vulnerability, and grace

My love muscles have endured some strenuous workouts over the past few weeks, witnessing people I hold dear express opinions I find shocking.
And I don't mean when one of the boys got angry and called me a bad mom.

Lessons in grace, every single day.
Reasons to look for reminders that the left wing and the right wing belong to the same bird.

I am hardly ever certain of my own rightness, so mostly remain quiet.
Sometimes I wish I were brave enough to give voice to more of my opinions, but I don't want to let politics bring out parts of my personality I'm not proud of.

Nor do I want to look back with regret that even a small part of what feels like a fiasco is my fault, for being complacent or passive or silent, for being complicit in some gradual hijacking of good.
Also, I do not want to rearrange any prejudices. I just want to get rid of them.  Mostly my own.

I'm not sure I need to be loud about any of it though. Our boys will grow up with books on the shelves and food in the fridge and love in their hearts. They will see us celebrate a new baby, and not mind one bit that it's being raised by two moms. They will come with us to church and help us promote choice. Together we will go to gay weddings, and to bat for friends from different backgrounds. We will do yoga and take deep breaths and sing songs and support scientific advances. We will see Broadway shows and football games, bake bread and rake leaves and write letters and make calls. We will defend victims and visit the library and try to refrain from correcting grammar, but resist less the chance to remedy misconceptions.

Our boys will learn that character matters far more than party or platform.
They will find out that we do not always have to concede to a person's point to like their brain.
They will discover that agreeing with someone is secondary to time spent considering a different perspective, and that sometimes listening to another belief may help solidify their own.
They will understand that issues are important, but humans are more.
They will realize that often, if they feel like their opinion is a matter of life and death, they are overlooking life and death.
And they will show us, over and over again, that it's possible to compost yesterday’s heartache into tomorrow’s hope.

Lessons in grace, every single day.