Giving Grace by Bea Tifton

 

I'm filling in for Beth Trissel. 

Years ago, in one elementary school in which I was teaching, we would have a moment of silence. I always tried to center myself and asked that I would be able to get through the day with humor and grace. Grace. Not the Audrey-Hepburn-walking-across-the-room way. I know how unrealistic that is for me. I mean, friends have joked that I need to wrap myself in bubble wrap and one friend made me promise never to try snow skiing lest I end up in a full body cast.

No, I mean grace as in being gracious. Not losing my temper, acting with integrity and class.   And I still tell myself to try each day.

We’ve had a tough couple of years, Dear Readers. People are stressed out, angry, and divided. I’m not seeing too much grace in the world right now. But maybe I just need to look harder. The people with natural grace are there. It’s the bad actors that get the most attention.

I have a friend who is the most gracious, the least judgmental person I know. When I cut someone a little, or a lot, of slack recently after some particularly mean behavior, she said, “I’m glad you’re giving her some grace.”

Giving her grace. Isn’t that a great way to say that you’re giving someone the benefit of the doubt? Or simply refusing to react when you just want to blow like Mt. Vesuvius on a bad day? Think if all of us started to do that. I don’t mean letting someone get away with criminal or harmful behavior. Just letting the little things go and giving people grace. 

Recently, I was unloading my cart at a big box store as quickly as I could, but there was a man waiting and I had a lot of stuff. He walked up and said, “May I help you with those?” and when I said yes he began carefully putting things in my SUV. He was cheerful and polite, and then when he was through he hopped back into his car. He could have honked, or given me the evil eye, or even used expressive hand gestures because I was taking so long, but he reacted with grace instead. And he made my day.

Giving people grace. Maybe we should be doing that more and reading emotionally manipulative memes on Facebook less. I don’t know. But I’m going to continue working on it each day. 

Photo Credits

Woman Thinking: Cottonbro                                                                                                              Woman with Crutches: Victorio Borodinova                                                                                    Stressed Woman: Andrea Piacquadio                                                                                                Woman Eating: Nicole Michalou                                                                                                 Dandelion: Artem Beliaikin