“The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.” – Aristotle
Grace is often a word we might throw around here and there, but we may struggle to define it. We celebrate it, but I also think we misunderstand it – especially when it comes to giving grace to others. This is what I think we mean when we say we should give grace… That we give a pass to make a mistake. And those free passes usually relate to things that aren’t even things that really matter! We equate letting someone maybe see that our home is a bit messy asking them to “give us a little grace.”
We are leading through times that are unlike any other we have ever experienced. If you’ve spent any time in the world doing things like going out to eat and experienced a long than normal wait, or traveling only to find that the airline learned they have no staff for the flight so it was cancelled or on a long delay, or buying a vehicle or goods and it takes months to get, or if you’re in the construction world, trying to build something that requires special materials and having to wait months on end to get them delivered. What used to be right at our fingertips has now evolved into long waits, material mess ups, and even rude attitudes being displayed.
The problem through all of these current worldly things that we are dealing with is that culture is infiltrating our understanding of giving grace and is thereby stealing its profound meaning and explosive power!
Have you ever heard of the term “Grace Period”? While that meaning is directed towards giving us a few extra days to make a payment on something we purchased, it holds the same reasoning in our world and in our leadership. Now more than ever, we need to be applying the “grace period” to the conveniences and blessings we get to enjoy in this earthly life, and to the people we lead and develop!
Giving grace is an overlooked component of personal growth. It’s also what perfectionism strips away – the ability to forgive yourself and others when you / they mess up. Because failure is an essential part of growth, you and I must learn to embrace it, learn from it, and improve because of it! Grace gives us permission to do exactly that.. Giving grace to others can be hard, especially when you feel like the other person does not deserve it. The thing is that we ALL mess up daily, and many people all around us still extend grace and kindness to us. In the same way, we should all show grace to each other no matter the circumstance, or how hard and painful giving grace to others might be.
Showing grace to others isn’t hard. It’s not a complicated fifty step method. When we show grace to others, it’s about showing kindness to someone else even when they maybe don’t deserve it. Grace is going out of our way to give compassion, kindness and love to someone even if they might not appreciate it, or even if they don’t return the efforts. On the grand scale of things, it is choosing to act positively towards someone who might even hate the sight of you, or have done wrong to you in the past.
Most of you may have heard about a guy named Noah from the bible. In the book of Genesis from the old testament is the story of Noah. In the days of Noah, wickedness was at an all-time high and the people did not care about God at all. This made God angry enough to destroy everything on earth. So how did God show grace to His people? Check this one out! He instructed Noah to go ahead and build this enormous ark. He also told Noah to let everyone know that a massive flood would be coming (He gave them plenty of time to prepare) and invited them to join Noah’s family on the boat (He gave them a path to safety).
Unfortunately, day in and day out, the people watched Noah building the ark, and instead of accepting God’s gracious gift, they mocked Him and in the end, they all perished.
There are so many reasons why we should extend grace to others! All of our accomplishments in this earthly life, whether in school, in our work, in our leadership, we have ALL received grace at some point – I guarantee it – And the time is now to give grace back! What situation are you dealing with today that is requiring you to extend a little grace?