Tattle Tales

The week has been going by very much as I had expected. Lots of relaxation and fun and play. The necessary chores have been done and meals have been made. Not a single dollar has been spent (not even by driving away any gas). It has been wonderful. I am starting to feel truly replenished after the weeks spent burning the candle from both ends. Mark even made it home before the kids' bedtime last night (barely), so he got to tuck them in and read them stories.

The only real glitch in my week has been Elijah's newest phase. Tattling. He is so up in his brother's business it is unbelievable. Our day is a constant stream of "MOM! Micah is climbing on the chair again! MOM! Micah is playing in the sink again! MOM! Micah is sitting on the potty seat again! MOM! Micah is"....you get the point. Then as I respond to said infraction (because, after all, Elijah may have been tattling, but that doesn't mean Micah wasn't being naughty), I hear "MOM! Is Micah going to get a spanking? MOM! Is Micah in timeout? MOM! Was Micah being disobedient?" And on it goes.

Finally, yesterday, after yet another report from Elijah the Informer, I looked at him and said "You need to stop worrying about Micah and worry about Elijah. If you come to me and tattle on your brother again, you're going to share in his punishment."

As I thought about that statement, I thought about how many times God has probably said something very similar to me. Stop worry about your brother/sister and worry about yourself. Quick looking at specks in their eyes when you have a plank sticking out of yours. Take care of your own business and let me worry about what they are doing. Do you think I can't see what they are doing? Do you really think I need your help with that?!

So often I want God to respond to others the way I would respond. I want things to be "fair". I want rewards to follow obedience and punishment to follow disobedience.

Or at least I think I do.

Then I remember His grace. His magnificent, radical, reckless grace. His grace that covers every disobedience. His grace that separates every dumb move I have ever made from me as far as the east is from the west. His grace that I do not deserve. His grace that no one deserves. The same grace that allows my brothers and sisters entrance into salvation is the same grace that allows me. I do not want Him to be fair. If He were fair, I would have no hope.

So I need to quit "tattling". For if God were a god who responded to such tattles, I would be sharing in the punishment.