"Give Yourself Some Grace" by Carrie Bartlow
Through Christ, we received grace. (Romans 1:5 NIV)
“Give yourself some grace,” she kindly said, while patting me on the back as I wiped my tears away. I was tired and overwhelmed, drowning in the pressures I put on myself. Wondering how to be a wife and mom and business partner and class volunteer while keeping the house clean and making sure lunches were packed, and clients were happy, and, and, and… Giving myself permission and space to fail was an interesting proposition but was not one I was ready to accept.
Encouraging others to be kind to themselves is not so hard, but practicing what I preach? Whew — that’s tough. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve encouraged friends to push aside their expectations in favor of self-forgiveness and grace. But, I can tell you the number of times I’ve been able to extend the same to myself. Zero.
Offering grace to the surgeon who didn’t successfully remove the bad tissue from my daughter’s brain the first time — not so hard. But, offering myself grace for missing the field trip to the pumpkin patch — paralyzing. Offering grace to the client whose unkind words left me in tears — doable. But offering that same grace to myself after finishing a race 10 seconds slower than my goal — impossible.
With a new year on the horizon, I can’t help but wonder…
How will my life look when I learn to extend to myself the same grace God has extended to me?
How will my life feel when I accept Brene Brown’s words, “Grace means that all of your mistakes now serve a purpose instead of serving shame,” as truth?
How will I grow in my faith when I live out the words of a friend, who suffered an unimaginable loss, and now reminds me that “Trusting in God’s plan is often a struggle; it’s not supposed to be easy, but trusting that when tomorrow comes, grace will be there too.”
I hope you’ll join me in the coming year, seeking to discover ways to extend God’s grace not only to the people along our paths but also to ourselves.
Carrie Bartlow