Topic: Showing Grace

Grace is a wonderful, beautiful thing… if you are on the receiving end.  I once heard grace described as “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense” and really, that’s what grace is!  God came to earth as a human, Jesus Christ, to take the punishment for our disobedience.  He came “from the Father, full of grace and truth…  For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:14, 16-17).  This grace of God is our salvation.  It opens the door to forgiveness when we mess up.  It is the love of God expressed to a broken people.

So grace is a wonderful, beautiful thing… until you have to give it to others.    Like when someone cuts you off in traffic or pulls out in front of you just to turn off at the next road.  I don’t know about you, but showing them grace is not typically my first reaction.  Or when your neighbor mows through your garden and you can no longer use your homegrown tomatoes to make homemade salsa.  Grace is not the first thing I want to give to my neighbor.  But what about when your kids write in Sharpie all over the new coffee table?  Or when they climb on top of the refrigerator to get to the bowl of candy?  Yeah, grace is definitely my first reaction then… NOT!

But moments like those are perfect opportunities to give grace.  More than that, they are teaching moments for your kids.  Francis Chan spoke about a time when his daughter came home with a less-than-satisfactory report card.  His first instinct was to scold her and threaten to take away everything that was distracting her from getting straight A’s.  But instead he used it as an opportunity to teach her about the grace of God.  He took her out for ice cream!  His intentions were not to make it a habit, but express in a powerful (and delicious!) way what grace is.  Although she had failed (like we often do before God), he showed her grace (like God does for us).  He chose to look past her faults and recognize that she was his beloved child and wouldn’t do everything perfectly. 

My challenge to you this week is to show your kids grace in one more situation than you did last week.  Use it as an opportunity to teach them about the grace of God.  You may be surprised about the way grace restores the relationships in your life.