On Grace

We all need a little grace in our lives right? Whether we are receiving it or giving it, grace is a much needed factor in any kind of relationship.  And trust me when I say I learned this one the hard way...why does that always seem to happen?
Well let's take a little look at what grace is, because to be serious I always thought I knew what it was....and I was wrong.  
Grace is unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification.  It is a virtue coming from God.  
I love this definition.  It is UNMERITED and it is a virtue from God! He gives us grace everyday of our lives even when we don't deserve it.  He knows we are not perfect.  He knows we will make mistakes all the time.  Yet he still gives us grace.

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I am so guilty of not giving grace where it is deserved and demanding grace where I think I need it.  How awful is that?  I started to realize this when sitting down with my friend the other night.
We are roommates and we were starting to have a couple issues living together.  Let's be honest and say I was the one having some issues.  When we sat down to talk them through and I started to actually listen to what I was saying it hit me.  I was nitpicking every little thing, and while they were things that I felt needed to be addressed, I was not giving grace to my friend AT ALL.

How could she have known those things were bothersome to me?  How could she have known what was offensive to me?  She couldn't.  But I totally expected her to and got mad when she didn't know those things!  I was asking her to fix things and do things for me, without even thinking she needed some room to do them.  I couldn't expect her to live up to my expectations.  She needed grace, and I needed to give it.
It was a big lesson for me to learn.  As much as we say it all the time it is so true, we are only human and we are not perfect.
So lesson learned on grace.  It shall be given even when it is UNMERITED in my eyes.