What happens? When you don’t want to give grace? Let’s be honest, but I’m guessing we’ve all been there. Right. There.
I am. Right. There. It’s Monday and it started with a bang. Every flavor of traffic difficulty imaginable, I think just to make my drive suck. Production meeting at work and it just seems like there is a collective funk in the air and bad mood, seeping like a water spill from place to place and person to person. So much for today…
In our production meeting my phone was blown up by call after from my young man. Of course he needs this and he needs that and he needs this. And… how dare I be working and NOT available to take care of every little whim. Right. Now.
So it’s gone from bad to worse and today I just don’t want to give grace anywhere… It’s the kind of day where the entire planet is a part of some greater conspiratorial plan to see just where my break point is.
Borrowed from a blog I just read… and thank you Kristen, publisher of #chasingblueskies, because Lord knows that at least ten times today, at least ten…I was going to move right on past these suggestions.
1. Sit on the sarcasm. Snarkiness of any kind is just pride in a cute skirt. (Note to self.) If you’re like me, sitting on sarcasm sometimes means not saying anything at all. Biting my lip and even walking out of a room altogether.
2. Savor validation found in truth, not telling-off. Your true identity is seen by the God who sees everything. It is not our job to set everyone straight, but rather let him set each situation straight. No lasting worth ever came from getting the last word. (My parents would be thrilled to know I am finally understanding this!) While defensive positions and speaking up have their place, I can’t manage everyone’s opinion of me, especially at the cost of grace.
3. Stick to the blessing. Slow down. Let yourself embrace restraint because like we see in the example of Abraham in the Bible, restraint comes with blessing. God met Abraham (Abram) right where he was and gave him a choice. Abram chose to obey God and when He did, he received the blessing. When we choose to obey God by showing grace rather than airing our grouses, we receive a blessing, too.
So this is hard… today, it feels near impossible. So I think that for the rest of today, I will pray and meditate. I’ll probably work on #1, a lot. So like Abraham… perhaps today is a test. I think it is. If you’re in to such things… today I need prayers. Prayers to find the elusive grace hiding from me today.
When we, as people of faith think about miracles and the context of them, I think we often reflect on water turning into the finest of wine, or perhaps loaves and fishes sustaining the multitudes. We think BIG. I know, this is true for myself so much so that we miss the little miracles that happen. Every. Single. Day.
created… and that our same Creator is applying the finishing stitches that are her life and is the sole determiner of her life’s end.
dy and I were recently able to spend some time Christmas shopping for Eric and Daniel (he’s my young man). I was particularly touched that Sandy wanted to get Daniel a gift and of course some new shirts for Eric. We were blessed with a beautiful day in the middle of December, we started with lunch at Chili’s and shrimp salad and chips and the best guac ever and followed with a Target shopping jaunt…Sandy likes to shop. And we left with some new blouses and sweaters, some charming sweet gifts Alfred Hitchcock and Ugly Christmas Sweater Mugs…. we sent holiday cards and had Starbucks.
The loss of a toddler son, the loss of an adult daughter, the transition into assisted living. Sandy has an incredible way of remembering the special moments of her life. Growing up in Rye, NY moving to Colorado, determined to be a New Yorker until the very last. Our trip to Disney World and guacamole at her favorite Mexican haunt, Sandy has a life that ultimately is well lived. Not always joyous and certainly not always sad — I think enough of each, to appreciate the value in the other.
Sentenced to death, in the cruelest of fashion being burnt by the stake. He remained steadfast in faith knowing that his life, his being, his death, were all ordained by the most HOLY. And until his very last of moments sought the forgiveness of those he’d hurt and granting that same forgiveness to those who had done the same.
I have no doubt it will be difficult, and I am guessing, I will fall short many times. I hope I’ll learn to be more accepting of that. I hope that as the year rolls along, I will too. Be a bit gentler with myself. I’m tough. When I fall or fail, I tend to have a tough time rebounding. When people around me fall short of what I think should happen, ouch, it’s hard. I think it’s largely because I think settling for less, or “phoning it in” is a huge character flaw. Of course that comes from my perspective and how I view someone else, or myself and it’s dangerous.
I think that we have to wear some type of badge of honor that we don’t care, because it helps us to either feel better about who we are or to perpetuate the myth that we’re stronger and because we are, we don’t have to “care” about what you think. I think that couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve seen posts on FB with respect to “taking a knee” and “White America” and they’ve had an impact on me and often leaving me questioning…why do I continue to do what I do? Would it matter if I just stopped?
So boil it down. Get to the nitty gritty. This is about being a good human. It’s really that simple. Be a good human. Let’s toss out the golden rule. Let’s stop treating people how we’d like to be treated and let’s start treating them how they’d like to be treated.
We know these words. Oh say can you see…? Here are some others I am pretty confident that we know:
Here are some others… In the beginning. And then… we have the last words of the Bible: “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen” (Rev. 22:21).
One Little Word...2026 