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.\u00a0 Duffy e-mailed the friend who had coordinated the get-together saying, \u201cI hate myself.\u201d\u00a0 Her friend told her not to hate herself explaining, \u201cFriends extend grace to one another.\u201d<\/p>\n
That phrase resonated with Duffy.\u00a0 Writing on Patheos.com, she said, \u201cI might have withdrawn from the group knowing that I\u2019d goofed up long-held plans.\u00a0 Conversely, I might have been ejected from the group by less understanding friends.\u00a0 But any time the soul chooses to isolate rather than to embrace, it is the ego.\u00a0 And the ego is the enemy of human relationships.\u00a0 It allows us to build imaginary castles around ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an obligation to extend grace to one another, to people who are not expecting it\u2014to extend it freely, with maturity\u2026When our egos win, we all lose.\u201d<\/p>\n
A true friend sticks closer than one\u2019s nearest kin.<\/strong><\/p>\n (Proverbs 18:24)<\/strong><\/p>\n May I extend to others the grace You give me, Jesus.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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.\u00a0 Duffy e-mailed the friend who had coordinated the get-together saying, \u201cI hate myself.\u201d\u00a0 Her friend told her not to hate herself explaining, \u201cFriends extend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n