She proudly led me into the hall, demanding I cover my eyes first. When she said “open them!” my jaw dropped.
The surprise was a drawing done in pen and marker…first on paper, then all over the wall.
“You drew on the wall?!” I asked, flummoxed by her surprise and trying to remember where her Mom told me the cleaning supplies were when I started nannying.
Her face falling, she shouted a sorry, covered her mouth, and fled to her room in tears.
A few hours later, I’d scrubbed the wall clean. She’d refused to leave her bed, where’d she been curled up crying. Every time I tried to talk to her, it was clear she hadn’t thought through her artistic plan ahead of time. She’d gotten carried away. Now she was wracked with guilt over her mess.
Trying to convince her she was forgiven and there was grace enough to cover her mistake was much harder than cleaning the wall. That’s often the case!
If you know a child prone to getting stuck in guilt, here are some steps for helping them grasp grace…
{Read the rest at christianparenting.org, where I’m grateful to be sharing ideas in honor of the release of Abigail and the Big Start Over}