There is No Grace for Me…

I hosted a webinar last week for leaders inside our organization. The topic of the call was growth. In our org, we use principles from Dr. John Townsend and Dr. Henry Cloud regarding the formula you need for growth. Grace + Truth + Time = Growth.

We believe people need both. Truth without grace is often hard to metabolize, and sometimes we will reject it; grace without truth coddles people and stunts growth, and we can remain babies. But when you have both, and you give someone time, you create an environment for growth.

We asked this question to 60+ leaders: “When you mess up or make a mistake, which direction do you most likely lean- Grace or Truth?”

Almost all of our leaders could say that when they mess up, they hardly ever meet themselves with grace. We also all agreed that it is easy to give it to others and hard to give to ourselves.

Interesting…

I went for a run today, and it is so humid, and I didn’t really want to run. I made myself go, and then on my run, I just had a hard time staying motivated. I stopped and walked several times. I found my internal dialogue to be pretty harsh.

I was out on the trail all by myself. There is NO one watching me, no one I am accountable to, no one keeping track of my miles or how fast or far I ran. I am simply out there to move my body and sweat. And inside, I struggled to give myself grace for the day.

Grace for a hard-working momma, grace for someone who is doing her best to do everything, including trying to be healthy and exercise.

As I got to the last ¼ mile, I realized how hard I was being on myself for absolutely NO reason. And it made me pause…”Why am I treating myself like this?”

My Pastor, Terry Koehn, preached a sermon two weeks ago on creation. He talked about how creation, all of it is good, is beautiful, is awe-provoking, and how we were created, shaped, molded, hand-made, and we are “good.”

I teach these kinds of concepts all the time. I have created a program for girls called The Priceless Project and have a curriculum called “I AM A Masterpiece.” It helps teach us about the amazing work of art that we each are.

And as my Pastor was preaching, he said: “What if tomorrow when you woke up, before you rolled out of bed, you said, ‘ God, thank you for creating me.”

Wait…”Thank you for creating ME?” Me? Emily Jane Coggins- French? Thank you for creating me? Thank you that I am a wonderful masterpiece? I AM a work of art? Full of purpose, crowned with grace, with plans and good works set out for me to do. For ME? Thank YOU for creating ME?

You see, I teach this to others all day long. ALL day.

Yet I couldn’t remember the last time I gave myself the same GRACE. I couldn’t remember the last time I told myself the TRUTH.

I felt it deep in my soul, the need I had to be reminded that MY life is a gift. I AM a gift.

This is what I want for you my dear, I want you to pause. I want you to put your hand on your chest and feel your heartbeat. I want you to consider the beauty in your life. I want you to say “God, thank you for breath in my lungs and a heart that is beating, thank YOU for creating ME.”

“And after purposeful creation, God surveyed everything He had made and declared it to be “very good.” Gensis 1:31

You are very good my dear, very very good.

From My Heart to Yours,

emilyjfrench.com