Week 44 - ending 11/4: Grace

Our CEO oftens advises us to have grace. Have grace for our fellow employees who are struggling. Have grace for our fellow employees who are making mistakes. I understand this and have grace to a point. There is a difference between giving grace and not seeing problems. Unfortunately, the company I work for errs on the side not seeing problems.

A friend I'd had for about 23 years stopped talking to me a few years ago. I don't hold any resentment towards her, I don't hold out for reconciliation and I don't think our relationship could ever be as close as it once was again. Since we ended our friendship I remained under her Amazon prime family which meant I got the prime benefits but never paid. The other day she either cancelled prime or realized I was still under account and I was removed, losing my benefits. It's not a big deal to me to lose the benefits but it was a funny way for her to momentarily be in my world again.

As I thought about that I thought about grace. I have grace for her and her decision on how she wants to live her life. However I don't know if I have enough grace to ever let her back into my life. That got me thinking about how much do we accept. How much of a persons behavior, that we may not agree with, can we accept. Do we accept more if we've known them longer? I have learned that the amount of time you know someone doesn't always mean much. Some of the most impactful relationships I've had and seen have been short lived.

For the sake of a relationship how much grace should one extend? Also when do you need to extend grace to yourself?

I have a friend who is never on time and often forgetful. For me these are important things. Being on time and remembering things makes me feel special and important. To her, they don't which is why she doesn't see issue in the behavior. So how much grace do I show her, knowing thats who she is? On the other hand how much grace do I show myself and how? Do I allow myself to get triggered by the actions or work to remind myself we think differently and not take it personally? How much do I allow the behavior to be used as a reason to keep distance?

I guess in the end we just have to know people are people and even the ones who stay by your side may not act in ways you appreciate sometimes. But give them and yourself grace because you may never know how your actions affected another.