Parents know what it’s like to wish that a phase would pass. Maybe a baby won’t sleep or a toddler is getting their molars. A formerly happy child becomes a broody middle schooler; a quick-witted teenager spouts seemingly infinite sass. Parental seasons like these are marked by deep breaths, nights spent wondering what to do, and perhaps a few instances of hiding in the bathroom for reprieve.

At the same time, parents know what it’s like to wish time would freeze. That same baby who didn’t sleep last night takes her first steps. A drooling toddler initiates an “I love you.” The frowning middle schooler can’t help but laugh at a corny dad joke; the teenager celebrates a sports victory. For the briefest moment, everything is joy.

In “The Grain of Truth Grows Slowly,” Sandra McCracken writes about the ways that transitions—a primary ingredient in both childhood and parenting—can breed impatience in us. We long for the moment of discomfort to pass, yearning for the sigh of relief on the other side.

“During the slow work, we may wonder who we are as we wait for what’s yet to be revealed in us,” she writes. “But there is a grain written in our design, and we have a skillful designer who first made us and is now forming us into who we are meant to be. During our gradual transformation, we become acquainted with God, who personally and graciously tends to us.”

During seasons of burden and glimpses of bliss, God’s transforming power is at work in parent and child alike. By accepting the imperfections, inconveniences, and inconsistencies of our lives, we can gain the perspective we need both to weather our family’s storms and cherish our family’s thrills with love, confident in the ever-presence of God.