Lessons in Grace

Ever have one of those weeks where you feel like you’re failing everything? Those moments with those not-so-gentle reminders that you aren’t quite tackling life the way you envisioned?

It can be hard, when you have those moments, to pick yourself up and find the connection you need to give yourself a second chance, but I would encourage you, that even in the hardest of moments, you have the power to give yourself grace and find a little mercy amidst the mess.

When you’re plugging along and things seem to take an unexpected life detour – and you start to get those reminders that you aren’t “doing it all,” here are some tools to consider:

1. Get organized – in mind and in your home. Sometimes, you just need to do a mental and physical decluttering to clear the way for streamlined thinking and to reassess what needs to be done in order to find order in your life.
2. Choose happiness. Here’s a tough one. CHOOSE to be happy. Yes, there are times when it is not that simple or is a bit more complicated than that, but do what you can, in your power, to choose happiness. There are a LOT of things and people in this world that can weigh us down. Here’s some groundbreaking advice – don’t waste your time on those people or things. Life is better lived when you live it for yourself and in turn, are able to give your best self to the world.
3. Give grace. And start with yourself. When the rest of the world seems to heap it on, it’s easy to grab a shovel and start burying ourselves. It’s a lot harder to step back, take a minute, and give ourselves an opportunity to screw up, but know that the world is not falling. It will continue to keep turning and you have so much more value than what the world tells you that you aren’t worth.
4. Remind yourself that it’s temporary. There is not much in this life that is on par with brain surgery. There is not much that we do that will change the course of human history. Much of what we experience as humans is temporary – sometimes, short-term. Sometimes, long term. But there is always an end in sight. We must always remember that those difficulties are temporary and while we are living them, to pour on the grace. There can never be enough.

So much of who we are becomes wrapped up in the minor things – a job, daily tasks as a wife or a mother, running errands or finalizing details for life – but our failures do not define us. The stress that we feel is not the end. It is a blip in the radar – it is a single moment in time that when wrapped up in grace, suddenly doesn’t feel like the world around us is crashing down.

When we begin to reassess where we are headed. When we begin to remind ourselves that we are all just really doing the best we can.

When grace is our default, not our last resort.

That is where we will find our greatest relief.