Grace Is The Greatest Gift You Can Give Your Mental Health

Grace.

I need some and probably you do as well.

It’s a gift you can give yourself.

A dose of kindness.

You probably have standards and expectations of yourself that you never seem quite able to achieve. Or maybe others have them for you and remind you of your failings.

Life can be brutal at times. People laying burdens on your back until one day the back breaks and your left broken, in a ditch wondering at what has happened.

What burdens, weights of expectations, loads of worry, or pressures do you carry?

Do you fear that you won’t get it right? That you’ll make that one mistake and the house of cards will come tumbling down.[pullquote]When you are trying to please God, remember that Jesus has already done so on your behalf. There are no brownie poitns left for you to earn. David Riddell[/pullquote]

Over the past year, whenever I have replied to someone tweeting me or messaging I have used the blessing of ‘Grace and Peace’

I am desiring for the persons life to be overflowing with a sense of the Gods grace and peace.

Are you kind to yourself?

I think that much of mental anguish and unwellness comes about by carrying too heavier burdens. Levels of pressure too high for the soul to carry. The expectations of others, of society, of media and advertising.

Relentless pressures to be some thing you are truly incapable of being.

The Story of the Cracked Pot.

A water-bearer in India had two large pots, both hung on the ends of a pole, which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house the cracked pot always arrived half full.

The poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water-carrier one day by the stream:

“I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologise to you. I have been able to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side caused water to leak out all the way back to your house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don’t get full value from your efforts.”

The bearer said to the pot, ‘Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?

That’s because I have always known about your flaw, and I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you’ve watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.

I am that cracked pot, and you are too.

We have the cracks of being human, flawed and leaky.

It is what we focus on though that will determine our emotional and mental well being. If we focus our gaze on what we are not doing this will distract us away from what we are actually giving.

Something life giving is reserved in all of us. It leaks out of us without us even realising.

I think of a number of people at times, including myself, where we so often have such a low opinion of ourselves, yet what gets watered by the side of the road is beauty not barrenness.

The master comes, takes time to smell the roses and whispers to you ‘Grace and Peace’.

Will you be listening?

The change we are desiring comes as a gift. It is a kindness that is given, a gift of ‘Grace and Peace’.

Quote to Consider

Our anguish plays out in our distorted images of our selves, our self-centered compulsions, our need to control, and our illusions about what makes us feel we are accepted or important. In all of this, grace is at the heart of deep change. Roger Heuser

Barry Pearman

Photo Credit: The hills are alive* via Compfight cc