Gloversville, NY

Well, we are in our first city for The East Coast leg of The Extreme Tour: Gloversville, NY. It amazes me how Satan can really hit you below the belt sometimes. With this being our 2nd year on staff, I came with the expectation of him messing with the bands, the sound system, the leaders, etc; I was "ready" for that. Low and behold the night before the first city (the night we all pitched in on a Priceline hotel, so we could relax in comfort) was the very night Arabella started teething again. Not just one tooth, but what seems to be 5 teeth. Bobby and I (and probably John and Katie, the other leaders) were awake most the night with a screaming baby girl. This was not the way I wanted to start off tour. All those thoughts of being a bad parent immediately raced through my mind. Should I be out here with her? Is being on the road what's causing this and not her teeth? Am I causing harm to her? After a few days, she is back to her cheerful self for the most part. In the meantime, I was hard on myself. But these past couple days have taught me something that I've known, but never really applied. Grace is something that has to be accepted. The bands, artists, and other leaders were giving our little family grace, telling me that Arabella was fine; that she's a baby and these things happen. But I refused to accept their words. Each time she would start crying, I would apologize for the disruption. I apologized for not being "there" with the bands. I apologized for just about everything I could. It's hard to accept grace for something that you think you should be able to control. I should be able to keep her from crying, right? Just like I should be able to control my flesh and keep myself from sinning. God gives us grace every day for the things we do that cause disruption in our faith walk. Does He like the wrong things we do? No. But he understands that it comes with the territory, just like crying comes with having a baby. We need to humble ourselves and realize that there is only so much we can do when it comes to our sinning. No matter how much we try to be perfect, we will always fail. But with that failure comes the opportunity to accept the grace of God. It's not always easy, but accepting that grace can take a lot of weight off your shoulders. Check out your life and see where God is offering you grace that you have yet to accept.

Be love, Stacy.