Today a 20 foot cross washed up on a Florida beach. How’s that for a sign from God! Forgiveness and mercy and grace, that’s what the cross brought us…and so much more.
We always have a choice in how we react in a situation. Sometimes we tend to hang onto hurt feelings or verbally slam someone because we’re having a hard day. Here’s how it may play out….my husband forgot to tell me good morning. Mhmmm… 5 hours later he scored another point, he didn’t even mention how nice I looked in my new shirt. Well well well, looky here. He forgot to take out the trash, he just scored point 3 and the sun ain’t even went down yet. He tells me he’s going fishing instead of going out to dinner, I don’t care that he’d rather go fishing but I use this to light that little fuse on my big stick of dynamite. Then every exaggerated offense I roll neatly into one huge fight.
We let things build up and then insert them into an argument where they don’t even belong. We can actually fight fair, yes I said fight fair, if we choose words that don’t insult or offend. Choose to be understanding instead of stubborn. Choose to react the way Jesus did on the cross. Forgiving, extending mercy and grace, putting Himself and His feelings above all others.
During Bible Study this morning I learned that we can glorify God in our actions (and I strive to do that) but we should also glorify God in our reactions. That really settled into my spirit and spoke to my heart this morning. Glorify God in my reactions. Wow!
There’s an old saying “You may be the only Bible they read.” This is so true. Some woman in the checkout line may be flipping her wig because we held her up in line for ten minutes all because we wanted to use a bunch of awesome coupons. Being all “saving” as my Grandma would say, and trying to be that “Proverbs 31” woman we’ve been studying about in the Bible, right? We’re just trying to be all full of virtue and stuff. And then we turn around and give her a piece of our mind. Oops. Here was the perfect scenario to have a Jesus moment, a moment of gentleness and self control. Well, tomorrow is a new day to try and work on being a Proverbs 31 woman. Right?
When someone gives us the ugly treatment we can choose to react with the bad eye and some harsh words or with gentleness and self control. Proverbs 15:1 A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
Reacting without snapping someone’s head off really is a choice. Maybe they’ve not gave us a reason to be nice we think, and then in walks grace. Grace is simply unearned favor. Just give ‘em some grace, favor, a little understanding. We never know what someone is going through. Even if nobody is watching, God is. Choose to share a little grace.
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