The Gift of Grace: Receiving Grace Upon Grace (John 1:16)
The gift of grace can bless our lives as we open our hearts to receiving “grace upon grace” (John 1:16). Several experiences in life taught me how to receive grace with a willing heart:
The Gift of Grace
Prayer
When I was seventeen, High School suddenly became more challenging when a fellow student began to treat me poorly. My negative feelings for this person increased over time until the day I decided to offer a prayer and forgive her. In that moment, I saw her as a child of God and was filled with compassion for her.
Posts may contain affiliate links, including Amazon links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. See disclosure policy for details.
Family History
As I became older, my relationships with family and friends became more complicated. I found it difficult to maneuver through relationships with individuals whose choices I couldn’t understand. The solution to many of my relationship challenges came from the most unlikely of places: family history.
As I spent time learning about my ancestors, my understanding of why individuals make the choices they do began to increase. I learned of:
- generational patterns of behavior
- debilitating health issues
- heartbreaking losses
- and heart-wrenching trials
the consequences of which can be passed down for generations.
Everyone has a story to tell, a story filled with good and bad, happy and sad. Our compassion for others increases when we become curious about their life stories.
Becoming Child-like
More recently, when my own story became stormy, it was easy to think of the antagonist in my story as being without feeling, incapable of doing any good.
One day, something entirely unexpected happened⎯someone sent me a picture of this person as a ten-year-old child and I began to cry. Not a soft and silent cry, but an abrupt and anguish-filled cry that I feared my neighbors might hear. Heavy pangs of heartache filled my whole soul as I considered the pain this child, and later, grown adult, must have experienced throughout their live that would lead them to make the choices they had.
Today, years after first seeing that picture, I still find myself weeping out loud whenever I think of that ten-year-old child. Compassion rises to the surface, even in the midst of our storms, when we humanize others, remembering that they, too, have feelings.
don’t miss a thing!
Subscribe to receive the latest content and inspiration.
Grace Upon Grace
Heartfelt prayer, family history research, and envisioning others as a child have not only increased my ability to offer grace to those around me, but to offer grace to myself.
Who among us has not felt the deep regret and overwhelming grief of past mistakes and poor choices? If only we had known then what we know now, the results would have been much different.
But that’s not how life works.
We live and learn.
We fall and get back up.
We grow “line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little” (2 Nephi 28:30) as we receive “grace upon grace” (John 1:16).
Through prayer, I am able to access the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which offers me peace in the midst of my grief and the opportunity to try again.
As I learn about my ancestors, including grief experienced from mistakes made, and the personal journeys taken to make things right, I feel hope that I, too, can overcome my personal weaknesses, one step at a time.W
When I remember myself as a child and striving to become more child-like, I have more patience with myself on this journey towards perfection.
I am grateful for the gift of grace.
CONSIDER: What does your journey with grace look like?
Quote
“Defeats in life should never detain us long, since only faith and courage are needed to change them into real victories. For, after all, it is character we are building in this world; and if we use every experience to promote our growth, to make us better; if we emerge from it stronger, braver, truer, nobler—we have lost nothing—but have been the gainer. In reverses and misfortunes, then, we have but to keep our eyes fixed on Christ, caring only that no harm comes to our soul from the loss or the trial; and thus we shall be victorious.
If we stop and look back with despairing heart, at the wreck of our hopes and plans—our defeat will be real and humiliating! Like Lot’s wife, we shall be buried beneath the encrusting salt! But if we resolutely turn away from the failure or the ruin—and press on to brighter things—things that cannot perish—we shall get victory and win blessedness and eternal gain! Look forward—and not back! Live to make tomorrow beautiful, not to stain yesterday with tears of regret and grief.”
J.R. Miller
Find this post helpful?
Share it on Pinterest
Art Credit: Apple Trees In Bloom, Nikolai Astrup, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nikolai_Astrup_Apple_trees_in_bloom.jpg
