So, continuing with my blogging series on the 5 character traits enclosed in the vision of People of the Second Chance‘s Grace Mob, I am going to look at Tenacity today.
This is something that I could be described as one of my pet topics, or pet hates, when it lacks in certain situations in people’s lives, and in the last couple of weeks, it has been even more prevalent in my mind.
So first, let us look at how the Grace Mob describes tenacity:
You are steadfast and resilient when you feel like giving up on yourself and others. You stay the course and demonstrate grit and toughness, even when it is difficult.
Now, giving up on yourself is one thing that I have had the opportunity to do, numerous time in the last year. Since I have made the decision to go into full time ministry, I have many times felt that I am not called for this, and it might simply be easier to go and look for a regular 9-5 job, doing something that makes me unhappy. I mean, earning a decent salary is more than what happiness is cracked up to be, or so the world tells us. You need to have a job to support your family, so the world tells us.
However, every time I get to this point where I am ready to throw in the towel I get a comment here on my blog or somebody gives me a call, that encourages me so much, and confirms this calling that I feel I have on my life, that I simply cannot let go of this.
God has blessed me with a family that supports me all the way. The are my biggest cheerleaders in this journey that I am on. They will walk miles in order to support me, and that is something that I cannot take for granted. If it was not for them, I would not be able to have the tenacity to carry on with what I know I have to do.
The same can be said for marriages. I wrote about it last week in my post titled Promises, and again I want to touch on the subject. How can we NOT have the tenacity to fight satan when he starts to attack this holy institution that God gave us, the marriage, which in turn symbolizes that which we, as the bride of Christ, have with His son, Jesus. Jesus was willing to die for us on the cross, due to His commitment to His bride, yet we will give up our own marriages at the drop of a hat, because the world has made it so easy for us to do it.
Every time I hear of a marriage being ended, something inside me breaks, and I simply want to break out in tears. This is how I think God must feel when He sees this happening to His children.
In order for us to have tenacity in everything we do, we need to be shown Grace by others, and the only way we will receive grace from others, is if we show grace towards them.
We cannot show tenacity in our lives, and then trample on anybody or anything that comes across our paths. We simply cannot ignore those people that we encounter every day, and walk away from them, without showing grace. That grace might simply be you smiling at the lady that you pass in the shopping mall. Maybe that is all that she needed. Maybe she was at the point of ending it all, because nobody notices her, and at that point you give her a smile, not a fake one, but a genuine one that says, I SEE YOU. That could be all that is needed in order for her to give life another chance.
Go out and show tenacity in everything you do, but do it with grace.
