Shortly after I graduated high school, I began making a series of decisions that would impact my life and the lives of the ones I love in a big way. I’d known Jesus for as long as I could remember. He was real to me, and I’d known His voice from a young age.
Despite this, I went down a road that ran contrary to His plan for me. In fact, it was the very road He’d told me not to go down, the road that I’d informed my parents I should stay far from. The road was a boy I was dating, and I knew it would lead to my destruction. My parents knew this, too, and they joined me in prayer against it.
So when I started seeing that boy again, I began subtly lying to my parents — “We’re just friends” — all the while knowing I was tiptoeing dangerously close to disaster.
Soon tiptoeing was wading, and wading, drowning.
Over the course of six months, I was kicked out of my parents’ house and asked to move out of my new roommates’ house. I wasn’t sleeping well, had no appetite, and was losing weight. I hadn’t talked to my family since they’d (rightfully) kicked me out months before.
Then one day at work, something happened that demonstrated grace to me in such a simple, straightforward way. It was enough to send me to the bathroom heaving and sobbing. I received a dozen red roses. The tag said, “I love you. No matter what. –Dad.”
To this day, it’s the most tangible example of grace I’ve been given. I challenge you today to extend that grace to someone. Don’t just pray. Do something. It can be the difference between life and death for a hurting soul. It was for me.
All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. —1 Kings 19:6, NIV
Prayer: Father God, show me what your grace looks like. Show me how to extend it to the ones who need to see it, and give me the strength and humility to do it. Amen.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Samantha Taylor is an Income Processing Associate at the Global Ministry Center in Colorado Springs, CO.
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