Jan. 17: Friends Extend Grace

Busy wife, mom and writer Elizabeth Duffy had to drop out of a months-in-the-making dinner with friends because she had accidentally scheduled a trip out of town for the same day.  Duffy e-mailed the friend who had coordinated the get-together saying, “I hate myself.”  Her friend told her not to hate herself explaining, “Friends extend grace to one another.”

That phrase resonated with Duffy.  Writing on Patheos.com, she said, “I might have withdrawn from the group knowing that I’d goofed up long-held plans.  Conversely, I might have been ejected from the group by less understanding friends.  But any time the soul chooses to isolate rather than to embrace, it is the ego.  And the ego is the enemy of human relationships.  It allows us to build imaginary castles around ourselves.”

“We have an obligation to extend grace to one another, to people who are not expecting it—to extend it freely, with maturity…When our egos win, we all lose.”

A true friend sticks closer than one’s nearest kin.

(Proverbs 18:24)

May I extend to others the grace You give me, Jesus.