Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. -Colossians 4:6
Every year in Pre-K, as part of “A” week, we make applesauce. This year, we spent a lot of time in conversation around how we could keep this fun preschool experience while following COVID-19 guidelines. We moved forward and while making applesauce was a bit different than in years past, it was still fun for the kids to use the apple peeler, slicer and corer tool. We were feeling quite successful and things were going great until we realized that we had poured salt, instead of sugar, into our applesauce.
Worried that our already different experience was going to be more of a disappointment to the kids we quickly went into “how can we fix this” mode. To make matters worse, the other classroom also got salt instead of sugar so now we had two batches of salty applesauce. Expecting an upset teacher, I was pleasantly surprised when checking in and apologizing for the mix-up, I was greeted with a giant smile and a response from the teacher saying…”Don’t worry about it. This is great! It’s an adventure.”
What a refreshing response, especially during this time, when it feels like collectively we are quick to point fingers and assign blame. This was a grace filled response that immediately put the brakes on this being a negative experience and turned it into a positive one. That moment of grace given and received has stuck with me. I felt God’s love in that teacher’s response. I wonder what our world would look like if we viewed more mistakes, disruptions and inconveniences as adventures? If we looked first for the positive in situations? If we offered a smile and grace-filled response, the same kind of grace that God offers to us, to others… and then moved forward working together to solve problems?
On this particular day, in our world of preschool, no one was blaming anyone, we were having an adventure! Instead of having ruined applesauce, we had salty sauce! We could still taste it. We could still compare it to the store bought applesauce we were having for a snack later. We were even able to make another batch of applesauce, with sugar, using our leftover apples. And guess what? There wasn’t as much laughter and joy in tasting applesauce made the “right” way. It just wasn’t quite as fun…or adventurous.
It is amazing, and a true blessing to see how a moment of grace – freely offered – changed the course of things so quickly.
Prayer:
God, we give thanks for the abundant grace you freely offer each of us. Forgive us for those times when we fail to love others in the same way and respond with judgement and blame instead of mercy and grace. May your presence in our lives remind us of how much our words and actions impact others and may your grace flow through us so that we can bring your love, compassion and healing to all of our conversations and interactions. Amen.
Leyla