Grace to Myself and Others

The other morning, I decided to hit the grocery store early. As I browsed the taco aisle in my quest for cheese sauce, employee Bill suggested I find more options by the potato chips. He said it’s a trick he learned since he started working there – often, items are stocked in multiple locations across the store. 

I smiled and said, “You have probably learned many tricks.” He agreed but said some I wouldn’t want to know. Like how he sometimes finds the extra inventory stored on the very top shelf not even close to the display below. 

“Young kids,” he signed, shaking his head. 

“They’re still learning about life. They’re works in progress,” I replied with a laugh.

Then I continued. “But last night, I turned the wrong burner on and cooked a plastic container instead of my eggs. So I guess I’m a work in progress, too.” 

He shook his head in agreement, and we laughed together.

I walked away from the taco aisle and Bill thinking about how it’s easy to make fun of others or complain when folks do things differently. And like Bill, incompetency drives me crazy. 

But I want to remember that we’re all human. We all make mistakes and mess up. 

Like I appreciate people showing me grace, I want to extend grace to others. That’s a small gift that yields big rewards.

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