First Blog...random thoughts on judgment & grace...

I'm not sure why...but most of us are very comfortable with the idea of gossip. Not that we would ever call it gossip...more of a concerned and thoughtful conversation about someone else. This past week has been great. My family and I had a very laid back visit at my parent's house in Georgia. We spent time with all of my siblings and in general, it was just a nice trip. Christmas was awesome...of course the kids got spoiled. But over it all laid this veil of deceit. We all live these lives that we claim have been bought by the grace and love of God...yet we continue to hide many things that we do (or don't do) and are (or aren't) to avoid a certain level of judgement from others. Several times, even today as Sara and I were driving North towards Maryland, I found myself judging my siblings...their marriage or their drinking or their parenting or their finances or whatever. And yet at the same time judging others for what I many times see as a lack of grace. Why is it that I find it so easy and yet so hard to truly embrace grace and love? It's like we all want people to show grace to us without ever giving it back to its fullest extent.

I don't really believe in New Year's resolutions...but I truly hope that God will pour love into all of us. That he will help us to put ourselves out there without fear of judgement...that he will help all of us to embrace and show grace above all.