Extending Grace

Extending Grace

By Rachel S.

 Over Christmas last year, I got a kitten. She is an adorable little gray and white baby. (Not as baby as she was ten months ago but, you know.)

When we first got her, it was very evident that the name the animal shelter had given her was not going to work. They had called her Grace which is a great name! But not for this kitten. She is so awkward and clumsy! She can’t turn a corner to save her life and if she ever figures out how to walk a straight line, I think that I’ll introduce her some kind of unknown to her kitty treat.

Anyway, because my little, Grace was obviously not very graceful, we re-named her, “Precious.” (What where we thinking? My family should never name anything after a virtue….)

For the record, my kitten is Precious. When she is sleeping.

Along with being extremely adorable, and clumsy, she is also very naughty.

Every morning we have to peel her off the curtains, take her off the table, I usually end up walking into the kitchen and hear a thump-which would be the sound of her jumping off the counter. Occasionally I find myself wiping paw prints off the floor, from the ash in the fireplace that she got wet in the sink that found its self on the floor.

Yeah.

I’m thinking about un-re-naming her.  Back to Grace. Remember that she is just as clumsy as the day we got her, here is why, because every day I have to extend grace to her.

I was thinking about this whole naming thing, as she was sleeping soundly (and yes, looking adorable) on my bed. I was sprawled out on the floor writing and here is what came to mind. I am not good at extending grace.

There are times when I don’t want to extend grace to my kitten. I just want to throw her out and ask her what she thinks of that.

“I gave you mercy for your little naughties yesterday!” I long to yell at her. “Would you just behave yourself for one day?”

And it’s not just with my cat. I get tired of extending Grace to my brothers for all the times they drive me up a wall and I get tired of extending grace to people when they bug me.

I have been having a problem of extending grace recently. Sometimes it seems like I’m right, thus, the rest of the world must be wrong. I didn’t want to extend grace, but what I realized was that God extends grace to be every single day.

Lamentations 3:22-23 says this, “The LORD’s love never ends; his mercies never stop. They are new every morning.”

Every day, God hands out new grace to me, he just hands it to me!

In Romans chapter three 3:22-24, Paul tells the Christians this “God makes people right with himself thought their faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same. Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard, and all need to be made right with God by his grace which is a free gift.”

God gives out fresh grace. Every. Day. No matter what you have done and what you will do, he still loves you and gives more grace. No amount of bad stuff will ever separate you from the incredible love and grace of our father.

But you can only get this grace, thought Jesus Christ his son who came down from heaven to die for all of our sins. He died on a cross, but he didn’t stay dead! He rose from the grave three days later and now reigns at the right hand of the father, giving out grace.

It doesn’t mean that he likes the things that we do, but his blood covered our sins. He has washed them with his grace and his love!!!  

In conclusion, I have some… challenges to give out

Number 1: to practice extending grace. When someone bugs you, just think about the fact that you both are receiving grace.

Number 2: Even though God gives out grace freely and far behind what we could ever think or imagine it is important to grow closer to God. Because it’s just the truth that other people will. Drive. You. Nuts. And the only way that you can give out grace, is though Jesus and with we can’t extend grace without Jesus’ help.

Feel free to comment! I love reading what ya’ll have to say!!!

Rachel Schaus (in the house!)