Be Gracious

Painting a jar for my PowerPoint presentation. I’m doing a workshop toward the end of the month called “Life Map”. 

“...exercising graciousness toward everyone.” Titus 3:2

When I went through the readings for today, this verse jumped out at me. Yesterday I was anything but gracious to the Customer Service Representative of Globe Telecom. I shouted and told her their company was “patay gutom”, so greedy for money. Poor lady, it wasn’t her fault but she bore the brunt of what the first rep did not do, give full instructions about what to do to close an account. Anyway, CSRs are my pet peeve and I always fail the test. A really, really horrible example! I put it on my list of things to confess next time I go to confession. 

St. Paul’s letter to Titus, whom he left on the island of Crete to help strengthen the church there, included what to instruct believers in basic Christian teaching. Some of what Paul wrote includes, “They should be obedient, always ready to do what is good. They must not speak evil of anyone, be peaceable, considerate, exercising all graciousness toward everyone.” Of course we want to do all that, and to be seen by others as an excellent role model. But when we fall short, what do we do? We get up from the mud and try harder. 

The key to trying harder I think is to grow a heart full of gratitude. When we are thankful for everything, all people, all our circumstances, we will be kinder, and more understanding. We will not feel entitled to insult others, or quarrel them. We will be more generous and more forgiving. After all, we all need each other.