Grit and Grace After the Election

Election Day is over, and we are still awaiting the outcome, so what does a woman of grit and grace look like today, on this incredibly historic day in our seemingly divided country?

Among our friends are tendered-hearted individuals who voted for every one of the candidates. Each friend made their decision based upon life experience with heartfelt pondering and a good conscience. We will not presume to judge any one person’s motives behind their vote when we can honestly say the whole of who they are speaks to their compassion, their hope for the future.

What we know is this, our humanity will always have different life opinions and that is a good thing. We make each other better. But the only opinion that is really right, the only one that holds real truth in all circumstances is not ours, is not yours, it is God’s.

So at this time may we step back from our rancor, quit questioning one another’s motives, and look to the source of our hope, to the source of unity. Today, let us choose to embody grit and grace by being kind (even when it’s hard) and looking for the best in others (even when it’s hard). If you’re a praying woman, might we suggest this prayer, prayed quite long ago by St. Francis of Asisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

Your #gritandgracelife might be the humility and peace someone desperately needs today.