Give yourself some grace.

In ministering to families, I have noticed a trend in many conversations I am having: everyone is stressed. Conversation after conversation. I hear things like: "If i would  just..." "If I could only..." "I'm not a good enough..."

When these statements are made, we are putting our own pressures, real or not, on ourselves.  I used to hear most of these statements from teens, but now it seems that we, as adults, are saying these things even more.

It seems like there is so much pressure today to be the perfect person, the perfect parent, the perfect student, the perfect everything...that none of us can live up to it.  A lot of this is due to the edited selves that people share on social media. We don't share the mess.

I do this too, even just trying to keep this blog going sometimes feels like I am just trying to run this crazy race.  We all do this.

Here is what I want to say to you and myself today: GIVE YOURSELF SOME GRACE.

Grace by definition is an unearned and undeserved gift.  We must be willing to give ourselves the gift of being OK not stacking up to all the "perfect people" who are really just edited  versions of their own imperfect lives.

Give yourself some grace, you are enough. Take time to smell the roses or jump in a pile of leaves. God has offered each of us divine grace, the ultimate gift that we would never be able to earn; LIFE, and not just life but life eternal. 

The biggest problem with not giving ourselves grace is that we find ourselves covered in the stress, not stopping, and exhausted trying to be the perfect whatever-we-hope-to-be that we don't allow ourselves the space to accept the gift of grace God is offering each of us. Because you are God's handiwork, you are enough.

So today, give yourself grace.  Take time to pause because there will always be another thing you could do. But if you don't stop long enough to give your self grace by accepting God's then you will miss LIFE altogether.

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