Grace

Lately I've been thinking about how Christians (myself included) give or don't give grace to others.

And I came to realize that sometimes we can be horribly inconsistent.

When someone messes up royally, we tend to sweep it under the rug and pull out the grace card to justify their sin.

But when it's something small, we tend to act like that person has committed a felony and we shred up the grace card and stomp on it.

I got to thinking about this because of something that happened about a week ago.

A friend of mine made a mistake (a small one) because they were hurt. The mistake was wrong, but I was surprised at the lack of mercy and grace some people had. It's as if they had no pity that this person was wounded.

In this instance, I was the only one trying to persuade everyone to have a little pity and understanding.

Now before you give me my halo, let me tell you that I'm not always this way.

In fact, this whole post is about the hypocrisy I see in myself. When someone screws up big time, I tend to extend grace...sometimes to point where I don't confront the behavior.

But in the little things, like if someone is just simply late to meet me some place, there is no grace at all. They were late, they're insensitive and selfish, and that's that.

Crazy.

So I'm asking God to give me more of a balance when extending grace. And that I will see people the way He sees them. And for heaven's sake, just give people the benefit of the doubt sometimes, especially in the little things. After all, God has given me so much grace when I don't deserve it.

Do you see yourself doing this sometimes? Thoughts?