God designs the children.

For the past week or so, I went through a mommy-burnout slump. It's something I'm sure all parents go through every once in a while, but the stay-at-home variety (for those who deal with burnout), tend to have a more dramatic time coming out of it. Mostly because, as you can imagine, there is no break from what is "causing" the burnout. One can't take a vacation day.

ANYway, (and I wasn't fishing for sympathy there, I promise!) during said burnout, I wasn't the most pleasant thing my children have ever seen. My fuse was short, my ability to remember to pray for patience was apparently on the blink, and my aptitude for understanding fell quite short of acceptable levels.

Oh, for the sake of pete. I was a BEAR. An absolute bear.

So, anyway, yesterday, I got to leave for a couple of hours for a Junior Miss meeting. Tooter (who usually doesn't do this) got a bit distraught that I left, and according to Jmk, never really got happy about the idea of my being gone. And today, he has been quite the velcro baby.

My point, you ask? (What - you can't tell from my disjointed story?) If they were adults, and I had spent the past week being.... well, the way I was being.... I doubt either one of them would have wanted much to do with me. But our Father doesn't create tiny adults. He makes children who are loving and forgiving no matter what. WE're the ones who turn these precious little things into, well, adults. Tooter wasn't happy about my leaving for a couple of hours last night, even though I haven't been a model mom lately. Even though.

God is the author of Even Though. You've probably heard it called Grace and Mercy.