“He doesn’t grimace at our failures; He delights in our attempts.”

A thought by Bob Goff from his book, Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People (p. 66). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) 

Those are two keywords grimace and delights, that make a big difference in each one of us.

Bob says, “We should all have beautiful ambitions for our lives and who we might become, but we also need to sync it up so we’re not fooled into believing we’ve already arrived at a place in our faith we’ve only been thinking about going to someday.

“Have you noticed when people take photographs of each other, the person taking the picture is usually smiling too? Check it out for yourself. I think God does the same thing when He sees us. He’s not trying to bust us when we fail or when we act like posers. He doesn’t hang photographs of our mess-ups on the refrigerator. God isn’t in the business of punishing us with reminders; instead, He pursues us with love. He doesn’t grimace at our failures; He delights in our attempts.”

I love that thought!!!

Bob goes on, “Here’s the deal: when we act like someone we’re not, it’s often because we’re not happy with who we are. We might think we need other people’s permission or love or approval before we can live our lives and pursue our beautiful ambitions. It’s both good and bad. It’s good if it causes us to want to pursue Jesus’ love and approval more. But it’s bad if we miss out on who God uniquely made us to be so we can be who someone else thinks we should be. God has never looked in your mirror or mine and wished He saw someone else.

“Every time we fake it and aren’t authentic, we make God’s love for us look fake too. He doesn’t have a wax figure of us somewhere that looks smarter or taller or shorter or skinnier or more ripped than us. He doesn’t want us to just look different. He wants us to become love. It won’t be because we talked about who we wished we were over and over again or because we gave ourselves enough positive affirmations in the mirror. Only love has the power to get us there.”

We can make such a difference in other peoples lives when we delight more than grimace, can’t we?

Yes, yes!