Friday, May 27, 2011

A $50.00 Lesson Of Grace

So, I asked for it and I got it.
I had been asking the Lord to show me an example of grace in my life.

I had my definition for grace all ready to share:
grace = getting what you don't deserve; unmerited favor

Now all I needed was a clever example.

Let me back up a bit though.

Recently, over at 29 Lincoln Avenue , Stacey held a giveaway.  She was giving away an art print by Dee at Red Letter Words . The print was covered with portions of  Bible verses about Grace. I wasn't gonna enter because.... yep, you guessed it - "I never win anything". But, I really, really liked it. The bits of verses Dee used on this print are some of my favorites. So, I left a comment -  just in case, maybe this time, I'd win.

Well what do you know!
A few days later I got an email from Stacey saying: "Congratulations! "
I had won!

Now, this is where my praying for an example of grace comes in.

I had almost all I needed for a great post .....
... Topic for my post 
check
... Thank Stacey
check
... Let you know about Red Letter Words
check

All that was left was an example of grace.
Something personal I could share.
Perhaps a wonderful way I extended grace to someone else.

Ready? Here we go - grace - keeping it real and being honest.

A few weeks ago hubby wanted to spend extra money for a Wii system. He had saved up almost the total amount needed and now they were on sale. So, I extended grace to my wonderful husband and said very sweetly and lovingly  "Go ahead and get it babe. Don't worry about the extra $50.00. In fact, go out tomorrow and buy it". 

Ummm .... well .... no.
That's not what I said. 
{but I wish it was}

Truthfully, I explained to him, not very calmly or sweetly, that we didn't have the extra money. Our car lease, that he is very well aware of, will be ending soon and we needed to save all we could for another car. Not to mention that we were only half way through the month and blah blah our budget blah blah and weren't we trying to pay off our credit cards.....

He walked away, in the middle of my detailed, RANT explanation and let the dog out. Oh well, I was right and he knew it. If just in case he didn't, I was sure the my cool attitude towards him the rest of the evening would help him realize how wrong he was.

I mean how childish and selfish!
Ummm... I was thinking him and not me.
{bet that's not what you're thinking}

OK, and moving on.

Anyways, just a few days ago I was out with my mom. I had just finished sewing my first rag quilt the day before. It turned out pretty good.  We agreed that it would be great for me to sew another quilt and we could give it to a mutual friend who is having a baby boy. While we were out we stopped by a fabric store. We picked out some of the prettiest fabric for the quilt.  We decided we'd split the cost of the fabrics, thread and flannel material.

Silly us! We were very excited about the pretty fabric and how it all matched so nicely. We kept agreeing how much fun we were having. We were happily thinking how much our friend would like the quilt. And in all our happy excitement we simply didn't check the price of each yard of fabric. Because this was a spur of the moment trip to the store I didn't bring my quilt info with me. I found out when I got home we got at least twice the amount that we needed.

When we got to the register both of us were shocked at the cost of our purchase. I felt maybe a little sick too, but that could have been that it was way past lunch time.

Almost done with my story. Hope you're still with me friend.

When I got home I had to tell hubby what had happened at the fabric store. So I brought him a strawberry banana smoothie from McDonald's and told him we needed to talk. 

After I had explained what I had done he said, "What is done is done. Please don't do this again - next time think before you do things".
{meaning: listen to my head and not my heart - I take after mom for that}
"No, I'm not mad at you." "I love you."

Even though I knew that this is how he'd probably react (even if I didn't bring him a smoothie),  I couldn't help but feel undeserving of his grace.

After the way I had reacted to him? No, I didn't deserve it.
After the way I had treated him? Didn't deserve it. 

Even though I had apologized to him and felt awful about it,  I still felt undeserving of his love and grace.

But, isn't that what grace is all about?  Yep, it's getting what you don't deserve.

So to sum it up .....

Being on the receiving end of grace given is pretty great. It made me feel loved, as well as, thankful for the wonderful hubby God has given me.

My "$50.00 Lesson of Grace" was not what I expected, yet it's a lesson I won't forget.
{hoping that next time I ask the Lord for an example I can get to be the "good guy" }

Hey friend, hope you'll extend some grace to me and not judge me for my less than gracious attitude toward hubby. I'm a work in progress. He understands that and so does Jesus. And believe me I'm so glad they do.

Aren't we all a work in progress? That's one reason why it's very important that we remember to give grace to each other.

Today my Grace print came in the mail.  I love it's message of grace!
{thanks Stacey and Dee}
And today hubby went out and bought his Wii game. 
{thanks mom for your gracious gift so he'd have enough to buy it}

Oh, and the amount that I needed to pay for my half of the material?
Yea, $50.00. Pretty ironic huh?!