Showing Grace to Others

A few of my daughters are very good cooks. They did not learn it from me. I can cook to feed people and keep them alive but not like the meals these daughters make. I’m not too bad at deserts and cakes but only average in making those too.

It so happened that they married men who were good cooks also. I have noticed over the years that they teach their children (my grandchildren) how to cook different dishes depending upon their abilities which is dependent upon their age and maturity. Aubrey, from the age of 8, and Willow, from the age of 5, have made some of the following dishes: walnut pesto pasta (where the pesto sauce is made from scratch), Spaghetti Bolognaise, Chicken Schnitzel, Chicken Parmigiana, and mince with all the trimmings for tacos.

The other day Melissa, their mother, went to buy the fresh basil, trying 3 different supermarkets and no one had any. This meant Melissa bought the pesto sauce already made in a jar to make the Chicken Pesto Pasta dish for dinner. As the family sat down to eat and the first mouthful was consumed, everyone put down their forks and said, “that is horrible, I can’t eat that!” Melissa had a taste and thought the same. There was something wrong with the pesto sauce. Her shoulders slumped and Willow who noticed and who has a very kind nature (actually they all do) stated “It’s ok Mum, you tried your best.” Oh, what a gorgeous response to a beloved Mother.

It makes me reflect upon whether I am that generous to others when they make mistakes? Or do I “put the boot” into them and destroy them more with my attitude and words?

Jesus always gives us the example of how to live. The story of Peter’s denial of Jesus three times when He was captured to be tried before Pontius Pilate and the subsequent restoration of Peter’s relationship with Him, instigated by Jesus shows us Jesus’ grace.

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant-girl came to him and said, ‘You also were with Jesus the Galilean.’ But he denied it before all of them, saying, ‘I do not know what you are talking about.’ When he went out to the porch, another servant-girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, ‘This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.’ Again he denied it with an oath, ‘I do not know the man.’ After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, ‘Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you.’ Then he began to curse, and he swore an oath, ‘I do not know the man!’ At that moment the cock crowed. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: ‘Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly.

Matt 26:69-75 NRSV

Jesus chose Peter to be the leader of the Church and in the book of John, Jesus specifically reinstates Peter, commissioning him to “feed my sheep.”

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.’

John 21:15-17 NRSV

Jesus could have taken offense – well actually more than offense and cut him out of God’s family but he didn’t. He chose to forgive him and send him grace.

Willow, on behalf of everyone, was extending grace to her Mum for the meal that did not work out.

Where do you need to be like Jesus and extend Grace to someone that has offended you?

May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’

Love

Rosemary

Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Where do you need to be like Jesus and extend Grace to someone that has offended you?

Where do you need to forgive, even if you are not in the wrong?  

Where do you need to be more like Jesus?