**This is a short and sweet one – a prayer for grace.
Open mouth wide. Insert foot. Swallow.
Foot in mouth disease. I’ve got it. And, I don’t want it.
And, I did it again. Said the wrong thing – at the wrong time -to the wrong person. Oops!
Somehow, oops just doesn’t cover it.
Mistakes that come out of my mouth are prone to sink deep into someone else’s heart. Not. What. I. Want. To. Happen. Really.
My intent in conversation is connection. Deep and meaningful conversations about what matters most. When I’m saying what I truly want to be saying – the result should be – encouragement. Not. Discouragement.
Today my conversation missed the mark and went into the deep well of words-I-want-to-take-back. Arrows I didn’t mean to shoot.
Those 3 simple steps – opening of my mouth – inserting of my foot – then, swallowing – happen before I realize what I’m doing.
Foot in my mouth. Shame in my heart. That’s my current position.
Where do I go from here?
I believe there is only one cure – one antidote – for my shameful condition – for any shameful condition – Grace. God’s design for our ailing hearts.
Grace – the unmerited, undeserved favor of God himself – forgiveness where I least deserve it. God’s daily bread to meet the messes I’ve created in my life.
Grace changes everything.
Last Sunday morning sitting on my padded pew, we sang of it – the sweet words filled the sanctuary – “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound.” It’s true. It takes something pretty amazing, pretty sweet, to cover something so disgraceful.
‘Grace. More, please. Pour it out, Lord. Let it flow into the crevices and cracks that I see in my heart and in the heart that I broke with my careless words.
Lord, give me grace. Amaze me with it. To You be the glory.’
” For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Psalms 103: 11,12
His forgiveness goes to the very depths of my being – from the tiniest to the largest mistakes – even those created when my foot lodges in my mouth. Thanks be to God for His grace that covers all of my sins.