What is Grace?
Many years ago, when I was dissolving a marriage and trying to decide whether to leave Houston for Southern California, I came to the humbling realization that I was nothing more than a student in life. This despite the fact that I had been a college instructor and once thought myself wiser than most.
Yeah right.
It was such a relief to acknowledge my student status and the permission/acknowledgment that I would be one for life. That gave me permission to fail, to make mistakes, to be more humble. To learn more from others. To be a kid again. To be more forgiving. Later, as a student, I would learn prayers of gratitude, and that has become a daily morning practice.
This morning in the shower, I re-read the “lesson” on the Philosophy Shower Gel sitting on the shelf.
It was a little message to savor:
Life is a classroom. We are both student and teacher. Each day is a test. And each day we receive a passing or failing grade in one particular subject:
Grace is compassion, gratitude, surrender, faith, forgiveness, good manners, reverence and the list goes on. It’s something money cannot buy and credentials rarely produce. Being the smartest, the prettiest, the most talented, the richest or even the poorest can’t help. Being an humble person can, and being a helpful person can guide you through your days with grace and gratitude.
The photo with quote from John Quincy Adams is an extension of grace that we share when we inspire others to dream, learn and do more. It was found on Facebook and I wish I knew to whom I might give credit. In the meantime, I aspire to be a better student in life and to practice grace at every opportunity. –Roberta Murphy, a San Diego real estate broker.
