I have been thinking lately how we often feel pressured to live our lives based on what other people think or say. We seem to be living in an age of less grace, although I'm not sure it's anything new really. I know this firsthand... For many years, I was not very gracious toward people if I felt like they didn't measure up to a standard I developed in my mind. Then God took me on a journey to knock me off my very high pedestal and taught me that we are all very unique.
I recently read an article online about one author's opinion on a subject. I happened to agree with the author, but based on some of the comments I read that wasn't the case for everyone. There were many who felt they had to justify their decision in the comments section. Or they were critical of the author, claiming he lumped everyone into one class. After reading the article and then the comments, it made me sad that people dumped all the good and failed to see that the author was speaking from his heart and from experience. He wasn't claiming that everyone who made the same desicison he made would have the same results. So why do we feel the need to explain every decision we've made to people around us? I think Jesus would like us to be grace givers. We aren't all on the same faith journey and what might be right and good for me, may not be right and good for another person. I don't think we need to apologize to everyone for the journey that God has us on.
We also need to be parents who model grace; and it starts with offering grace to our kids. One of the best books I have read on parenting was by Dr. Tim Kimmel called Grace Based Parenting. It's a book I need to read yearly since I'm prone to easily forget.
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