Day 20: Forgiveness (Teaching it by Giving it)

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Giving forgiveness. Giving mercy. Giving grace.

Freely offering it. Freely handing it out.

I want to get better at this. I want my daughter to see Jesus in the way I respond to her and others with grace with no strings attached.

I'm not great at it, you see. I catch myself saying things to her like, "well, if you say that sentence over with please, then I'll let you have another try at what just got messed up," or "if you just do x then it will undo y." Not to say those are never helpful conversations to have, but I think I do that way too often. The number of times I freely give grace is way too few.

I'm going to start practicing it. Literally starting to say "I forgive you" to her and to others in front of her. I want it to be more a part of my language and more a part of me.

I'm reading Crystal Lutton's "Grace Based Living" book and it's reminding me of how crucial this is... in our marriages, our parenting, and our just plain life. I don't want to miss it. It's too big. It's too free. It's too great.

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