Mercy = Not getting what you deserve.
Grace = Getting what you don't deserve.
"I do not give to you as the world gives." Such an important thing to remember...and the GRACE he gives is the best gift ever, and we so don't deserve it. I love this saying I just heard the other day:
You can't have the peace of God without making peace with God.
Photos by Ms Z, from Munich.
z
28 comments:
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies when I'm done. ;)
Nah, I could use some peace and tranquility lately. I'm going to punch the next person who tells me I need anger management therapy. ;)
Saying "this too shall pass" a million times a day to myself lately.
God, give me some patience. And hurry up with it already.
I'm with Beamish....Patience is what I have the shortest supply of!
grace...unmerited favor.
Grace
She takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
It could be her name
Grace
It's a name for a girl
It's also a thought that changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything
Grace, she's got the walk
Not on a ramp or on chalk
She's got the time to talk
She travels outside of karma
She travels outside of karma
When she goes to work
You can hear her strings
Grace finds beauty in everything
Grace, she carries a world on her hips
No champagne flute for her lips
No twirls or skips between her fingertips
She carries a pearl in perfect condition
What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things
Grace makes beauty out of ugly things
Music: U2
Thanks, Z, for giving us important things to think about. Thanks, Elmer,for the song!
beamish...funny you should say "give me patience"
A friend recently talked about this...the Bible tells us that suffering gives us patience; we learn to have patience through hardships, etc. I"m paraphrasing but have the gist of it right (I hope!)...so, she says "NEVER pray for patience because you'll have to go through real hard times to get it!"
I thought that was a pretty good reminder :-)
AOW: Careful! See above !!
Elbro, thanks for the lyric..."She carries the world on her hips" Very interesting words..
Good grief, Z, now you have me adding bible verses on my site (Famous Quotes).
hips are a very very attractive part of a female, the lyric invokes in me the attraction found in grace
Z, beautiful, thanks.
Peace and grace seem hard to come by these days. Both seem rather fleeting, and I think we should take a moment to be grateful when either or both of those wash over us. I try.
Beamish, the human condition well stated as only you can. Good for a chuckle as well. You're one of a kind.
Elbro, a nice contributon. There is beauty in those words.
Pris
I really like your featured verse, Z.
When I was having a particularly difficult emotional time about 5 years ago, the Lord directed me to the beginning of that chapter.
John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me.
It was exactly where I had left it, when I had stopped reading my Bible months before, and was comforting. But also was the spanking I needed because I was most definitely not believing that God knows what He's doing in my life.
I'm going to punch the next person who tells me I need anger management therapy.
"Anger management therapy" is an illusory psychological bandage that the humanists are welcome to keep.
grace...unmerited favor.
My husband and I and a few others recently had a discussion about "grace". Most of us agreed that it is an inherent part of God's nature, but one commenter identified "grace" as the Person of Jesus Christ. I loved that!
Jesus is God's gift to a dying world, totally unearned, often unwelcome, yet freely available to any who would receive Him.
Heather
//"Anger management therapy" is an illusory psychological bandage that the humanists are welcome to keep.//
I completely disagree.
Eph. 4:26
Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
This indicates that anger is a normal and natural emotion that is sometimes healthy. The reaction to the anger is the part that can easily become sin.
Anger management can and is helpful to people who need help managing it, so they do not react unfavorably to it.
LASunsett:
I'm not against management of anger.
There are enough passages concerning God's completely justified wrath being directed against unrighteousness that I'm not foolish enough to say "anger" is, of itself, wrong.
What I oppose is the use of secularly devised, human-effort focused means of achieving the goal which distracts from the need to rely on God's strength and healing power.
You're welcome to disagree with me, if you like, though :)
H
Blessings, Z. Thanks for this lovely post.
evoke...not invoke...
ugh
"Anger management therapy" is an illusory psychological bandage that the humanists are welcome to keep.
I wouldn't entirely push off therapy as some humanist salve. There's no need to besmirch humanism unnecessary, even if anger management therapy is a bunch of absolute bullshit concocted by people who need to take an ass-whoopin' on genral principle.
"Oh I need therapy! I need to see my support group! I need to take my pills and read my books and find my inner whatever."
"No, you need to blow your brains out and die before you eat too much more of the useful population's food, loser."
Man I want to kick Dr. Phil in his teeth.
Z,
A friend recently talked about this...the Bible tells us that suffering gives us patience; we learn to have patience through hardships, etc. I"m paraphrasing but have the gist of it right (I hope!)...so, she says "NEVER pray for patience because you'll have to go through real hard times to get it!"
Hmmm. Maybe I need to buy God a hearing aid for Christmas.
Sorry to vent. Been feeling like Charlie Brown trying to kick Lucy's football lately.
As soon as I find a new job, I'm going to tell the one I currently have how many times they can shove it.
Anger management can and is helpful to people who need help managing it, so they do not react unfavorably to it.
I guess my problem with it is that it's more often than not prescribed to people who don't need it.
Now sure, if it stops someone from hulking out and throwing his boss through a wall at the slightest provocation, I'd see a need for it.
But "you have a bad attitude" for most part should be answered with "I didn't walk in with one."
I just have a very very very low tolerance for bullshit. It makes me seethe.
beamish, I"m sorry that job isn't going like it was...
I really am.
GOod luck finding something..
