more personal bits of hard. Multitudinous change, neither all bad nor all good.

With our free time, we’ve introduced our girls to Tolkien, Bilbo, Frodo, and especially Samwise the Brave. They are officially hooked and we are delighted to watch them discover another world where evil doesn’t win, and the courage of the small matters much. {they close their eyes at the Orcs and we haven’t had a nightmare yet!}🤞🏻😂😬
I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog th I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog these days.

It started with the Sourdough and a dozen different kinds of jam last year.
I suddenly find great calm in activities that stand in direction opposition to hurry, the textbook definition of ✨work in progress.✨ And really, if you could see the other side of this piece, you would believe me. 🙃

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