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EN(dur)ANCE by Robin Gudal

We are blessed to be great-grandparents (chosen children through foster care) to one sweet tween girl and three rambunctious boys. One has red hair like his daddy and the adventurous spirit often associated with such. I love red hair!

Two of these young boys — ages 4 and 2 —recently helped celebrate their daddy Cass’s birthday. They live in Colorado where the weather was amazing, and they were all outside playing. Suddenly Cass heard a loud sound.

“Boys what ya doing?” Nothing. Time to investigate.

The used but newly-acquired-to-them family vehicle was being lovingly decorated permanently. The boys had found a few rocks and were carving “Happy Birthday” on it.

They had the letter H and scribble lines embedded on the side.

Imagine, for a moment how you would respond. He is a professional photographer, so I hope after the shock and parenting moment, he photographed the graffiti.

My first reaction as a grandparent was, “How sweet of a gift these little boys were trying to give daddy.”

I am sure they were proud they knew how to make a letter H. Then I paused.

How would I have reacted at that time in my life? The season of life we are in changes everything. Perspective.

My next thought was to wonder, have I ever tried to do something kind, and it wasn’t received as I intended? Yes. Likely you have also.

We can be so easily misunderstood, accused of an ulterior motive or worse — that we are plain and simply being mean-spirited. Undoubtedly, we can misunderstand others also.

Ephesians 4:32 reminds us, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Colossians 3:12 says, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

We live in a world of being easily offended. I desire to pause, step back from the emotion of the moment and look at the root. Am I missing a blessing?

In his book “Unoffendable,” Brant Hansen states:

“Without love, I’m just a bunch of noise … People want to see the love of Jesus … Choosing to be unoffendable out of love for others is ministry.”

I pray this week we all breathe, pause and think the best of others first. We just may be surprised and have our socks blessed off!

Robin (Beckman) Gudal is intentional in life, a wife, momma, nana, friend and a flawed and imperfect follower of Jesus.