Missed Opportunity for Grace on Grace Laced Monday

Recently, I am ashamed to say, I missed an opportunity to extend grace to my husband and to capitalize on a teachable moment for my preteen. It was like the Holy Spirit bonked me on the head and said, "See, what happened there? Love Me."

Here is what happened. We were traveling along the maze of highways in Atlanta discussing the best way to get somewhere. The Red Sox fan and I were in a disagreement on whether a road I suggested we take was before or after a major highway in the area. We established a bet and lunch was the reward.

The Red Sox fan's position was that the road was AFTER the highway and he began boasting and sending out much trash talk certain of his rightness. I was smugly smiling, letting him make a fool of himself because I KNEW the road was BEFORE the highway. Our daughter was eagerly engaged in our disagreement and anxious to see who was right.

The an unexpected thing happened. The exit to the highway came before the exit to the road but the actual physical road came before the actual physical highway. In other words, on a map the road would be before the highway, but in real life you had to exit for the highway before you passed the road. Who was right? Naturally, a fight ensued with each one of us still certain of our correctness. An embarrassing, name calling, "you're always right" fight ensued.

While I still believe I was right (after all, the road did physically come before the highway), I could have and should have extended grace to my husband and modeled graciousness for my daughter. If I had, we would not have raised our voices or called names or had hurt feelings and my daughter would have had a real example of how you don't always have to have the last word (even when you are right).

I must remember that it is more important to be in relationship that to be right!

Lesson learned