Dare 12: Love Offers Grace

Galations 2:20... "I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."  
 
We live in a balancing act between freedom and legalism.  It is easy to live in either of these extremes and extremely difficult to find the right place on the pendulum.  We either judge ourselves against others making us seem okay or we live a life that is spent entirely on ourselves and our "rights."  Romans 6:23 says the "wages of sin is death..." and all throughout the gospels we're told of how Jesus came for us to die for us.  Without Jesus, we have no rights.  We don't have the "right" to be treated better by people... we actually deserve to be treated worse, because we have treated God worse... BUT GOD (probably my favorite two words together) still offers us GRACE... over and over and over and over and over... you get the picture.  

And Galations 2:20 says that I no longer live, but Christ lives in me ... well, then I am called to be offering the same grace God has offered to me.  So, if i really understand God, I will ALWAYS respond out of grace, NO MATTER WHAT you've done to me, I will give you grace because I've done worse to God and he still gives me grace.  

Do I do that?  Big negative.  

I just can't seem to wrap my mind around what it looks like to offer this grace to my students?? How can I offer them grace over and over and over again and still expect them to respect me and the guidelines of the classroom and school?  
I understand that there is such a thing as tough love and that God loves that way too... It is just really hard for me to know what it looks like to apply all of this in a way that is pleasing to God and works in the classroom.  Not that I don't offer grace to my students ever... but let's be realistic in saying that I definitely don't offer them grace after X amount of offenses... 

So my dare for the week is to really focus on what it means to offer your students grace.  Pray that God would provide ways for you to offer them grace and that He would open your eyes to His grace in your own life.  


Praying you have a wonderful week and that God would bless your socks off! :)