A 365 day challenge to focus on being thankful! – Week 4, Post 2

On Monday, I wrote about a recurring theme that had been weaving in and out of my daily life for quite a while, yet I chose to ignore it. I have learned my lesson and know if I see something popping up over and over again, I need to take notice. Since the start of this new year I’ve seen the words “mercy” and “grace” repeated over and over again. When I was a kid, I always heard the two words lumped together “grace and mercy”or “mercy and grace”. I honestly always thought they meant basically the same thing.

When I started hearing those two words on repeat I thought I better take heed. Grace and mercy showed up in the message at church on Sunday, my morning study, several videos, as well as a few readings. I wasn’t even searching for those specific words, they were just there. Someone was trying to get my attention. The alarms were going off, “DO NOT IGNORE!”

From my morning study, The Bible Recap withTara Leigh Cobble, TLC gives a great definition of these two words. “Mercy is when you don’t get what you deserve… Grace is when you get what you don’t deserve.” At first it was a little hard to wrap my head around these two definition. The words for both definitions are so similar, however, when the words are slightly reordered, grace and mercy convey opposite meanings. While Tara Leigh Cobble is referring to the words as they relate to our relationship with God, it is important to note that we can extend grace and mercy to each other. Heaven knows I need all the grace and mercy I can get.

As an imperfect human, I mess up…a lot. I don’t start my day thinking about all the mistakes I will make in the day. I do my best to be the kindest, most honest person I can be but sometimes my humanness gets the better of me. If I get frustrated, sometimes I may say something I really didn’t want to say. When I was a kid, my Mom always said (mostly in reference to the interactions between us siblings), “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” I still try to live by that standard but sometimes the little soldier standing guard over my words takes a little power nap and out flies something that should have never been given breath.

If a friend, hearing those words, chooses to reprimand me, they have every right to do so. However, if they choose not to reprimand me, they have shown mercy. They didn’t give me the “what for”, which was probably well deserved. In contrast, if they choose to buy me some tea (I don’t drink coffee) and help me work through my frustrations, they have extended grace. I don’t deserve the tea or their company but they are being very gracious. My friend exercised mercy because instead of giving me what I deserved, a stern talking to, my friend chose grace, and gave me time with them and some thirst quenching sweet tea. As a southern girl, there isn’t much a cold glass of sweet tea and good conversation cannot fix.

Like a southern girl and sweet tea, it’s almost hard to have mercy without grace. While the words have opposite meanings, they go hand in hand, a positive partnership. I am so thankful for the mercy and grace partnership extended to me on a daily basis. I know I do nothing to deserve the grace and am on the receiving end of endless mercy. I want to make sure I extend that same mercy and grace to others because we have a legacy of mercy and grace. Christ showered us with the ultimate mercy and grace at the cross.