How can you show mercy

There can be great mercy in being wholly present with the people who surround you. Keep your phone in the car at the restaurant, leave your laptop at the office, or turn the TV off. Say it anyway. Conflict is inevitable in relationships, and nobody likes it. But commitment itself is merciful. I will always believe that servant leadership is the way God calls us to lead those around us.

Seeing your actions in kindness and service can teach them to do the same. We learn by watching others. Show kindness and mercy and watch your world change. Because we think they mean nothing.

But Fr. John Wright, author of The Smallest Spark , says they do. Inside the chapel is a large fresco depicting the prodigal son being lovingly received by his father upon his return. In this story, a father has two sons. The youngest asks his father for his share of the estate, then moves to a distant country where he squanders everything away.

Destitute, he finds a job doing the most despicable work a Jew can do — feeding pigs. Finally, starving and totally broken, the younger son decides to return to his father and beg him to make him one of his hired men.

But while the younger son still a long way off, his father runs to him and embraces him. Even though the son rebels against his father, when he returns, broken and repentant, his father joyfully has mercy on him. What a wonderful analogy how God the Father welcomes us home when we repent! Maybe this week God will put someone in your path who has a physical, emotional or financial need and is unable to help themselves in this matter.

Will you extend mercy? Or will you rush around them? When someone hurts you, we often want to either get even or write them off. But the Bible says in Ephesians that we should be kind and merciful, forgiving others as God forgave you because of Christ. While there may be little mercy or civility in our society today, the Bible instructs us to show mercy by giving people what they NEED, not what they deserve.

When you bless someone who hurt you, you are actually following in the footsteps of Jesus. What does it mean that God desires mercy not sacrifice? Mercy triumphs over judgment. They were judged and required to pay the penalty in order to restore them to temporary good standing. When Christ died on the cross, God took the cost of our sins on Himself because He had compassion on us. It is this mercy that makes us eternally righteous. Mercy won the epic battle over sin.

It opened the door to relationship and connection with God. It made us His children. Mercy triumphed over judgment. On the surface, this appears to be true. If we let our children live without consequences of any kind, how can they learn?

But not letting our children experience consequences ever, is in fact, not merciful at all. As stated above, we are called to gently correct those who sin. And so your kindness and mercy can do the same for your children. When we give mercy to others we reflect the heart of our God Father in heaven. Jesus speaks to this relationship in giving and receiving mercy in Luke , WEB. Set free, and you will be set free.

If you want to love your children well , you must include mercy. Love is perfected by mercy. And the one who is forgiven much loves much in return Luke Mercy builds our children up in love. My favorite quote on mercy outside of the Bible is from Dietrich Bonhoeffer.