A Picture of God's Grace

Earlier this summer I had an experience with one of my daughters that was priceless. However, I thought anyone who knew about it would think I'm a lunatic, so I couldn't bring myself to tell even Jay about it. I finally told him a couple of nights ago and he encouraged me to share it on the blog (maybe we're both lunatics!). So here goes...

Several weeks ago one of my daughters was having problems with a sibling. I sent this daughter to her room to wait for me while I dealt with the other child. When I got to my daughter, she was so upset that she was behaving disrespectfully toward me. I reminded her that the consequence for deliberate disrespect is a spanking and she needed to change her attitude. Her disrespect continued in spite of the warning. So I told her that I was going to have to spank her. My standard spanking is 2-3 swats depending on the age of the child and the offense. If they behave disobediently or disrespectfully during or just after the spanking then they get one additional swat per offense. This is usually very effective, but on this day it wasn't so much. Due to both disrespect and disobedience, my daughter ended up earning six swats. After the third swat I reminded her that we would be done if she hadn't been disobedient and disrespectful, but that she had earned those extra swats. She begged and pleaded, "Mommy, please, don't give me any more swats. I'll be nice. Please stop..." It about broke my heart. It really was awful. But she had earned the swats and I needed to remain true to what I had said. So I gave her the fourth swat. She continued to beg. This was the most heart wrenching spanking I'd ever given. An idea popped into my head but I thought to myself, "That's the most ludicrous thing I've thought in quite some time!" and took a deep breath and administered the fifth swat. By now I felt like crying too. My precious daughter continued to beg me to please stop. The thought in my head was quite loud by now and so I finally surrendered to the idea. I held out the spanking utensil and said, "Okay. I want you to give me the last swat." She looked at me and said, "No, Mommy...no. I can't do that." (She wasn't being disrespectful; she just had no clue where I was coming from!) I said, "Well then I'll give it to myself." I proceeded to give myself a swat hard enough that she knew really hurt. And then she looked at me and said, "Mommy, why did you do that?!" I said, "Darlin', did you deserve to have that swat?" "Yes," she replied. "Well, that is what Jesus did for you." She started sobbing. I said, "You deserved that swat. It had to be given. That is what the punishment was. I couldn't just not give it, because then what I say would be untrustworthy. And so, because I love you so much I took the punishment for you. I wanted to give you a picture of God's love for you. He loves you so much that He sent His Son to be punished in your place so that when He draws you to Himself and you turn toward Him and believe in Jesus you can know God and be with Him forever." My precious, tenderhearted daughter cried and cried. She cried for two days whenever she thought about that experience. So did I. It was a beautiful picture for both of us of God's amazing, abundant grace.

I know this is a simplified look at what Christ has done for us, but it painted a precious picture for my daughter that has helped her to further understand her relationship with God and what He's done for us. It also demonstrated to her the depths of my love for her. I am so grateful for the thought to do so in the first place. I know surely that it did not come from within me! God is so good!!!