Employ Grace

I have struggled with extending genuine grace and love toward others. Not only extending grace and love, but literally being the existence of those things as Ephesians 4.24 says about "[putting] on the new man, which after Christ is created in righteousness and true holiness." Shedding the person you were before Christ entered your life and becoming the living proof of God's grace and love. I struggle immensely when it comes to resisting how my flesh wants to react in my day-to-day life. My flesh screams to allow my emotions to control what I say, how I act... Women might have the hardest time with this. With the constant hormonal imbalances taking place in our bodies for the majority of our lives, we tend to allow our bodies to control us and send us in a downward spiral of emotions with depression, rage, etc, quickly following suit. I've found this quickly opens a door to develop habits which I often allow to determine my reactions to things in my life. Take conversations with my husband, for instance. Say in the midst of a discussion, Logan says something in a certain tone or whatever that irritates or rubs me the wrong way. If I allow myself to react the way every bone in my body screams for me to react, I am allowing my unbridled emotions to take control. All of you who have been married for any length of time know the inevitability of such a scenario, so, as this happens again and again, my emotions remaining unbridled, the likelihood of this fleshly reaction taking place is just as inevitable as this scenario. That being said, I must train myself to withstand the impulse to lash out, bite my tongue and employ Grace! Otherwise, in all reality I am training myself to do the exact opposite, hurting myself by making it harder to deny the impulse and break the habit, and hurting my husband and marriage in the process. This is a daily struggle for me and something I am sure I will deal with all of my life. But I know as I deny my flesh the satisfaction and employ Grace, it will eventually become more of a knee-jerk reaction to do so. I think when that takes place is when you become the existence of love and grace. By His strength, I will strive for this every day of my life. I want His grace and love to shine through me like nothing else!

So what’s something that helps you employ grace in your daily life?