Gratitude Day 17: In what ways have I grown as a person over the last year?

I’ve been thinking about this all day. Normally one doesn’t reflect over the past year until the end of December or even January of the next year (the whole New Years Resolution thing).

I think I’ve grown more patient. With others as well as myself. While I still question the strength of my faith from time to time and find many ways where I fall short, I also give myself some grace for it. Because I’m just as human as everyone else, flawed and foolish.

Because I am so flawed and foolish, I’m less willing to criticize (if silently) others who are just like me.

To give an example, several months ago, I turned the wrong way down a one-way street. I figured it out immediately, but I’m sure all the drivers being forced to stop said a few choice words. Well-deserved, I figured.

I could feel many pairs of eyes glaring at me as I turned around.

Yet two months later down that same street, I saw not one, but two cars turn the wrong way. They, too, I’m sure felt the same way I did: First confusion, then a twinge of horror, and lastly, embarrassment.

My response: “I feel for you!”