“Grace is having a relationship with someone’s heart. Not their behaviors.”
I believe grace may hold the largest percentage in the make up of love. It is hidden in all good things. All of the things we strive to be and have, there grace is… indexed first in the ingredient list.
Love. Forgiveness. Kindness. Acceptance.
In conflict, I’ve often prayed for God to help me see someone through His eyes. “Help me love them as you do.”
It isn’t a prayer I like to pray. Most often, my heart has to have been beaten and softened by the waves of life before I resort to trying grace.
And yet, when you pull grace out and bestow it, the peace that covers the situation and the hearts involved, makes one ponder why we don’t use it more.
Right? That Bob Goff sure is smart. I need grace daily, yet internally – and lets be honest, sometimes externally, roll my eyes when it’s time to bestow it. Especially when my fairness factor kicks in and keeps sending my brain reports on why grace has not been earned.
When my boys were younger and argued a lot, then the tattling began. I would tell them, “Be nice to your brother! Extend some grace.” It had only been uttered 101 times before an exasperated McCray said, ”MOM, I don’t even know what that means!!”
Grace (n): mercy; clemency; pardon.
Truthfully, I think Webster fails to describe accurately. It’s like a salve. Better than Neosporin or Eucerin. It covers a hurt or transgression like an undeserved Band-Aid. It is acceptance given when we don’t understand. It is forgiveness given when the action is deamed unworthy.
Shocks and stuns. A force as startling as the power of electricity.
Turn towards grace. Flip the lights on.
In the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors….let grace be the paper that covers the rock of “fair”.
Love can be the scissors.