Give a Little Grace

  Most of us are familiar with the concept of grace.  But my question for you today is, are you giving grace?  Now believe me, I know it's easy to judge or get uptight about someone else's behavior, but if you try to live with the assumption that people have good intentions at heart, you will be filled with much more peace, and you can learn to just let things roll off your back.  Maybe that comment from your co-worker was meant to hurt your feelings, or maybe it was just a statement that you took the wrong way.  Does it really matter?  Nope.  And if you choose to just give grace and move on you will learn that you will get along with others so much better.
  But I also want to talk to you today about giving grace to yourself.  Most of us know we should give grace to others, and I think deep down many of us want to do that, but a lot of us balk at the idea of being gracious with ourselves.  We tend to be our own worst critics, because after all, who knows us better than we know ourselves, right?  But putting so much pressure on ourselves to always be perfect is very detrimental to our health and well-being.  If every time you mess up or fall short of a goal you put yourself down, you start to gain a fear of failure, and it makes moving forward that much harder.  If, on the other hand when you mess up, you pick yourself up, say, "Oops" and move on, you can continue pushing forward towards success without fear or frustration.  I'm not saying you shouldn't try to do the right thing.  I'm just saying that when you make mistakes, as all of us do, that you don't need beat yourself up over them.  Think of it this way, if a completely perfect God knows everything you have ever done wrong or ever will do wrong and still loves you, then you can absolutely love you and learn to let your failures go.  And keeping this perspective of knowing how much we have been forgiven makes it easier to forgive others when they hurt us or disappoint us as well.
  A third area I think needs mentioning because it is so prevalent in American culture is to be gracious with your body.  We are taught that we need to always push ourselves to the limit, to do more, be more and have more, but sometimes the best thing for our bodies is just to rest.  If you are battling physical illness, mental illness, life changes, or just having a difficult season of life, you may need to give yourself some grace.  It's ok to rest.  It's ok to take a month for your mental health.  It's ok to put your needs on the priority list.  Give yourself grace.  I'm not saying to let yourself get out of doing what you need to all the time, but there are times in life when you need a little extra rest or TLC., and that's perfectly ok.  Give yourself permission to take a break.
  Wherever you're at in your journey today, know that I love you and I can't wait to see you succeed.  Be gracious with yourself and others, and let's keep moving forward.

~K.W.