Grace

I'm just feeling blah today. Partly, probably because last night for the first time since who knows when I couldn't fall asleep.
I usually get up at 4 (yes, that's right A.M.) on Friday so I try to go to bed pretty early. Last night I tried to go to bed at 9 and was still just laying there awake well after midnight.
For some people this may seem normal but for me it's not. I sometimes think I'm practically a sleep-a-holic.
Anyway, So in the midst of my boredom as I was lying awake I began to think about grace.

Grace....that's a hard one for me to digest sometimes. It seems so easy talk about so hard to show. Usually for me it's dependent upon the person I'm showing it to. If it's someone that's burnt me in the past it's A LOT harder for me to show them grace.
I've always kind of lived by the motto "believe the best in someone until they give you a reason not to" well besides the "well, duh" factor there I think that's both a good statement and a bad one. It's great to believe the best in people, and of course to show wisdom after they have given you multiple reasons to not trust them but to just completely give up on them is hard one for me to reconcile. When exactly do you have a reason to not try and believe the best in someone? What if they're truly and honestly trying to change? This is where grace comes in and sometimes it's hard for me to show this. Especially if I've been constantly let down by someone. At what point do you cut them loose and stop giving them opportunities to mistreat you?

This is where it gets sticky for me. I'd like to say I'm a person who shows grace but I'm also the type of person that can easily become very cautious if someone has been flakey or betrayed me in the past. I'm having a hard time finding the justification between when to just kind of cut someone loose and when to continue on with this charade of believing the best and NOT questioning their motives and trusting that they really ARE trying to change.

I guess just as grace has been freely given to me I need to continue to give it others but the conclusion that I'm coming to is that along with that comes wisdom and there's a huge difference between showing grace and treating others with wisdom and respect.
Just because I need to offer a little more grace than I'd prefer to once in awhile doesn't mean that I have to open myself up to be taken advantage of.
Anyway....so those are my random thoughts for the day. That's all folks!