When I was a child I had a friend. My friend had a weird uncle! The guy was creepy, weird, scary and did the crazy things that uncles do in crazy times. We avoided him like the plague!

Soon, I realized that another of my friends had a weird uncle. I know -- two! What are the odds?

Again, soon, I realized one of my uncles was weird. I was beginning to wonder what was up with uncles.

I began to realize that, as people, we are ALL on the ‘crazy scale!’ Some people are quite strange and some people only slightly strange, but we’re all on the crazy scale.

I think the same is true of the mistakes that we make. Some of us make mistakes that are very light. Some of us make many mistakes that are big! But all of us are on the scale.

Related Post: 5 Truths About Loving Difficult People

We All Need Grace

We all need grace! We all need grace and forgiveness from God. We all need grace and forgiveness from each other. The great thing is that, because God is love, He has lots of grace to go around!

Since God has grace on us we also should have grace for one another. And as we grow as people and see our own need of grace it should be easy for us to see, and to give grace to others.

We Need Grace in Our Relationships

In my family, I pray for relationships all the time. Whenever several people with different personalities need to coexist, it’s necessary to have grace.

Assume the Best Intentions of Other People

We tend to judge ourselves based on our good intentions, but judge others on their actions. However, we should try to assume other people’s best intentions.

In other words, when we get hurt, we can’t immediately assume the other person was trying to hurt us. Instead, we need to think of that person and the situation that were in, within the context that they love us. Would they deliberately and intentionally try to hurt you?

It's like the five word sentence: “I didn't kick my brother.”

It can mean all sorts of things!

First, focus on the word “I.” I didn't kick my brother. (I watched somebody else kick my brother!)

Second, “didn't.” I didn’t kick my brother. (I pinched him, pulled his hair, and punched him in the arm.)

Third, “kick.” I didn’t kick my brother. (I beat him up, but none of that was by kicking him.)

Fourth, “my.” I didn't kick my brother. (I kicked my friend’s brother!)

Fifth, “brother.” I didn’t kick my brother. (I kicked my sister!)

The sentence, “I didn’t kick my brother” can mean a variety of things!

It’s so easy to miscommunicate our intentions. It's so easy to assume bad things about how others have treated us. But often, it’s not true.

Treat Others How You Want to be Treated

When we’re in relationship with other people, we need to try and do as Jesus said. He said to treat others like we want to be treated.

He did not say to treat others as they have treated us! So if someone did us wrong - even if it was on purpose - we should treat them the way we want them to treat us.

This takes a lot of grace.

As we see ourselves in need of grace because of our mistakes, we should have lots of room in our hearts for others’ mistakes.

A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense. -Proverbs 19:11

Let us pray to God for grace for our mistakes. Let us love other people the way we want to be loved.

I really believe it's true that whatever a person sows, that is what they're going to reap. So give grace! It can come back around for us.

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