I walked in on a telephone conversation Annie was having with a friend yesterday and "accidentally" for the next five minutes...okay, I was blatantly eavesdropping but only because I was so intrigued by what she was saying.  I didn't know who the conversation was with (okay, "with whom she was having a conversation"--I can do good grammar if I want to!)  and thought it might be a little rude to ask her to put it on speaker phone, so I basically found a few things I "had" to do in her proximity.  I don't care who you are, that's just good parenting right there!

From her end of the conversation, she was telling the person on the other end that it didn't matter what he/she had done, we all make mistakes, she wasn't going to judge her/him because of his/her behavior, that she loved her/him and she would always love her/him.  And as I listened in I was struck by how beautifully I had just witnessed someone express the grace and acceptance of God. 

It's so much easier to stand in judgment of people for what they do and how they act.  Instead of loving them, instead of being friends of sinners, instead of recognizing that the playing field before God is a level one, we're all beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.  Easier than expressing grace, mercy, love, acceptance for the hims/hers of our lives.  The kind of love, grace, mercy acceptance Jesus shows to we/us/you/hims/hers/thems.

I'd like to say that Annie caught it from me, but just recently, in another situation with one of my kids, saw an uglier side of my character as I was less than accepting of some they/thems he/she was hanging out with.  This being friends of sinners seems easy in theory, but it's much harder in practice.

So I want to thank my kids for reminding me of God's grace, of how we need to be "arms open" people when it comes to the hims/hers/they/thems/youns (for all you western PA people out there)/us's of the world...the whoevers.