Merciful God

Mercy

My time at Regent has been such a great experience and so eye opening.  This is because they integrate faith and learning.  So I have a class called “Characteristics of Christian Schools”.  We have talked about what a Kingdom Education is.  Basically how we as teachers can bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth.  How we can spread the love of God and be his hands and feet as teachers even in public schools.

Today I wanted to share a scenario my professor shared with our class about grace and mercy.  It was so eye opening!

First my professor started off by talking about a young child learning to walk.  First the baby begins to learn how to stand.  It may be wobbly at first, but eventually, the baby will feel confident enough to take a step.  The baby may only take one step and then fall down.  But do we scold the child and tell them they are stupid? Or “Why are you so dumb? Only one step? What is wrong with you?”  NO! We still praise the baby for the one step they were able to take. 
Eventually, the baby takes more steps and becomes more confident walking.  He may need to hold someone’s hands to take the steps, but that is part of the learning process. 

This is similar to how God sees us.  Every time we slip up, God does not scold us.  He does not tell us we are stupid or say “How could you do that?”  Even when we make the same mistake over and over, he still loves us.  He helps us back up. 
He will never stop loving us.  He will never say we are not good enough.  We fail Him daily.  We make mistakes daily.  We are sinners.  But He loves us so much that He sent His son to free us from the chains of sin.  We are no longer bound by our mistakes.  God offers us mercy and grace.

This reminds me that there are going to people in our lives that hurt us.  We are going to be hurt.  We are going to be wronged.  But we need to live godly lives.  We need to do our best to obtain godly character.  We need to be more like Him and when others hurt us, when they slip and fall, we need to be quick to forgive.  We need to love them through all of it.  No one is perfect and we must seek to love others through their imperfections.  We need to love others even when they seem to be unlovable.  Why?  Because this is the love that our heavenly Father has shown us. 

We need to have grace for others.  And show kindness towards others.  And be forgiving of other’s faults.  And have mercy on them.  And be compassionate for others.

We see in Matthew 14 that Jesus had compassion on people.  He did not just feel sorry for others, but He felt physical pain.  He felt their hurt.  Jesus was so touched by the needs of others that he forgot about His own needs.  He was so touched by their hurts, that he pushed his hurts to the back burner.  Jesus was not selfish whatsoever.  He put the needs of others before his own and he served others. 
How amazing would it be if we could truly- and I mean truly- live by his example?  It is OH SO easy to get defensive and point out other’s flaws when we are offended.  Or to hurt others when we are hurt.  Or to only think about ourselves when we are having an argument with a loved one.  To only think about how we are feeling.  I know it is hard.  I struggle with this.  But it is so amazing the perfect example that we have been given of Jesus. 

Remember that God loves you and wants the best for your life.  Never forget the sacrifice He gave for you so that you could have life.  Use this gift that God has given us for His glory!
He is a kind, merciful, gracious, compassionate, faithful, patient, and GOOD Father!

Lots of Love,

Dani xoxo

**Also, One of my favorite songs go along with this topic.  “Mercy” by Amanda Cook—check it out!!