Thursday August 29
"But where sin
increased, grace increased all the
more.”
Ro 5:20 NIV
Grace at Home (1)
You need a lot of grace in marriage. Even in the best of
relationships, things happen that cause misunderstanding and hurt. Speaking
about his marriage, therapist Michael Sytsma says: "Before I was married,
God said, ‘Mike, you have some rough edges. To help you become more Christlike,
I’m giving you Karen. That should do the trick.’ So he brought Karen…into my
life to identify all my shortcomings. My first response when she points out my
flaws? Not gratitude! Instead, I strike back: ‘How dare you point out those
things? What’s your problem?’ Then I have the opportunity of either denying my
feelings, or owning them and maturing. And Karen can either harbor anger and
resentment, or offer grace and forgiveness. Imagine a marriage filled with
grace: a spouse who extends joy, pleasure, sweetness, kind speech and unmerited
favor. My wife does that. I’m still working at it.”
Here is the first of four ways you can show grace to your
spouse: (1) Try to look at it differently. Focus on the positive. If
you think your spouse is stubborn, feeling loving toward them is hard. But if
you exercise grace and choose to see them as persistent and tenacious, loving
them becomes much easier. If they’re disorganized, by grace you can choose to
see that as a sign they are spontaneous, or creative, or the flexible type, or
even over-extended. "You'll do best by filling your minds and meditating
on things…noble… gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly;
things to praise, not things to curse” (Php 4:8 TM). People usually try to live
up to the image you hold of them!
Taken from the Word for You Today devotional
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