Go to that darn Dana Loesch, or whatever her name is, and tell her you want to be her BERNARD McGUIRK and Z recommended you :-)
Just have her read my sidebar of your quotes and your comments: HIRED! :-)
After being commeded for over six weeks of high performance stats and meeting all the metrics in the corporate course of hoops to jump through, I was written up at work for the grand punishable offense of doing my job in an ethical manner.
I'm a victim of doing my job TOO well.
So yeah they're a bit upset with me that I proved and made the operations manager and my direct boss out to be a fool in front of the whole department. I'd do it again. I'll do it every day. It hasn't made my job any easier.
I'm just waiting for the day I can put in my two weeks notice "retroactively."
"F*CK YOU" is on the tip of my tongue. I'm savoring saying it the day I walk.
Beautiful post, sweet Z!
There's a Michael W. Smith song w/ lyrics, "Your Grace has found me just as I am, empty handed but alive in Your hands..."
I just LOVE those words! (posted w/ a link @ the bottom of my blog if you want to see it, Z)
Thanks again ~ a great start to my day!
I wouldn't entirely push off therapy as some humanist salve. There's no need to besmirch humanism unnecessary, even if anger management therapy is a bunch of absolute bullshit concocted by people who need to take an ass-whoopin' on genral principle.
LOL
Well, I can't say my issue has been with "anger". but I can personally vouch for the failure of "self-affirmation", programs and behavior modification efforts in curing me of anxiety, depression and eating disorders. Those things which involved only my efforts at "improving" have temporarily worked....until I got hit by something I wasn't expecting.
I guess my problem with it is that it's more often than not prescribed to people who don't need it.
Right along with ritalin and prozac.
I'm a victim of doing my job TOO well.
Sounds similar to someone I know. He does what's right because, as a Christian, that is who he is. And he knows that people who feel threatened by him think they need to do what it takes to "keep him in line" when he isn't threatening to do anything other than give the company his best.
I'm sorry your job's not working out.
Ah, my job could be done by a retard, is done by retards. The trouble is I'm not a retard and it's making the natives restless.
I was fine with it it, settling in nicely until I was asked to do the direct opposite of what I was hired to do and trained to do, and "retroactively" all my good work suddenly counts for naught.
That's fine, things change. But to go from high praise to being singled out for attrition in the span of a day let me know early that's it time to find another job. I reached the dead end of it early. My lips just won't pucker up for an ass. I won't do it. Not when I can find a better paying job with certainly less hassle and less petty tyrants running the asylum.
I've faced danger at gunpoint. Not about to get punked out by a boss with a Napoleon complex. Especially one that carries a purse despite being a male.
Beamish, you actively looking again for something? I hope so.
Lay low, pucker up a TINY bit to get your pay check and enjoy that life you were just starting to enjoy, and GET THE HECK OUT ASAP :-)
Not that I like giving advice any better than I like taking it, but...just a thought
xxx
"F*CK YOU" is on the tip of my tongue. I'm savoring saying it the day I walk.
------------
Ohhh, please don't say it.
I'm sorry your job's not going well.
I'm not working right now, but need to get back to work soon so I can save up for school.
I hope you find something good! Don't burn too many bridges!!
:unsolicited advice, over:
ElBro, awesome song.
Love it.
Well, I'm being "smart" about it. I know it's easier to find a job when you already have one. For too long I didn't have one, and its not like jobs are growing on trees right now.
But, again, I look at where I'm at, and all the gears are turning to spit me out. My job has a high turnover rate, and it has to do more with the fact that the company has found the Obama "job creation" gold mine - hire people long enough to get the tax credit, attrite them to quit or get fired to make room for the next batch. My boss doesn't even know how to do my job. His boss, the operations manager, is even more clueless.
I've placed my resume with seven companies in the last two hours, all of them hiring for what I do, for more pay than I get right now.
I'll get something soon, hopefully.
This too shall pass...
Beautiful, Z, thank you. He IS our peace! He died, the righteous One, so I, the sinner could be right with God & have His perfect righteousness put to my spiritual account! A judge can pardon someone, but they still have a record, that's mercy. But when we are righteously given a perfect standing, that's grace! (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Beamish "the company has found the Obama "job creation" gold mine - hire people long enough to get the tax credit, attrite them to quit or get fired to make room for the next batch"
this is a bad joke you're relating, right?
Hi, David! Bless you for coming by! Yes, Grace is all we need and want, isn't it!
Beamish "the company has found the Obama "job creation" gold mine - hire people long enough to get the tax credit, attrite them to quit or get fired to make room for the next batch"
this is a bad joke you're relating, right?
I wish it were a bad joke, Z. But, it's not. It's a rather pervasive situation and will remain so until the economy is allowed to recover from Obama's experiment.
I took this job because I knew I could get it. My mistake was going back after it spit me out once before, effectively I've earned my company that tax credit twice.
I'm a number, not a person. I had to come to terms with that, and have decided against doing so. I can't be content with my employment being treated like a formality when I'm actually trying to navigate the obstacle course and secure a forward-moving position. The petty things tossed into my personnel file over the last week killed any hopes of my job ever being more than it is. All my hard work to gain job security reduced to nothing by the stroke of a pen. I honestly feel my name was drawn out of a hat at random. The chew-out session I was put through last certainly wasn't about me. I don't swallow BS, and I'm not going to acquire the taste for it. I knew then my days were numbered. The writing on the wall is fairly clear.
The day I'm hired by someone else, and the fresh start with it, can't come soon enough. I'll have my dignity either way, but quitting on my terms for something better is my goal now.
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