Extension
This past week the weather hasn’t been that good. As I was working one of my part time jobs as an elementary school substitute teacher I could tell the kids were getting antsy and their attitudes towards each other was also a little chipy – they had not had an outside recess all week!
Normal human tendency would be for me to clamp down a little more on them to get them to stay in line. To be a little more strict so that they would not act up as much or cause disruptions to the classroom.
But somehow I didn’t.
I actually embraced their situation and extended them a little grace, but at the same time I didn’t let them get out of control.
How did this work out? Well, they were still very antsy, but by remembering why they were actually acting the way that they were helped frame MY perspective and I ended up extending a little grace to them to allow for their current attitudes.
Do you ever extend grace at your workplace?
Have you ever considered why your co-worker was being a little less than respectful to others in the meeting you were in?
Why your cube mate kinda blew you off when you asked them a simple question about something you both were working on?
It could be that they were having a bad day. That maybe they spoke to their kids in an unkind way just before they left the house that morning and they are still having remorse. Or maybe their commute was much longer than it normally was that day making them late to a previous meeting and they are still upset about all of that.
In my case, I knew why the kids were acting up more than usual, but many times in our workplace we don’t know the reason someone may be acting the way that they are towards others or us.
As a Real Christian Businessman we are tasked with extending grace to our fellow workers (and customers, and bosses!) as much as we can. We have to try and think about why everyone may be acting the way that they are acting – because we don’t really know what they may have been going through recently.
It’s not that hard to give someone a break even if you think they don’t deserve it.
God does it for us all the time!
And it just might be what they need to snap them out of the unhappy state that they are in.
We won’t know unless we try!
Can you extend grace to others in your workplace this week?
“If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” Rom 12:18 (ESV)