Did you ever feign illness as a child to get the attention one of your siblings got? Do you remember any feeling of joy or comfort or is the only abiding memory that you feigned illness? Its often said of an experience “it’s like hitting your head against a brick wall, its great when it stops.” But if you were just pretending you really can’t say that with any conviction.

I can’t claim personal experience but I am told that while child birth is excruciating, as soon as the baby pops out, the pain, and even the memory of the pain, goes. What a reward – all the joy and none of the pain. A lovers tiff often ends with rewards that more than justify the initial upset. Some of our fondest memories are of times when we suffered through loss, pain or illness and received love and care from someone close to us. Its hard to imagine a child having all the pain and none of the reward.

I wrote a song called ‘The Beauty of Grace’. The message is that God takes no delight in punishing us but positively seeks to bless us. There is no flip side but there is a tough edge. Grace is not the Christmas present that we don’t need or a kiss on the knee that we didn’t bump. God doesn’t comfort me when Jack gets the attention I wanted or Jill looks fantastic in the jeans you couldn’t get past your knees.

Grace is the spoonful of sugar when the medicine made you cry. I love the name of my blog. We all need a sweet spoonful of dreams when reality is a bit of a nightmare.