A Lesson in Grace

I guess it's not really ironic that my small group was talking about grace last night-- who has extended it to us and to whom we need to extend it.  Because while a lot of people have extended me grace lately-- coworkers who put out my sub plans, friends who rearrange schedules for get-togethers, pets I forget to feed-- I'm having trouble extending a little grace right now.  And it's to someone who is really deserving of it. 

A week ago today, Eric tried to install a program from a CD on our computer.  I won't go into the details because I'm not a techie and I don't know them.  I do know that he was doing it because he needed this certain program on our computer so that he could download another program to get a certain "desktop theme" for his Blackberry that he really wanted.  The short version is that he didn't read the instructions, this program didn't like our computer, and our hard-drive was wiped clean.  In fact, we have to have a new hard-drive put in our computer...thankfully Macs have great warranties and it won't cost us anything.

I won't lie-- I'm pretty ticked.  In the grand scheme of things, we didn't lose a whole lot.  When we got our new Mac this spring, we transferred everything from our old Mac over using an external hard-drive...so really all we lost was anything from this spring to the present.  But still-- it's a lot.  We have a long clean-up process ahead when we get our computer back either tomorrow or Monday.  I know Eric feels horrible and he's apologized in every way he knows how.  He's promised to get everything back on our computer-- or as much as he can-- as soon as we get it back.  He's a man of his word, and I know he will.  He's already talked to Apple to figure out how to re-download everything we've purchased from iTunes without getting charged again.  He's already ordered a DVD with the high resolution images of everything we had on Shutterfly.  He volunteered to go through my iPod and figure out every CD we'd need to upload and said he'd go get them from the library if we no longer owned the CD (most of our 5000ish songs were uploads of CDs we owned, but sold at yard sales or traded or, well you get the idea).  He is making plans to copy all of the pictures from my Facebook and the blog-- which even though they won't be as good as the high resolution images, we'll still have the pictures (like Cate at the football games or silly little things around the house).

He's trying. 

And I need to extend some grace to him. 

By not making him feel even worse than he already does.  By not ignoring him.  By not getting angry with him. 

But by simply forgiving and offering to help him clean up the mess. 

Grace.  God doesn't make us feel worse than we already do when we're in need of grace.  He doesn't ignore us (you may feel like He does, but He doesn't).  He doesn't get angry with us.  He forgives. 

And He cleans up our messes. 

~Melody :-)

P.S.  And speaking of messes....here's another phone pic of Cate, making a mess with one of my favorite dishes (and apparently hers too)-- beef burgundy.

I also think her little feet are adorable in these Nike Shox.

 

Hopefully we'll have our computer back soon so I can show you all of the real pictures I've been taking...there are some especially cute ones of my friend and her new baby girl.  :-)