Grace To Evolve

“We have a tendency to want the other person to be a finished product while we give ourselves the grace to evolve.”

Isn’t that just so profound?

When I first read it I didn’t think that I was that person.  You know, the one that expected people to be perfect all the time.  But the deeper I looked, the more I realised that I do it far more often than I thought.

It’s so easy to look down on someone, so easy to judge, so easy to get upset at another persons lack of understanding or childish behaviour.

Just for giggles, let’s talk about some examples shall we?

How about that time that Seth and I were really seriously convicted about pirating any music, series or movies and so we completely destroyed a humongous collection that we had grown.  For years thereafter we laid a full scale judgement and speech on anyone that we saw pirating things that may or may not have included the thought of handing out eye patches for emphasis.

Or that time we decided that we were no longer going to eat gluten and sugar.  I was so into it I even wrote about it on this space.  Aside from a pang of jealousy at the fact that you could eat whatever you wanted because it didn’t affect you, I still may or may not have quietly judged your eating habits.

Isn’t that just awful?

I could probably list another hundred examples, but I am still cringing from sharing those, so I’ll stop.

Just because I have made new choices, done some research or been convicted about something, doesn’t mean that anyone else has and it’s foolish to think that they should have.

At the end of the day we need to meet people where they are at and not where we think they should be.  We should allow them the grace to grow, to learn, to make mistakes and develop.

Because that’s the least that we’d expect in return.