Grace is a covering NOT a doormat.
Are you in a great relationship or a messy one? If you’re in a GREAT relationship I would like to know your thoughts on my musings and if they are are helpful to you. If you’re in a messy relationship, READ ON.
We all cover the dirt to make ourselves look good. We cover our dirty walls with paint, our floors with carpeting and our sins and pains with a smile. And that’s all right and good because accidents happen. We all make mistakes and others make mistakes that have an effect on us. The people we love (and are SUPPOSED to love) will make mistakes and we SHOULD cover it up–give them GRACE. That way we BOTH look good.
But what about when it gets messy? I mean REALLY messy. What if the person who loves me (or is SUPPOSED to love me) has such an effect on me that I no longer look good…but THEY DO? May I offer–THAT is NOT grace. That is being a doormat.
Grace is something that is OFFERED not TAKEN.
Grace covers up a stain, a sin, a wrongdoing and GRACE looks good on the outside. It’s clean, bright and shiny. People walk by and say “Oh, that looks so good!” The problem or dirt is still there but to those on the outside, it can’t be seen.
A doormat, however is filthy. People wipe their feet on it and the dirt is left there and now, their feet are clean and THEY look good but the doormat doesn’t. Wiping one’s feet on a doormat that’s just laying there, also, is something that THEY take-they do. The doormat has no reaction. The covering of GRACE must be lifted by the giver. Not the doormat. The doormat is stagnant and just lays there getting dirtier and dirtier. And has anyone ever cleaned a doormat? Of course not. When it’s dirty and tattered enough, it just gets thrown out.
Is there a fine line between offering grace and turning into a doormat? You BET! And why is that? I would love to hear your thoughts if you have ever crossed the line of consistently offering grace but then turning into a doormat.
I have but one projection to offer. Which will be coming in part 2. It is rooted in the scripture from Galatians 5:22.
